Lana Huston, chief clerk 716-753-4339 (Fax: 716-753-4600)
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2025 EVENTS
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January 2025
Chautauqua County Community
TOWN OF
ARKWRIGHT
9543 Center Road, Fredonia, New York 14063 716-679-4445 • www.arkwrightny.org
arKwriGht history
Arkwright is a Town in Chautauqua County, New York. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 1,061. The Town is named after Richard Arkwright, the inventor of a spinning device. Arkwright is in the northeast quadrant of Chautauqua County and is southeast of the city of Dunkirk.
Settlement began around 1807. The town of Arkwright was established in 1829 from the towns of Villenova and Pomfret.
Dairy farms and cheesemaking were important in the early economy. Arkwright was one of the first towns in New York to form a cheese cooperative.
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Population: 1,008
Hispanic or Latino (Of Any Race): 28
Total Housing Units: 524 • Total Households: 466
$89,500
Government direCtory
Town board meetings are held the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
Brian McAvoy, Town Supervisor: 716-785-4975, mcavoy_brian@yahoo.com
Jane Lindquist, Clerk/Tax Collector: 716-679-4445
Nancy McVaugh, Deputy Clerk: 716-679-4445
Chris Jackson, Town Council: 716-680-3753
Lawrence Ball, Town Council: 716-680-0041
Polly Gambino, Town Council: 716-679-4445
Bruce Gustafson, Town Council: 716-785-8961
Lisa Waldron, Highway Superintendent: 716-485-3272
Jeffrey Huyck, Town Justice: 716-672-8672
Ed Pagano, Code Enforcement Officer: 716-785-2877
Ruth Nichols, Historian: 716-965-2656
Erica Munson, Assessor: 716-792-9367
Karlie Stanfield, Dog Control Officer: 716-467-5694
Board of Assessment Review:
Andrus Houck 716-208-2485
Julie Hebner 716-785-8150
Molly Merrill 716-640-4322
Board of Ethics:
Ed Long: 716-672-6322
Ron Curtin: 716-965-4204
BEMUS POINT
b emus P oint h istory
The area currently known as Bemus Point was first settled by William Bemus in 1806. Bemus had purchased land on both sides of Chautauqua Lake from the Land Company in 1805 at a cost of $1.50. He moved his family to the east side of the lake (in the area now known as Bemus Point) on March 9, 1806. The Bemus family lived in a log cabin approximately 500-660 feet northeast of the current ferry landing site. The ferry located in Bemus Point was founded in 1811 by Thomas Bemus. The original ferry was a raft built by Thomas and had to be pulled across the lake. Today, a cable-drawn ferry exists in its place and in operated by the Chautauqua Lake Historic Vessels Company. Until the nearby bridge (now part of I-86) opened October 30,1982, the Bemus-Stow Ferry was the only way to cross Chautauqua Lake. When closed for the winter months, motorist had to travel north-west to Mayville, or south-east to Jamestown to reach Stow. Either way was a 19- mile round trip. Residents often purchased a seasonal pass to use the ferry, commuting to Lakewood, Sherman, or other areas west of the lake. Throughout the 1800’s, Bemus Point gained popularity as a tourist destination, which promoted its growth and development. By the early 1900’s, a dance hall known as the Casino (which still exists as a restaurant), became a well-known venue for entertainment, particularly big band music. The Village of Bemus Point was incorporated in 1911.
u.s. Census bureau estimates
The Bemus Point Village Board meets the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at 13 Albertus Ave., Bemus Point.
Jeffrey Molnar, mayor 716-386-4398 villageofbemuspoint@gmail.com
Brittany Mulkins, village clerk 716-386-4398 villageofbemuspoint@gmail.com
Deputy Mayor Ted Farnham, village trustee 716-386-4398 villageofbemuspoint@gmail.com
David I. Lipsey, village trustee 716-386-4398 villageofbemuspoint@gmail.com
Maureen Stahley, village trustee 716-386-4398 villageofbemuspoint@gmail.com
David Chertoff, village trustee 716-386-4398 villageofbemuspoint@gmail.com
Joel P Dahlberg, Department of Public Works, 716-397-3988 bemuspointdpw@gmail.com
Robert P. Samuelson, zoning officer 716-386-3465
Planning Board and Zoning Board members are Chair Gifford Lawrence, Amanda Dawes, Chris Loomis, Mark Prechti, Laurie Beaton, Wendy Rodgers. The board meets the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
Alt. Members -Laurie Beaton, Wendy Rodgers. The board meets the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.
VILLAGE OF
BROCTON
34 W. Main St., Brocton, NY 14716 716-792-4160 • www.brocton.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Population: 1,286
Hispanic or Latino (Of Any Race): 77
Total Housing Units: 654
Total Households: 542 Median
Government direCtory
Village board meetings are held the third Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m.
Craig Miller, Village Mayor: 716-792-4160, Ext. 3
Scott Jagoda, Village Clerk/Treasurer: 716-792-4160, Ext. 2; brocton@stny.rr.com
Bryan Woleben, Deputy Mayor/Village Trustee; Village Trustees Brandy Smith, Drew Ransom, and Kari Doino. Contact: 716-792-4160
Peter Clark, Village Attorney: (716) 673-1361
Village Justices: Town of Portland Court: (716) 792-9614, Ext. 1; towncourt@town.portland.ny.us
Joe Majkowski, Electric Department Supervisor: 716-792-4160
Ken Becker, Highway Department Supervisor: 716-672-9106
Rich Lewis, Waste Water Treatment Supervisor: (716) 792-4687; wwtpbrocton@gmail.com
Gloria McCormick, Dog Control Officer: (716) 785-1827; dogcontrol@town.portland.ny.us
Planning Board members:
William Westin: (716) 792-9472
William Maher: (716) 792-9766
Steve Mawhir: (716) 785-5251
Terry Presto: (716) 680-2840
Zoning Board of Appeals members: Donna Frost: (716) 581-3622
Malinda Marsh: (716) 792-4805
Tammy Thompson: (859) 492-5035
broCton history
On March 20, 1894, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., in the rooms of the Brocton Library on Fay Street, 187 persons voted on the question of whether or not to incorporate Brocton.
The result was 127 yes, 60 no. The Village of Brocton was born.
Incorporation of Brocton came almost 83 years after Elijah Fay, formerly of Southborough, Mass., purchased all of lot 20 which formed the west portion of the Village of Brocton and built a log cabin. His brother, Hollis, in 1813, cleared three or four acres and built a log cabin on the northwest part of lot 13 which was the east section of Brocton.
At that time, there was no road where the Fays settled, only a trail and, what is now the center of Brocton, was described by early settlers as a dismal swamp of black ash.
Many types of fruit, grain and vegetables were grown by residents in the Brocton area but Brocton became famous for its grapes, thanks again to Elijah Fay who began, in 1818, to establish grapes on his farm. After trying varieties of Fox, Miller’s Borgunda, Sweetwater and Hamburg grapes, in 1824, he tried planting Isabella and Catawba which did very well. Mr. Fay had the only grapes in the area for many years.
Mr. Fay also made the first wine known in Western and Central New York from cultivated grapes. In 1830, he produced five to eight gallons and continued each year to increase production. Dr. Taylor noted in his writings that Mr. Fay was still producing at least 300 gallons of wine until his death in 1860.
After the Civil War, farmers in the Brocton area went into grape growing on a large scale and by 1870 nearly 200 tons of grapes were harvested from about 600 acres. Other wineries also flourished during this time period despite, Dr. Taylor commented in his writings, the “low price of the fruit”.
Other industries peculiar to those times also flourished in Brocton., The first sawmill in Brocton was built by Moses Sage on Slippery Rock Creek in 1816. Several sawmills were in evidence during the mid and late1800s with the ones in the later part of the century being steam operated. A grist mill built in 1836 by John Haight and Harvey Williams also contained a tannery. A steam mill for grinding feed was present in the 1870s.
Dr. Daniel Ingalls and Joseph Lockwood opened the first store in Brocton in 1830 which was located on the southeast corner of Main Street. The store saw several different owners over the years it was in operation. Five other stores followed in 1835, 1836, 1844, 1847 plus 14 others opened between the years of 1858 and 1873.
Lyle T. Hajdu, town justice 716-763-4695 lhadju@nycourts.gov
William Geary, town justice 716-763-4695 wgeary@nycourts.com
Jeffrey A. Swanson, code enforcement 716-763-8561 blcode@townofbusti.com
Tera Darts, town assessor 716-763-8561, ext. 6 accessor@townofbusti.com
Beth Moss, dog control 716-338-7913
Busti Planning Board members are Joe Flikkema, Chairman, Linda Anderson, Julie Jackson-Forsberg, Dan Johnson, Diane VanDewark and Robert Whitman.
Zoning Board of Appeals members are Tim Young, chairman, Scott Schang, Gary Starr, David Josephson, Bruce Kidder and Mike Higbee.
busti history
The southwestern section of New York State is part of a vast section of land claimed by Massachusetts following the Revolutionary War. Robert Morris acquired it in 1791 and, after settlement with the Native Americans in 1797, sold it to the Holland Land Company. Paul Busti, for whom the Town of Busti was named, was born on October 17, 1749 at Milan, Italy, and died in July, 1824, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was general for the Holland Land Company.
It is known that tribes of both the Erie and Seneca Indians were very early inhabitants of the area. John L. Frank is reported to be the first white settler in 1808 on lot 61, although records indicate that he didn’t purchase land until 1812.
The first road opened in the southern part of the county was cut through the forest by Robert Miles between 1802 and 1804 and started by the Conewango at Pine Grove to Shadyside (Lakewood) and ended at a place on Chautauqua Lake known as Miles Landing.
One of the first industries in Busti was a tannery built by John Frank about 1812 at what was called the Frank settlement. The first blacksmith was Patrick Cambell, who operated his shop from the tannery. A short time later, Giles Chipman and Lyman Fargo opened a shop nearby where they installed a trip hammer and manufactured edge tools. Other early industries were established by Deacon Samuel Garfield, Herman Bush, Uriah Haws, Samuel Chappel, James Startwell, and Francis Soule.
Perhaps the most remarkable inhabitants of Busti were the Stonemans. George Stoneman came to Busti in 1810, married Katherine Cheney, and had eight children. His oldest son George became one of the great cavalry leaders of the Civil War. In 1871 he moved to California and became governor of the state years later. Kate Stoneman, another one of George’s children, was the first woman to pass the New York State bar exams and to be admitted to law practice in New York State.
The Underground Railroad had one of its most active routes through this region and Busti was an important stop on this route. It crossed the state line at or near Sugar Grove, passed through Busti and Jamestown and then across Lake Erie to Buffalo and on to the “railroad’s” terminal in Canada. There was also a station where Sunset Hill Cemetery is now located.
The first school, a one-room log cabin, was built in 1813 and was located at Fairmount and Winch Roads. The log school consisted of one room. Light entered through small windows placed in notches cut in the logs. In the side of the building was a door made of boards and hung with wood hinges. The building was warmed by a huge fireplace while students studied spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The present Southwestern Central School was built and ready for use in 1954.
The Baptist Church of Busti was organized on August 30, 1819. The first Baptist house of worship was built in 1836 and another one was erected in 1853. The first Methodist Episcopal Church was organized under the direction of Rev. Alvin Burgess in about 1819 with approximately 60 members.
TOWN OF
CARROLL
5 W. Main St., Frewsburg, NY 14738 • 716-569-5365 • carrollny.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 3,456
Median Household Income: $59,537
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 3.6%
Median Age: 39.9
Veterans: 337, 6.9%
Total Housing Units: 1,541
Carroll history
The town of Carroll, in the extreme southeastern part of the county, was erected in 1825 from the town of Ellicott, and named in honor of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, the immortal Signer, who in affixing his name to the Declaration of Independence added his residence, that there might be no doubt of his identity if misfortune overtook the cause for which he was risking his life and fortune.
The town, broken and hilly in the northeast and east parts and rolling in the south and southwest, originally included the present town of Kiantone, which was set off from Carroll in 1853. Conewango creek forms the greater part of the boundary line between the two towns, entering Carroll from the north and continuing to the Pennsylvania line. The town contains 20,658 acres, the highest summits, being 1,400 feet above tidewater. Frewsburg, on the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh railroad, is a thriving village with important industrial establishments-The Carroll Furniture Company, the Frewsburg Canning Company, and the Merrell-Soule Company, dairy products. There are in Frewsburg four small factories.
The first settlers were John Frew on lot 61, and Thomas Russell on west half of lot 53 at the mouth of Frew Run. In the spring of 1809 John Frew paid $2.25 an acre, built a log cabin, and put in crops in 1810. A few months later, George W. Fenton sold his farm on Chadakoin river and located on lot 52, south of and adjoining the lands of Frew and Russell. Frew and Russell built a saw mill in 1810, and commenced sawing the next spring. They ran the sawed boards to Pittsburgh.
Perhaps no other township in the county has had so many saw mills at the same time as Carroll. John Frew assisted Edward Work to build his saw mill at Work’s Mills in 1808, and the first lumber cut by Frew was plank for eight flatboats which he built and took to Mayville for salt which he ran to Pittsburgh.
Government direCtory
Carroll Town Board meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
Russell Payne, town supervisor 716-397-7268 carrollsupervisor4103@gmail.com
Susan Rowley, town clerk 716-569-5365 carrolltownclerk@gmail.com
John Barber, town council 716-708-5691 johntbarber@gmail.com
Justin Lingenfelter, town council 716-450-7334
Tim Burkett, town council, 716-720-6574
Kenneth Dahlgren Jr., town council/deputy supervisor 716-489-1114 kendahlgren@me.com
Michael Walker, highway superintendent 716-499-6262 tochighwaysup@gmail.com
Robert E. Gray / Tamera Kinne-Gustafson, town justices 716-569-5219
Alan P. Gustafson, code enforcement 716-450-3032 carrollcode@outlook.com
Tera Darts, town assessor 716-763-8561, ext. 6 accessor@townofbusti.com
Bill Nelson, police chief 716-569-5220
Daniel Sisson, water department 716-450-0088
Susan Richards, historian 716-569-3121
Barbara Cessna, historian 716-569-5677
Nick Cusimano, dog control 716-499-1033
Planning Board members are Randall Sitler, Tracy Magnuson, Josh Eckert, Heather Lynn, Sherry Jacobson, Polly Hanson, Nick Niles
Zoning Board of Appeals members are Tracy Magnuson and Trudy Bloomquist.
Fire Commissioners board members are Don Mowry, Nick Niles, Don Sparling, Bob Price, Cory Lauffenburger
The Board of Review is comprised of Jay Eckert, chairperson, Jason Ruhlman, Mike Peterson, John Dale and David Brown.
CASSADAGA
22 Mill St., PO Box 286, Cassadaga,
Government direCtory
Village board meetings are held thet second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at 7 p.m.
William Dorman, Mayor: (716) 640-4305, bdorman.villcass@netsync.net
Annette McChesney, Village Clerk: (716) 595-3007; villcass@netsync.net
Roxanne Astry, Village Deputy Clerk: (716) 680-1992; villcass@netsync.net
Bill Astry, Deputy Mayor/Village Trustee: (716) 679-5775, bastry.villcass@netsync.net
Cynthia Flaherty, Village Trustee: (716) 665-8855, cflaherty.villcass@netsync.net
Cathy Cruver, Village Trustee: (716) 499-2833; ccruver.villcass@netsync.net
Danna DuBois, Village Trustee: (716) 679-5821; ddubois.villcass@netsync.net
Dan Delcamp, Code Enforcement Officer: 716-581-2701; ddelcamp.villcass@netsync.net
John Sipos, Historian: sipos@netsync.net
Sam Alaimo, Department of Public Works Supervisor: (716) 595-3844; dpw.cassadaga@yahoo.com
Planning Board: Nancy Wickmark, Chairman; Peter George; Rodney Waite; Todd Anderson; and Dave Rowley.
Zoning Board Of Appeals: Tom Beichner, Chairman; Chris MacKrell; Ryan Burlingame; Trudy Coulcher; Chris Cooke; and an alternate vacancy.
local NAPA Auto Care Center serving the Cassadaga area for over 43 years. Owner Kirk Tyler is an
CassadaGa history
“Cassadaga” is a Seneca Indian name meaning “water under the rocks”, descriptive not only of the natural springs of the area flowing from glacial moraines, but that in dry weather, many of the local streams would ‘disappear’: the spring fed water running wholly within the gravelly bottom of the stream beds draining from the surrounding hills.
The Village of Cassadaga was settled in 1848 at the headwaters of the technically navigable Cassadaga Creek, though the upper few miles of it are not practically so today due to numerous shallows and beaver activity along its course.
The village was formally incorporated in 1921. Early settlers utilized the abundant and large trees (some exceeding 5’ (1.5m) in diameter) as a primary source of income, often sent via log rafts and flatboat on the creek as timber, charcoal and pearl ash: the later two products in demand in the early industrial age.
The Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad, which laid track from Dunkirk, New York and eventually to Warren, Pennsylvania, passed on
the west side of the Cassadaga Lakes in the spring of 1871. The tracks ran through the then adjoining hamlet of Burnhams which was later annexed by the village. The Railroad contributed greatly to the economy of the area, both as a source of population growth and visitors to the lakes and rolling hills for recreation, and for transportation of the forest and farm products of the area to more urban centers, as well as for ice harvested from the lakes in winter for refrigeration.
The Webster Citizens Company ice house stood on the west shore of the Upper Lake with a three car rail siding to serve it, and was listed as a railroad business as late as 1931.
The Cassadaga Spring Water Company had a siding on the Middle lake where it bottled water from a leased spring on the north side of the Glenn Halladay farm for shipment by rail to city customers primarily in Buffalo, New York, though it had ceased operations by the late 1920s as municipal water supply systems improved. The rail line was abandoned after extensive flood damage near Sinclairville from Hurricane Agnes in 1972, and subsequently removed.
VILLAGE OF
CELORON
21 Boulevard Ave., PO Box 577, Celoron, NY 14720 • 716-484-4175 • www.celoronny.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey
Population Estimate: 1,069
Median Household Income: $45,600
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 12.3%
Median Age: 45.6
Veterans: 56
Total Housing Units: 457
Government direCtory
Village board meetings are held the second Monday of each month in the Celoron Community Center at 6 p.m.
Scott Schrecengost, mayor 716-487-4175 celoron@netsync.net
Valerie Murphy, village trustee, 716-487-4175 celoron@netsync.net
Joshua Glover, village trustee, 716-487-4715 celoron@netsync.net
Shirley A. Sanfilippo, village clerk 716-487-4175 clerk@celoronny.org
William Burley, village trustee 716-487-4175 celoron@netsync.net
Kate E. Burnett, village trustee 716-487-4175 celoron@netsync.net
Michael P. Moss, village trustee 716-487-4175 celoron@netsync.net
Terry W. Schrecengost, street supervisor 716-488-0579 highway@celoronny.org
Alan Gustafson, code enforcement 716-499-7190 codes@celoronny.org
Planning board members are Charles Ellis, Mark Sanderson and John Murphy
Zoning board members are James Work, chairman; Larry Muntz, Robert Darling and Darcie McLachlan.
Celoron history
Captain de Blainville Celoron, a chevalier (French noble) of the Order of St. Louis, was given the task of re-establishing France’s claim to the watershed of the Ohio River Valley, a claim originally made by another Frenchman, LaSalle.
In 1749, Celoron set sail from Canada with his force of 214 soldiers and 55 Indian allies, landing near present day Barcelona, NY. He then pushed over the difficult portage to the head of Chautauqua Lake, where he arrived on July 22nd. On his arrival, he and his companions must have been impressed with the lovely and tranquil scene as it appeared on that summer day.
The next day he embarked. His fleet of bark canoes passed maple groves and the wild deer straying from the deep forest depths to sniff the cool breezes of the lake. He passed the narrows of the lake and passed into the broad expanse of the lower lake, and encamped for the night upon the shore three miles above the outlet, a place which 150 years later would come to bear his name.
This new village was once known as Sammis Bay, named after an early settler Charles Wheeler Sammis, and was renamed after a second settler Joseph Burtis, who purchased the most southern bay of the lake, and in the mid-1870’s with the purchase by James Prendergast, a member of Jamestown’s founding family, became known as Prendergast Point. In 1896 the village was incorporated and named Village of Celoron. To this day, the bay to the west still retains the name Burtis Bay.
1874: James Prendergast purchased 67 acres of land at a point on the southeastern end of Chautauqua Lake, adjacent to Burtis Bay, soon to be renamed Prendergast Point 1879: James Prendergast dies intestate
1880: Alexander T. Prendergast, son of James, deed the property to his wife Mary
1891: The sale of the property called Prendergast Point from the estate of Mary A. Prendergast to a group of businessmen know as Lindsay and Lindsay, who renamed the area Celoron, after the French explorer, and formed the Celoron Land Company
1893: The Celoron Land Company and the Jamestown Street Railway Company join to form the Celoron Amusement Company and name Almet N. Broadhead, President 1894: Almet N. Broadhead, President of the Celoron Amusement Company opens, the new resort for the first time. At its Grant Opening, the new park was called “The People’s Park at Celoron”
Census bureau estimates
Government direCtory CHARLOTTE TOWN OF
Board meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m.
Frank Lauricella, town supervisor 716-499-4227, charlottesupervisor@gmail.com
Susan L. Peacock, town clerk 716-962-6047 clerksue@yahoo.com
Darin Smith, town council
Harold North III, town council
Mark Jaquith, town council Larry Green, town council
The Town of Charlotte was first settled around 1809. NY Route 60 is a major northern-southern route near the west town line. Mill Creek flows southwest through the town.
Mark G. LeBaron, highway superintendent 716-962-4501 townofcharlotte@windstream.net
Jeffrey S. Crossley, town justice 716-962-2004 Court Clerk Wanda Crossley
Toby Hammond, building and zoning officer 716-664-1676, townofcharlotteceo@gmail.com
Susan Peacock, historian 716-962-6047, clerksue@yahoo.com
Robert Rivera, dog control officer, 716-680-4037
Kevin Okerlund, assessor 716-962-9455 kpo@fairpoint.net
TOWN OF
CHAUTAUQUA
2 Academy St., Mayville, NY 14757 716-753-7342 • www.townofchautauqua.com
Chautauqua history
The town of Chautauqua was formed on April 11, 1805, from the town of Batavia, while still part of Genesee County. The first settler arrived the year before, near the current village of Mayville. When Chautauqua County was created on March 11, 1808, the town’s territory was increased to include the eastern tier of townships, so that the town and the new county were coextensive. The town is the “mother of towns” in Chautauqua County since all other towns in the county towns were once part of it. The town is still one of the largest in the county.
The Lewis Miller Cottage of the Chautauqua Institution was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The Chautauqua Institution Historic District was listed in 1974.
Notable residents include: Arthur Bestor, historian, public education critic; John Jachym, businessman, philanthropist, sportsman; Michael John LaChiusa, musical theater composer; Hiram Lawton Richmond, former US Congressman from Pennsylvania; Garnet Sixsmith, one of the first professional ice hockey players; Gar Samuelson, original drummer of Megadeth (classic line-up); Glenni William Scofield, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania; Heidi VanDerveer, women’s basketball coach
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The Chautauqua Town Board meets the second Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Chautauqua Municipal Building
Donald Emhardt, town supervisor 716-753-7342 supervisor@townofchautauqua.com
Rebecca Luba, town clerk 716-753-7342 clerk@townofchautauqua.com
Al Akin, town council 716-753-7342
Thomas J. Carlson, town council 716-753-7342
Scott D. Cummings, town council 716-753-7342
Kenneth Burnett, town council 716-753-7342
Terry Sanden, highway superintendent 716-753-7255 highwaydept@townofchautauqua.com
Timothy Hull, town justice 716-753-7342
Edward Kalfas, town justice 716-753-7342
Frank Watson, code enforcement 716-753-3433 fwatson@townofchautauqua.com
Anne Golley, assessor 716-753-7342
Gloria McCormick, dog control 716-753-9882
Devon Taylor, historian 716-753-3116
Ave., Brocton, NY 14716 716-792-4323 themorsefuneralhome.com
CHERRY CREEK
Cherry Creek Town Board meetings are held the second Mondays of each month at 6:30 p.m.
Jim Abbey, town supervisor 716-296-8050, cherrycreek8050@yahoo.com
Mia Abbey, town clerk and tax collector 716-296-8050 mia_abbey@yahoo.com
Matthew West, town council
Matt Smith, town council
Ryan M. Lepp, town council
Becky Rowicki, town council
Kenneth W. Chase, highway superintendent 716-499-5721
Kristin M. Sercu, town justice 716-296-1014 kristinsercu@yahoo.com
Kevin Okerlund, assessor. 716-296-8050
Jayson Rowicki, code enforcement 716-640-2500
Tim Nobles, historian 716-640-9764
Dustin Sheldon, DPW supervisor 716-844-1498
8026, Route 474, Clymer, NY 14724 • 716-355-2230 • www.clymer.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
CLYMER Clymer history
AAmerican Community Survey Population Estimate: 1,753
Median Household Income: $83,578
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 10.3%
Median Age: 25.6
Veterans: 49, 3.1%
Total Housing Units: 630
Government direCtory
The Clymer Town Board meets the second Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. of each month at the Clymer Highway Building, 8026 Route 474, Clymer.
Brian Willink, town supervisor (716) 664-1333 supervisor@clymer.org
Wendy Trisket, town clerk 716-355-5008 townclerk@clymer.org
Willowe F. Neckers, tax collector 716-355-6345
Todd H. Kolstee, town council 716-499-2058 tkolstee@hotmail.com
Melissa Murphy, town council 1-(270) 839-3053 emergencymel1@aol.com
Carl Neckers, town council 716-397-9803 cneckers@hotmail.com
Levi Swanson, town council (716)450-8213, leviswanson@gmail.com
Scott E. Trisket, highway superintendent 716-355-9933 clymerhwydept@windstream.net
Denis Cooper, town justice 716-355-6331
Jeffrey S. Messenger, code enforcement 814-873-8368
Brandon Foster, zoning officer 716-499-2406
Jenniene Scarem, town assessor 716-640-4544 clymerassessor@windstream.net
Cindy Willink, historian 716-355-4430
mong the new towns taken directly from the “mother town,” Chautauqua, was Clymer, organized February 9, 1821, and given the name of the patriotic Pennsylvanian, George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The town of Mina was set off from Clymer in 1824; and French Creek in 1829, leaving Clymer an area of 21,985 acres, bounded on the north by Sherman, east by Harmony, west by French Creek, south by Pennsylvania. The surface is a hilly upland, well adapted to grazing and dairying, being well watered. The soil responds well to cultivation and the Western New York & Pennsylvania railroad traverses the town from north to south, with stations in Clymer, North Clymer, Clymer Center and Joquins. Clymer Hill is in the western part of the town.
At Clymer, tanning leather was once an important business, and about 1860 Leonard Kooman established there one of the largest tanneries in the county. The first tannery was built on lot 35 by Ebenezer Brownell shortly after 1830. Walter L. and Loren B. Sessions conducted extensive tanning operations on the Brownell site in later years. One of the early and industrious pioneers of Clymer was Peter Jaquins, a soldier in the War of 1812. He moved from Guilford, Chenango county, to Cattaraugus county in 1820. In 1824 he bought a lot in Clymer, and in 1825 made his home here and erected the first saw and grist mills in the town. He was an excellent hunter, and it is said “that he captured nearly one hundred wolves previous to 1812, for which he received an average bounty of twelve dollars per head.” His children were: Bruce, who located near his father; Edward, who went to Kansas; Wallace; Art, a farmer and cattle dealer, who married Frances Vrooman; Elizabeth. The name of this enterprising pioneer is perpetuated in the post office called Jaquins.
212 N. Main Street, Jamestown, NY 14701 Tuesday - Saturday 11am to 8pm
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 12,442
Median Household Income: $49,003
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 22.3%
Median Age: 41 • Veterans: 888
dunKirK history
According to the city of Dunkirk web site, the village of Dunkirk was originally settled in the earliest parts of the 1800s and incorporated in 1837. In February of 1880 the Village was chartered as the City of Dunkirk. For centuries, the dense forest surrounding what would later become to be known as Chadwick Bay was utilized as hunting ground by those native to the area. By the mid 1600s, European explorers following the shore of Lake Erie had stumbled upon the harbor and began using it as a safe haven during rough Lake Erie storms.
In the earliest parts of the 19th century, a few brave men decided that it was worth the effort to settle this area as home. In 1809, Soloman Chadwick cleared the land surrounding the bay that would later bare his name and settled on the shores of the harbor.
By the 1830s, 300 people had made the area their home and on May 5, 1837, the community was incorporated as a village. The next few decades would advance the village beyond expectations with the advent of the railroad. Not only did the City lay in a strategic location where freight could easily be moved from rail to sea, it also became well known for the many locomotives that it would produce. By 1880 the population had grown to over 7,000 and in February of that year the village was chartered as the state’s newest city. Over the past 132 years the City has gone from an important stop along the railroad to a bustling steel town to the quaint lakeside community that we all enjoy today.
Kate Wdowiasz, mayor 716-366-9882 (cell: 716-467-7487) kwdowiasz@cityofdunkirk.com
Amy Dobek, city clerk 716-366-0452 (fax: 716-366-0058) adobek@cityofdunkirk.com
Mark A. Woods, city treasurer and Ellen Luczkowiak, fiscal affairs officer 716-366-9863 (fax:716363-6481) mwoods@cityofdunkirk.com, eluczkowiak@ cityofdunkirk.com
Nick Weiser, City Council at-large nweiser@cityofdunkirk.com 620-397-1729
Natalie Luczkowiak, City Council Ward 1 716-6804664 nluczkowiak@cityofdunkirk.com
Abigail Yerico, City Council Ward 2 ayerico@cityofdunkirk.com
James Stoyle, City Council Ward 3 716-680-5828 jstoyle@cityofdunkirk.com
Nancy Nichols, City Council Ward 4 716-366-2775 or 716-952-7005 nnichols@cityofdunkirk.com
John M. Kuzdale, City Court judge 716-366-2055
Glenn Christner, building inspector 716-366-9858 gchristner@cityofdunkirk.com
Erica Munson, City Clerk of Assessors 716-366-9836 emunson@cityofdunkirk.com
The Planning and Zoning boards meet on an as-needed basis.
Planning Board: Paul Bowers, Carl Brandt, Jordan Cooper, Benjamin Gloss, and Richard Mackowiak.
Zoning Board of Appeals: Michael Miller, Scott Pagano, Ken Tarnowski, Thomas Tarnowski, and Mike Bohn.
town of dunKirK history
The Town of Dunkirk is an idyllic community located in Chautauqua County, NY which is in the Western New York part of New York State. The land mass is over 3,000 acres, with a “U-shaped” configuration which includes property both on the shores of Lake Erie and inland.
Geographically, the Town is divided into “East Town” and “West Town”. The town’s proximity to Lake Erie is its most significant natural asset, and a primary contributor to local character.
The population of the Town of Dunkirk peaked late in the post-World War II “Baby Boom: now includes just over 1300 residents. Surrounding communities include the City of Dunkirk, the Village of Fredonia, and the Town of Sheridan.
The Town of Dunkirk is a largely rural suburban community, with a mix of moderately-sized residential parcels, strip commercial, industrial and agricultural properties. These agricultural parcels make up about 20% of the total acreage, contributing to a rural residential character. Included in the agricultural district are numerous grape farms, providing the world renowned Concord grapes for both juice and wine.
Most of the residential land includes one family yearround residences. Median home values in 2013 were nearly $87,000 – well above that of the neighboring City of Dunkirk, and similar to that of Chautauqua County as a whole. Also in the town is a robust commercial
on page 30)
GERRI BEGIER
town of dunKirK history
(continued from page 29)
district on Vineyard Drive, with industrial and commercial endeavors making up about 8% of the total acreage; 26% of the acreage is residential, and 32% is vacant. A substantial portion of the Town by acreage is comprised of residential “recreational” properties.
The Town of Dunkirk provides municipal services to over 1,300 residents within an annual budget of approximately $900,000. The town has been fiscally responsible over the years and has included both reserve and contingency accounts within the budget. The Town supports its own Highway Department (maintaining over 28 lane-miles of roadway), and volunteer Fire Departments are located in both East and West Town of Dunkirk.
The Town of Dunkirk contains a range of local, county, and state roadways. State roadways include Route 5, Route 60, and the NYS Thruway. The supply of water is presently provided by the City of Dunkirk, but a newly formed Northern Chautauqua County Water District will provide water and water services in the very near future.
This will improve the infrastructure with new piping, equipment, pumps, and allow the Town of Dunkirk to utilize its own billing service for water.
Other community facilities and services include the Town Hall at 4737 Willow Road which houses the town staff, clerk’s office, Town Court and justices, code enforcement, and zoning officer. Police protection is contracted from the City of Dunkirk.
A Town of Dunkirk Comprehensive Plan was recently completed to create a framework for productive growth for the residents and the businesses of the Town. Upcoming projects include the renovation of the Town hall, improving opportunities for water-based recreation, exploring continued development of economic services and working with our local and county wide partners to explore shared services and shared success.
The Town has adopted the vision statement to guide of comprehensive plan with the following: “The Town of Dunkirk will be recognized for its high quality of life, a safe, attractive and affordable environment, and its diverse economic opportunities.”
County
Connecting You With Better Hearing
56.2 •
Larry Anderson, town supervisor 716-386-3465 ellerysupervisor@gmail.com
Jill Braund, town clerk 716-386-3465 ext 200 ellerytownclerk@gmail.com
Jeremy Crist, town council 716-386-3465
John C. Cresanti, town council 716-386-3465
David Boughton, town council 716-386-3465
Mark R. Schlemmer, town council 716-386-3465
Greg A. Hallberg, highway superintendent 716-386-7222 ellhwy@windstream.nety
Lawrence A. Wallace, town justice 716-386-2521 ext. 4
John A. Ferrara, town justice 716-386-5307 Jferrara@nycourts.gov
Robert P. Samuelson, code enforcement 716-386-3473 ellerycode@yahoo.com
Anne M. Golley, zoning officer 716-386-7876 elleryzoning@gmail.com
Anne M. Golley, assessor 716-386-2185 ext 207 elleryassessor@gmail.com u.s.
ELLICOTT
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 8,735
Median Household Income: $59,893
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 9.1% • Median Age: 49 Veterans: 608 • Total Housing Units: 4,503
Government direCtory
The Ellicott Town Board meets the third Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
Janet Bowman, town supervisor 716-665-5317 ext. 210 supervisor@townofellicott.com
Amy Bellardo, town clerk 716-665-5317 ext. 202 abellardo@townofellicott.com
James Rensel, town council Ward 1 716-665-5317 jamesrrensel@gmail.com
Robert White, town council Ward 2 716-640-3627
Katy L. Whitmore, town council Ward 3 716-450-1475 kawh8@outlook.com
Kenneth N. Swan, town council Ward 4 716-640-3944 kvswan@stny.rr.com
Robert F. Pickett Jr., highway superintendent 716-665-2101 toehighway@netsync.net
Tera Darts, town assessor 716-763-8561, ext. 6 accessor@townofbusti.com
William Duncanson Jr., town attorney 716-483-3233
William Ohnmeiss Jr., police chief 716-665-7083
Attorney Marilyn Fiore-Lehman, 716-484-4133
Confidential Tip Line 716-241-9877
Members of the Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals are Dan Evans, chairman, Valerie Pierce, Ken Lyon, Patricia Martonis and Paul Volpe.
Phyllis Belin and John Merchant are alternates. The board meets at 6 p.m. the third Thursday of each month.
Members of the Board of Assessment Review are Jean Lloyd, Patricia Martonis, Rachel Caprino, Dennis Jose, Ted Card, and Sam Ognibene.
elliCott history
Ellicott, formed from Pomfret, June 1, 1812, received its name in compliment to Joseph Ellicott, so long connected with the Holland Land Company, comprised townships one and two of ranges ten and eleven, and included Poland, Carroll, Kiantone, and a part of Busti, making the town twelve miles square.
Jonas Simmons came in 1809 and made a claim at Fluvanna, and in 1810 brought his wife and thirteen of his fifteen children. John Strunk, his wife’s brother, and Benjamin Lee, whose wife was a sister to Mrs. Simmons, and John Strunk, came with him. Four of John Strunk’s children were in the company, so a whole school district came in one company. These were the first settlers in the west part of Ellicott. Jacob Strunk, brother of John, settled in 1816 on lot 53, township 2, range 11. Augustus Moon, a soldier of 1812, located on lot 37, township 2, in 1814. His brothers, Gideon, Samuel and Jonathan, soon came. Their settlement gave name to Moon’s Creek.
In 1817 Jacob Fenton came from Jamestown, where he had a hotel and pottery from 1814, and established a pottery at Fluvanna which he conducted until 1822, when he died, and his son, William H. Fenton, succeeded him. In 1826 Samuel Whittemore became a partner, which continued nearly twenty years. Mr. Whittemore came from Concord, New Hampshire, in 1826, in 1827 was appointed postmaster of Fluvanna, and continued in that office until near his death in 1875. He was chiefly instrumental in forming one of the earliest local temperance societies. He kept a hotel from very early date until his death, where no liquors were sold, and was much frequented as a summer resort-the first on the lake.
The first settler arrived around 1814. The town of Ellington was formed in 1824 from the town of Gerry.
Every year on the first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of August, the town hosts it famous “Ellington Town Picnic”. The picnic has activities such as a woodcutting contest, cake contest and auction, pet show contest, baby contest, horseshoe throwing contest, BBQ, square dance and music, and on Saturday at 10:00 PM the town has a brilliant fireworks show near the north east side of the town park on Saturday night of the picnic at 10:00 PM. This picnic has been going year after year except during the World Wars since 1905 to present day making it the oldest small town picnic in America.[7]
Bill Rexford, a 1950 NASCAR Grand National Series champion, is an Ellington native.
The Town of Ellington is a 22,000 acre tract on the eastern border of Chautauqua formed after separating from the Town of Gerry in 1824. It is originally named for Ellington, Connecticut.
The historic architecture that survives today records the evolution of the community and contributes to the distinctive character of the Town. A variety of architectural styles and building types are represented in Ellington. These historic houses, churches, and commercial buildings are arranged around the Town Square and reflect the difference in taste of past generations.
VILLAGE OF
FALCONER
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 2,269 (2020)
Median Household Income: $47,717
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 7.2%
Median Age: 43.9 Veterans: 175
1,182
falConer history
The town was originally called Worksburg, after Edward Work, who purchased the land from the Holland Land Company in August 1807. The first Falconer to own the land was Robert Falconer, who bought it from Edward Work in 1836. His son, Patrick, later consolidated his land holdings in the future village. In 1874 the community received its present name, after either William T. Falconer (1850–1915) or his father Patrick, who was on the Board of Directors of the Allegheny & Pittsburg Railroad and donated a large tract of land through town to the railroad concern. This resulted in the railroad line being routed through the middle of the community.[3] Route 380 in the village retains the name “Work Street” after the town’s founder (it also now serves as a double entendre as the village’s various industrial sites are on the same road and thus many people “work” there).
The village of Falconer was incorporated in 1891. John Cheever selected the village as the location for the fictional Falconer State Prison in his novel Falconer.
Government direCtory
James Jaroszynski, mayor 716-665-4400 jjaroszynski@villageoffalconer.com
Cynthia Capestrani, village clerk 716-665-4400 capestrani@villageoffalconer.com
Alan P. Gustafson Jr., village trustee 716-665-4400 agustafson@villageoffalconer.com
Anthony Cavallaro, village trustee 716-665-4400 acavallaro@villageoffalconer.com
Timothy D. Dunn, village trustee 716-665-4400 tdunn@villageoffalconer.com
Paul Andalora, code enfoncement 716-665-4400 code@villageoffalconer.com and Alan Gustafson Sr.,
The center participates with many of the private health insurance plans. Medicare is accepted for speech and hearing services.
To make an appointment or for information call 716-673-3203
Children Services
• Preschool Program
• Central Auditory Processing Therapy
• Evaluations & Therapy
•Speech
•Language
•Voice
•Stuttering Adult Services
• Stroke/Head Injury Support Group
• Evaluations & Therapy
•Speech
•Language
•Aphasia/Stroke/Traumatic Brain Injury
•Voice
•Swallowing
•Stuttering
•Augmentative Alternative Communication
•Accent Reduction
Hearing Services
• Hearing Testing Children & Adults
• Hearing Aid Services
•Evaluation
•Dispensing
•Repairs
• Assistive Listening Devices
• Central Auditory Processing Disorder Testing
• Evoked Response Testing
•Auditory Brainstem Testing
•ECochG
SUNY Fredonia FCU is proudly celebrating 50 Years of financial services! We owe our success to YOU — our members, neighbors, and friends. Together, we have built a legacy of trust, commitment, and growth.
Contact Us to Learn How to Become a Member and Join the Celebration!
• Special Loan Rate Offers • Exclusive 50th Anniversary Promotions
• Member Appreciation Events
Learn More: www.SUNYFredoniaFCU.com Call Us: (716) 673-3585 Visit Us: Fredonia State University, G139 Williams Center, Fredonia, NY 14063
9-11 Church St., Fredonia, NY 14063 716-679-2302; (fax - 716-679-3175) villageoffredoniany.com
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 9,585 Median Household Income: $49,826
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 24%
Median Age: 25.4 • Veterans: 454 Total Housing Units: 4,353
Government direCtory
Michael Ferguson, mayor 716-724-0607 (cell: 716-480-3279) mayor@villageoffredoniany.gov
Annemarie Johnston, village clerk 716-679-2302 fredoniavillageclerk@netsync.net
Ben Brauchler, village trustee 716-679-2302 trusteebrauchler@villageoffredoniany.gov
Michelle Twichell, village trustee 716-679-4282 (cell: 716-673-5252) trusteetwichell@gmail.com
Jon Espersen, village trustee 716-679-2302 (cell: 716-467-8328) espersenjon@gmail.com
Nicole Siracuse, village trustee 716-679-2302 (personal: 716-785-9290) nmsiracuse@gmail.com
Paul Wandel, village trustee 716-679-2302 trusteewandel@villageoffredoniany.gov
Thomas Kawski, assistant inspection officer 716-679-2313 vofbuildinginspector@netsync.net
John Christopher Dean, electrical inspector 716-224-0700
Luis Fred, water filtration chief operator 716-679-2310
David Felt, wastewater treatment chief operator 716-366-0057 fwwtp@netsync.net.
Joshua Myers, fire chief, 716-672-2124 fredfire@fredoniafire.org
David Price, police chief 716-679-1531 dprice@fredoniapolice.org
Kayla Sullivan, recreation director 716-679-2311 fredrec@netsync.net
Scott Marsh, streets superintendent 716-679-2304 Smarsh@netsync.net
Erlyssa LeBeau, tax department and village treasurer 716-679-2314. fredtreasurer@netsync.net
FRENCH CREEK
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Town board meetings are held the second Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m.
David J. White, town supervisor 716-499-7916 dbwhite81@stny.rr.com
Debbie Albright, town clerk 716-355-8871 frenchcreekclerk@gmail.com
David McCray, town council 716-450-2070
Wayne Emory, town council 814-323-1125 Cole Gleason, town council 716-450-5125
Norvel Willink, town council 716-499-1502
Brian Malecki, highway superintendent 716-355-8801 Jeffrey S. Messenger, building inspector 814-873-8368 Heather Young-Deyell, assessor 716-769-7125 Brenda White, tax collector 716-499-1154 Denis Cooper, town justice 716-769-7250 dcooper@nycourts.gov
GERRY
Government direCtory
Town board meetings are held the second Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.
Richard Heath, town supervisor 716-985-4715 townofgerryclerk@yahoo.com
Jamie Ansell, town council
Todd Wissman, town council
Gerry Swan, town council
Kasey Fanara, town council
Jodie Fehlman, town clerk 716-985-4715 townofgerryclerk@yahoo.com
Brian T. Anderson, highway superintendent 716-720-3320
Kevin J. Sirwatka, town justice 716-985-4323
Court Clerk Wanda Crossley
Assessor Kevin Okerlund kpo@fairpoint.net 716-962-9455
Dog Control Officer Jeff Johnson Jr. 716-720-2882
Historian Peggy Heath
GG erry h istory
erry was formed from Pomfret, June 1, 1812. Ellington, including Cherry Creek, was taken off in 1824 and Charlotte in 1829. It was named from Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a VicePresident.
The principal portion of the present town of Gerry was an unbroken wilderness up to1815, although in the northern part contiguous to Sinclairville a few settlements had been made as early as 1810. In 1815 several families, all from Vermont, including those of William Alverson, Porter Phelps, Dexter and Nathan Hatch, and Reuben and Solomon Fessenden, plunged into the unbroken pine forest. bordering the Cassadaga Creek on the east and commenced carving out the new settlement called Vermont.
One of the largest factories in the United States is located at Gerry Village, and is owned and managed in part by John Strong, who used the first machine made over half a century ago.
A general store was opened at Vermont by Howard B. Blodgett in 1826. He was succeeded by Norman Gurnsey. Sidney E. Palmer, his clerk, became the owner of the store and goods in 1838. Mr. Palmer was afterwards made postmaster, his commission bearing date August 1, 1841. He held this position continuously until his death in 1896, a period of fifty-five years, and was said to have been the oldest postmaster in point of service in the United States. A large portion of this time Mr. Palmer was town clerk. He was also five years on the board of supervisors from Gerry, and in 1860 represented the Second Assembly District of Chautauqua in the Legislature.
The postoffice, which long held the name of Vermont, was changed to Gerry about 1876, and the station on the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh railroad was changed from Vermont to Gerry as late as 1881. When these changes were made, “Vermont in Gerry” was no longer a fact, but a memory. The pioneers are gone, but many of their descendants are occupying their places. It was believed in 1902 that there are but two persons living who came with the first settlers, Caroline Phelps Eaton, daughter of Porter Phelps, and Aibro Fessenden, son of Reuben Fessenden, were brought here by their parents in the fall of 1815 and the spring of 1816, respectively, making the journey from Vermont by ox-teams.
The first town meeting in Gerry, as at present constituted, was held at the house of Calvin Cutting, May 2, 1830.
OF
HANOVER TOWN
68 Hanover St., Silver Creek, NY 14136 716-934-2273 • www.hanoverny.com
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Population: 6,972 • Hispanic or Latino (Of Any Race): 299
Total Housing Units: 3,634 • Total Households: 2,965
Median Household Income: $66,540
Employment Rate: 49.3 %
Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 22.5 %
Without Health Care Coverage: 3.5 %
Government direCtory
The Town Board meets every second and fourth Monday of the month at 7 p.m.
Louis Pelletter, Town Supervisor: 716-934-2273; loupelletter@hanoverny.com
Town Board members: Bernard Feldmann Jr., Deputy Supervisor; James Feldmann; Aimee Rogers; and Ed Schintzius.
Elizabeth VanCheri, Town Clerk: 716-934-2273; elizabethvancheri@hanoverny.com
Peter Pelletter, Highway Superintendent: 716-934-4993, hanhighway@live.com
Robert Weiskerger, Water/Sewer Department Supervisor: 716-934-2231; hanoversewer@hotmail.com
Planning Board: Rick Klisiewicz, Chairman; Martha Boutet; M. Lee Parker; Nancy Fry; John Rogers; Kaitlyn Gage; Mark Lilley; and Lorry Schneider, Secretary.
Zoning Board of Appeals: Shawn Smith, Chairman; William Kraft; Carol Woodward; Kim Woodward; Dana Bennett; and Cheryl Lilley, Secretary.
Town Attorney: John Grennell
Town Court: 716-934-4770; hanovertowncourt@nycourts.gov
Town Justices: James McGowan and Christopher Penfold
Court Clerks: Molly Merrill and Kathleen Tempski
about the town of
is located in Chautauqua County, in the southwestern part of New York State, USA. It lies along the shores of Lake Erie, roughly 30 miles southwest of Buffalo. The town is situated near the Pennsylvania border and is part of the Western New York region.
The Town encompasses the Village of Silver Creek, Hamlet of Forestville, Hamlet of Irving, Hanford Bay, Sunset Bay, and Smith Mills. There are two school districts within the township, Silver Creek Central, and Forestville Central. There are multiple working farms and manufacturing plants within the town.
The Town of Hanover is easily accessible from the New York State Thruway, and is the gateway to Chautauqua Wine Country.
The annual Festival of Grapes brings the community together every September for fun, food, amusements, and entertainment.
Golf enthusiasts find Hanover a perfect place to work on their swing, as we are home to 2 public golf courses, Rosebrook Golf Course, and Tri-County Country Club.
Our state-of-the-art Boat Launch and fish cleaning station, along with Sunset Bay Beach Club, Hideaway Bay Resort, and Cabana Sam’s Restaurant bring thousands of seasonal visitors to our waterfront.
Snowmobiling, ice fishing, and sledding areas abound in the town, making Hanover the perfect winter vacation spot. Whatever the season, whatever the reason, Hanover is the perfect place to call home.
716.483.2344 | www.resourcecenter.org
HARMONY
PO Box 186, Panama, NY 14767 716-782-4568 • www.harmonyny.org
harmony history
The Town of Harmony was taken from the town of Chautauqua on February 14, 1816. A small part south of Ashville was taken from the town of Chautauqua when the Town of Busti was formed in 1823 and added to that town. Harmony was by far the largest town in Chautauqua County. It laid upon the south border of the County, a little west of the center and contained about 54,918 acres of land. ¨In the fall of 1918 a petition was signed by 105 voters of the Town of Harmony was presented to the Board of Supervisors of Chautauqua County, NY asking that the town of Harmony be divided into two towns citing as the reason that the Town of Harmony is double the size of most towns in the county. It being approximately 86 square miles in area, (many of the towns are only about 36 square miles) with 153 miles of highway; one superintendent is unable to give the roads the proper attention, and the town officers have to travel long distances to attend Town Board Meetings as do the Town Assessors in the performance of their duties.
¨At the regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors held on December 19, 1918, an act to divide the town of Harmony passed. It called for the division of the town to be on straight line with the township line between Township One and Township Two. ¨The part of town north of the dividing line would take the name of “Town of North Harmony” and the part of the town south of the dividing line to continue the name “Town of Harmony”. (Reference pages 160-165 Laws & Resolutions of the Board of Supervisors of Chautauqua County, 1811-1924)
& S GLASS SERVICE
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 2,121
Median Household Income: $57,042
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 11.9%
Median Age: 41.7 • Veterans: 129, 4.7% • Total Housing Units: 950
Government direCtory
The Harmony Town Board meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6 pm.
John E. Brown, town supervisor 716-720-3946 harmonytownsupervisor@gmail.com
Amy Ecker, town clerk 716-782-4568 townofharmonyclerk@yahoo.com
Aaron Constantino, dog control officer 716-720-0013 Pam Brown, historian 716-720-3946
CITY OF
JAMESTOWN
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 28,712 Median Household Income: $44,878
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 24% • Median Age: 38.2 Veterans: 1,651, 8.1% • Total Housing Units: 14,430
Government direCtory
Kim Ecklund, mayor 716-483-7600 mayor@jamestownny.gov
Jennifer Williams, city clerk 716-483-7581 clerk@jamestownny.gov
Jeffrey R. Russell, City Council At-Large 716-499-5446 russell@jamestownny.gov
Joseph Paterniti, City Council, Ward 5, 716-499-5038 paterniti@jamestownny.gov
Randall Daversa, City Council At-Large 716-665-2713 daversa@jamestownny.gov
Brent P. Sheldon, City Council Ward 1 716-483-0004 bsheldon@jamestownny.gov
Anthony J. Dolce, City Council Ward 2 716-483-3573 dolce@jamestownny.gov
Regina Brackman, City Council Ward 3 716-499-5849 brackman@jamestownny.gov
William R. Reynolds III, City Council Ward 5 716-720-0884 reynolds@jamestownny.gov
Andrew Faulkner, City Council Ward 6 716-499-7794 faulkner@jamestownny.gov
Russell Bonfiglio, City Council At-Large, 716-397-1863 bonfiglio@jamestownny.gov
John I. LaMancuso, City Court judge 716-483-7561
George Panebianco, City Court Judge 716-483-7561
Robert Smith, code enforcement/fire prevention 716-483-7598 fire@jamestownny.gov
Lisa Volpe, assessor 716-483-7510 assessor@jamestownny.gov
Mark Roetzer Jr., public works director 716-483-7545 dpw@jamestownny.gov
Board of Public Utilities 716-661-1660 www.jamestownbpu.com
Garbage Hotline 716-661-1651
After Hours Trouble Line 716-661-1640
Jamestown history
Jamestownwas settled in 1810. Historic mention of the land Jamestown was built on goes back to 1749; for Chautauqua Lake back to 1739. But pre-historic Native Americans visited and traversed the area perhaps as many as 14,000 years ago.
In the fall of 1810, John Blowers, hired man of James Prendergast, built a log cabin in this immediate area. Its exact location cannot be determined, as notes from early historians differ. In this cabin, Blowers settled his family and operated a tavern for keelboat men trading between Pittsburgh and Mayville. In the fall of 1813, Blowers moved into a frame house in Jamestown, which he built at what is now 113 North Main Street. This served as a licensed tavern, boarding-house, school, church, and general meeting place until the Fenton Tavern was built in 1814.
James Prendergast, founder of Jamestown, was a man of unusual force and quality of character. After recognizing the area’s potential, he purchased 1,000 acres where he began the settlement that became the city of Jamestown. He and his family moved into their first home in Jamestown in 1811. At the same time, a sawmill was constructed. The dam built by Prendergast raised the water level of the outlet to such an extent that property owners secured an indictment in June 1812, charging a Great damage and common nuisance in the liege of the citizens of the state, he voluntarily paid damages and a court-imposed judgment of fifteen dollars. Both the house and the sawmill was destroyed by fire September 8, 1812. By 1815, the Pendergasts were living in their home on North Main Street between Second and Third Streets. Through the trying times of Jamestown’s infancy, James and Nancy Prendergast provided its citizens with employment, extended an open hand to the needy, furnished the means for education and fostered religion. In 1836 he sold his Jamestown property and they moved to Ripley, N.Y., where Nancy died January 9, 1839. James then moved to his farm in Kiantone, N.Y. and died there November 15, 1846.
The first store in Jamestown was erected in 1813 on the northwest corner of Main and First Streets by Jediah and Martin Prendergast, brothers of James Prendergast. This was a branch of the store they opened in Mayville in 1811. The store building was 20 feet by 45 feet. The original map of the lots that James Prendergast had laid out was kept in the store for many years. Thomas Disher was hired as the clerk for the store. The ledger of that first store is in the Special Collections of the Fenton History Center Library and bears the date, November 1813.
Jamestown’s first gristmill was erected in 1814 by James Prendergast on the west side of Main Street, south of the
(continued on page 41)
Jamestown history
(continued from page 40)
present railroad tracks. It was one and one half stories; the upper floor being occupied by Walter Simmons and Horace Blanchar with wool carding machines. A few years later, Amory and Joseph Stearns manufactured weaver’s reeds there. The mill had 2 runs of stones which had been brought down the lake and outlet from Mayville.
The first school house in Jamestown was erected in 1816 by James Prendergast who, for the first two decades of the settlemen’s existence, paid all the expenses of public education. Prior to 1816, school was taught first in John Blowers’ house and later in Keye’ Carpenter Shop and in the cotton mill just south of First Street and east of Potter’s Alley. The schoolhouse was a two-story, barn-like structure with few windows and heated by a large fireplace in the rear of the room. This school was Prendergast Academy.
Subjects taught included English, Grammar and Latin. The books used were Murray’s English Grammar, a Murray’s English Reader, and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
In 1816, on land since occupied by the west end of the Broadhead Mills, Daniel Hazeltine erected the nucleus of the first woolen factory in southern Chautauqua County. Brothers, William and John Breed, bought out the business interest of Royal Keyes in 1823.
They produced wood furniture at Keye’ shop on Main between Third and Fourth Streets under the name of Keyes and Breed until 1825.
The Dexterville Hotel-Tavern was a three-room frame building, 40 feet by 56 feet on a stone foundation, with a front porch 19 feet long. When remodeled in 1933 and in 1942-3, the foundation and structural framing were repaired, a second story added, the old porch enclosed, and a new front porch built. The Dexter brothers were among the earliest settlers in Chautauqua County, coming to Mayville about 1808. They moved in 1824 to the area later called Dexterville. Here they owned and operated the tavern, a store, an ashery, a mill, and a quarry. Today, Dexterville is part of the City of Jamestown and the Tavern is known as the Buffalo Grill.
William Broadhead, 1819-1910, came to Jamestown in 1843 from Thornton, Yorkshire, England as a blacksmith.
After participating in several smithing, machine shop and snath making enterprises, he became interested in quality textiles and formed William Broadhead & Sons, a clothing store. In 1873, after visiting his homeland where the weaving industry flourished, he helped to form the firm of Hall, Broadhead & Turner Alpaca Mill. In 1875, William Broadhead, with his sons Almet N. and Sheldon B., formed the Broadhead Worsted Mill on East First Street.
KIANTONE
1521 Peck Settlement Road, Jamestown, NY 14701 716-488-0383 • www.kiantoneny.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American
Median Age: 47 Veterans: 110
Total Housing Units: 555
Kiantone history
Kiantone was first settled by Joseph L. Akin, who came from Rennselaer County in Eastern New York, in 1807. The area consisted of about 11,228 acres, or 17.5 square miles. Not long after Akin came to Kiantone, Robert Russell also settled in the area, partnering with John Frew to build the first sawmill on Kiantone Creek, just above the junction where the creek met the Conewango Creek. Russell, PA, was later settled by Russell, his father, and brothers. Kiantone was a derivative of the Seneca work “kyenthone”, meaning roughly - - a level place for growing corn. While the Seneca’s received exclusive rights to reservation lands in 1794, they did not move at once to the reservations.
When Anglo-Saxon settlers arrived in Kiantone, they found the Kyenthono Village still inhabited by the Senecas. Through the years, Kiantone made its name as a mill town, with settlers either coming up the Allegany River from Pittsburgh or overland from Buffalo. The first Kiantone town meeting was held on February 21, 1854, with Ezbai Kidder elected Supervisor; Levand Brown elected Town Clerk; Francis Alvord Town School Superintendent; and Stephan Norton as Tax Collector.
According to a 2006 book, “Kiantone Chautauqua County’s Mystical Valley”, by Deborah K. Cronin, construction and improvement of roads was a continuous concern, and one-room schoolhouses were built. A post office took the new town name on April 4, 1855, and would remain the town’s only post office until it was discontinued in1900.
For a time, Kiantone played host to one of Chautauqua County’s numerous spiritual communities - - a place called Harmonia. Harmonia had up to 30 people living in it at its peak before dying out in the 1860’s.
Government direCtory
Town board meetings are held the second Thursday of each month at 7 p.m., except in October and November, when meetings are held the first Thursday.
Joshua Ostrander, town supervisor 716-969-0752
Gail Davis, town clerk 716-488-0383 townofkiantone@stny.rr.com
Kurt E. Sturzenbecker, town council 716-664-0418
Valerie L. McDonald, deputy town supervisor 716-499-5634
Timothy Kolstee, town council 716-640-2623
Rich Landman, town council. 1-440-409-9725
Robert G. Carlson, highway superintendent 716-664-5243 kiantone@windstream.net
Kyle Haller, dog control officer 716-489-4787
Tara Dart, assessor 716-488-0383
Mark Marchincin, tax collector
VILLAGE OF
LAKEWOOD
laKewood history
The area now covered by the village of Lakewood originally was divided into large farms. The owners of those large tracts of land are memorialized in local place names: Gifford, Southland, Bentley, Cowing, Winch, Stoneman, and Lowe.
The land along the lake was periodically occupied by hunters and fishermen, and ice harvesters in the winter. The first settlement of any size took place along the lakeshore, and Lakewood’s history actually began as it developed into a summer resort. In 1870 John Cowing built a hotel, the Cowing House, on that part of his farm which bordered on the lake. The Cowing House became The Lakeview House in 1873 and the small settlement, known as Lakeview, became Lakewood in 1879.
In the mid 1870s Warren Packard from Warren, Ohio, and his brother, John, from Meadville, Pennsylvania came to the Lakewood area and bought the hotel and several acres of the land. On their lakefront property, which they called the Lakeview Tract, the two brothers built a number of Gothic style summer cottages for rental purposes. Warren Packard built himself a $3,000 villa near the hotel. They also built a sawmill on property they owned near the railroad track to provide lumber for their extensive building projects.
Another large, well-appointed hotel, the Kent House, was built in 1875. It stood to the of east of the beach area, near the present Yacht Club. Its entrance opened directly on New York Avenue where it joined East Terrace. Both of the early hotels were replaced in the late 1880s. The Kent House burned in 1887 and a Second Kent House was built in 1888. The Lakeview House was demolished and rebuilt as the Sterlingworth in 1889. The number of permanent residents increased in response to the needs of the summer visitors at the resort hotels.
The eastern section of the village developed slowly. In the 1870s and 1880s several prominent families from Jamestown built comfortable summer homes in a lakeside section called Shadyside, just east of the Kent House. Inland there was a little settlement east of Lakeview Avenue until near the turn of the century. Clement Park, east of Shadyside, developed in the 1890s with new homes being built along the lake on Parkside Avenue, today known as Front Street. At Beechwood at the far eastern end of Lakewood, there was a trolley stop and station on the extension of The Jamestown Street Railway Company, and later of the Chautauqua Traction Company. In this area an ambitious developer, Ziba Squier built several homes created a canal called Subway, which ran on course between, and paralleling East Summit and East Terrace Avenues. Mr. Squier’s summer cottages built along the lake and along the canal were placed on narrow lots, with 25 foot frontage. Today many of them remain, although the canal has been drained for many years and the early homes stand facing a grassy field.
In 1893 the small settlement was incorporated as the Village of Lakewood. Through most of the year, it was a quiet residential area with a permanent population of 600. The arrival of as many as 1500 summer visitors provided boom times for the local residents. However, the first municipal government which included a President and a Board of Trustees, was faced with year-around problems of public
health and public safety. Ordinances were passed to make the streets safe – no sledding or skating allowed; to protect the innocent – no swimming without bathing suits; to protect buyers – peddlers and merchandise solicitors were required to be licensed. In the earliest years of the village the Trustees were called upon personally to keep law and order. Firefighting was a general community activity until the first Lakewood Bucket Brigade was organized in 1898. Education was another municipal responsibility and in 1893 the early government officials authorized the building of a 3-room schoolhouse on Highland Avenue, to be financed by homeowner assessment.
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 2,948
Median Household Income: $68,631
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 10% •
Government direCtory
Lakewood Village Board meetings are held the second and fourth Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the village hall.
Apryl Troutman, village clerk 716-763-8557 atroutman@lakewoodny.com
Ellen E. Barnes, village trustee 716-763-8557 eebarnes@windstream.net
John Shedd, village trustee 716-763-8557 shedd@lakewoodny.com
Ben Troche, village trustee 716-763-8557 troche@lakewoodny.com
Nancy Jones, village trustee 716-763-8557 jonesnancyk845@yahoo.com
Thomas R. Pilling, street supervisor 716-763-8098 pilling@lakewoodny.com
Jeffrey A. Swanson, code enforcement 716-763-8557 blcode@townofbusti.com
Marilyn Firoe-Lehman, attorney 716-664-7354
Zoning Board of Appeals/planning members are Gary Segrue, chair, Louis S. Drago Jr., deputy chairman, and William Chandler, John Jablonski, and Jack McCray. Meetings are held the second Thursday of each month in village hall.
VILLAGE OF
MAYVILLE
1 S. Erie St., PO Box 188, Mayville, NY 14757 • 716-753-2125 (Fax: 716-753-3125) • www.villageofmayville.com
mayville history
Seneca Indians gave up their claim to most of this area in the Big Tree Treaty on September 15, 1797. The land soon became the property of six Dutch banking houses “known as the Holland Land Company.” Their agent was Paul Busti and under him was Joseph Ellicott in Batavia. Ellicott began surveying the area in 1798 and finished in 1800. William Peacock was sent here to survey and map the area in 1804 and the Township of Chautauqua was created on April 11th of the same year.
There are several versions of how Mayville received its name. The best known version is first attributed to William Peacock as detailed to Henry McKenzie in The Centennial History of Chautauqua County, Volume 1, page 585. It relates that a meeting of agents and representatives was held at Mayville to consider several matters including the naming of the new settlement known up to that time as The Corners. “A great many names had been suggested but none upon which all could unite, when Mrs. Paul Busti, wife of one of the agents and attorney for the company, came into the room where we were gathered, with a baby in her arms. One of the gentlemen present asked her the name of the baby and she replied, ‘May.’ Then some one suggested that we name the settlement after the baby and call it Mayville, which was quickly agreed to, and the new settlement was at once named in honor of May Busti.” A slightly different version of this account, giving the meeting date as 1804, is also printed in History of Chautauqua County New York And Its People, Volume 1, page 132. It should be noted that there is no record of May Busti ever having existed.
Another version has the name of the village coming from the maiden last name MAY. The 1894 History of Chautauqua County, New York by Obed Edson, page 844 states, “the place was so beautifully located, the natural scenery so charming, that it was suggested that the town be christened after the ‘fairest month of all the year,’ so it was put down on the map as Mayville.” The name of the village is spelled as MAY-VILLE in the Holland Land. Co. book showing the Township 13th Range.
Dr. Alexander McIntyre became Mayville’s first settler in 1804 when he moved here from Meadville, Pennsylvania. He built a log cabin on South Erie Street with a wooden stockade around it. A historic marker commemorates its location. Captain John Scott moved to Mayville in 1807 and opened an inn on the east side of the street. There is also a historic marker for its location.
Mayville was appointed as the county seat and the Holland Land Co. was required to erect the county buildings at its own expense and to give them to the county with at least one half acre of land. They also put up a building for their agent William Peacock and he moved in the year 1810. The county became fully organized in 1811 and the Court of common Pleas held its first session June 25th in Scott’s Tavern.
On February 11, 1836, a group of 250 to 500 men gathered at Barnhart’s Inn, in nearby Hartfield, with the express purpose of raiding the then unpopular Holland Land Co. offices in Mayville. After arriving, they proceeded to break down the door, smash the windows and furniture, break into the stone vault which can still be seen near the courthouse and destroy William Peacock’s house. Many of the papers were carried back to Hartfield and burned. After this the Land Co. office was moved to Westfield and a new brick mansion was built for Peacock in Mayville. This mansion became the Peacock Inn and it survived until 1971 when it was torn down by the county for expansion purposes.
The first non-religious school building was built on North Erie Street in 1824. The next brick school building was built on top of the hill in 1832. It was advertised in the first issue of the Mayville Sentinel newspaper on December 11, 1834. The Mayville Academy was first chartered by the State Legislature on April 24, 1834. A new school building opened in 1924 and the old one was demolished in 1931. The school was centralized in 1938 and has since combined with the former Chautauqua Central School and become Chautauqua Lake Central School. A new school building is located north of the business district.
The first railroad started operation in 1867. It operated under several names including Penn Central and Conrail but was operated the longest, 1900 to 1968, as the Pennsylvania RR. The last train ran to Mayville on December 29, 1978 and the rails were torn up for salvage the following year. A second railroad came to Mayville along the east side of the lake in 1887. The Chautauqua Lake Railway had a junction with the first railroad, which featured a control tower for the signals and switches in the area. This eventually became the Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern and was operated as an electric trolley line starting in 1914. The J.W. & N.W. made its final run on January 21, 1950. A second electric trolley, The Chautauqua Traction Co., came to Mayville along the west side of the lake starting in 1904. The line to Mayville was abandoned March 26, 1926.
The commercial ice industry, made possible by the railroad,
(continued on page 45)
The Mayville Village Board meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Carlson Community Center, 50 W. Lake Road.
Richard Syper, mayor 716-753-2125, mayvillemayor@netsync.net
John G. Crandall, village clerk 716-753-2125 mayville5@netsync.net
Bill Ward, village trustee 716-753-2125
Mark Perry, village trustee 716-753-2125 Benjamin Webb, village trustee 716-753-2125 Dan Roush, village trustee 716-753-2125 Dan Engdahl, DPW superintendent 716-753-2013
Devon Taylor, historian
started in 1871 when the first of six large ice houses were built in Mayville. These were the Chautauqua Lake Ice Co., Pittsburgh Ice Co., Carlson’s Ice, Hopson Ice Co., Cornell and Hewes and the Mayville Ice Co. on what is now Sea Lion Drive. The industry employed as many as 600 workers at its peak but the last ice was harvested in 1935. The Mayville Ice Co. building that housed it was torn down in 1936.
Other notable industries were Chautauqua Malted Milk, Inc. and the Gravit Cider Mill, both on East Chautauqua Street. Gravit’s closed shortly after WW II and the building was torn down. The Chautauqua Malted Milk, Inc. plant last operated on January 8, 1976. O-At-Ka Milk Products of Buffalo reopened the plant in 1978 but production finally ceased for good on August 17, 1979.
Wood has been important since the earliest days of the village. At first it was used to build log cabins, heat buildings and was converted to ashes and sold for cash. Ethan Allen made furniture here, but closed their plant April 21, 2003. The original part of the plant they worked from was part of the Chautauqua Bed Spring and Lounge Company, which went bankrupt early in the 1900’s. The company was then purchased by John Kling in 1911 becoming a small family owned bedroom furniture business. The operation soon expanded into several plants. Kling’s was purchased by the Baumritter Corporation in 1962. The Kling name was discontinued after 1974.
Fires have made large changes to Mayville several times since it was founded. On November 21, 1878, a terrible fire destroyed most of the business section on the west side of Erie Street. The fire ranged from the Godard and Bond grocery to the Gifford bank on the corner of Ash Street. The Baptist Church and the Village Office and Fire Hall were spared. The east side business district burned April 18, 1901. Even the jail caught on fire making it necessary to evacuate the inmates. The fire was stopped by Blanchard Street leaving the Mayville House Hotel standing. It burned down January 25, 1914, in another fire.
The west side business district was struck again on February 19, 1929, and on February 6, 1932. The 1932 fire received widespread coverage including the February 7th edition of the New York Times. The next day thousands of people drove to Mayville to view the disaster. The resulting snarl of traffic required several police officers to direct it.
Sylvester’s dry goods store, also on the west side, burned on April 23, 1932. The next big fire took place on March 20, 1941. The 88 year old Methodist Church on Erie Street went up in flames. Other fires have, of course, taken place since.
mina history
Mina history Findley Lake was settled by War of 1812 veteran Alexander Findley, a native of Northern Ireland who had emigrated to America sometime around 1769, settled in eastern Pennsylvania, married and started a family, and returned to Ireland for a few years before making the decision to live permanently in the United States. After purchasing land in Greenfield, Pennsylvania in 1805, he then purchased lot 52, near what is now Findley Lake, from the Holland Land Company in 1811,[2] and built a dam there in 1815 to power his mill, thus creating the lake from two ponds. The settlement that grew up around the mills prospered.
The Lakeside Assembly on the southwest shore entertained visitors
MINA
2883 North Road, PO Box 38, Findley Lake, NY 14736 716-769-7204 • www.townofmina.info
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Individuals
The Mina Town Board meets at 7 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Mina-Findley Lake Community Center, 2883 North Road.
Rebecca N. Brumagin, town supervisor 716-769-7204 msupervisor@townofmina.info
Dick Watrous, deputy supervisor 716-769-7204 dick@tripleemfg.com
Sherrie R. Tanner, town clerk 716-769-7204 mina1@townofmina.info
Brian Sullivan, town council 716-769-7204 sullivan14736@gmail.com
Richard Cooper, town council 716-769-7204 richardcooper0017@gmail.com
Christine Craffey, town council 716-769-7204 christinecraffe@verizon.net
Dick Watrous, town council 716-769-7204 dick@tripleemfg.com
William A. Himelein, highway superintendent 716-769-7194 whimelein@gmail.com
Denis R. Cooper, town justice 716-769-7250 deniss@cooperganics.com
Tom McNinch, code enforcement 716-769-7204 rulesandregsmina@gmail.com
Heather Y. Young-Deyell, assessor 716-769-7125 assessorheather@gmail.com
Mary Norcross, historian mhistorian@townofmina.info
to the region, during the summers between 1895 and 1915, with programs that rivaled Chautauqua Assembly, at the Chautauqua Institution. Founded in 1895 by United Brethren minister Rev. C. G. Langdon, who lived in a parsonage on the lake’s east shore,[3] the Lakeside Assembly’s first president was Dr. F. E. Lilley, who was succeeded by American Civil War veteran and U.S. Medal of Honor winner Ebenezer Skellie.[4] The Assembly was reached by two steamboats, the Silver Spray and the Daisy. The United Methodist Church (which absorbed the United Brethren in 1968) continued to operate a summer camp, Camp Findley, in the hamlet of Findley Lake until the early 21st century.
Steamboat appearance paralleled the opening of The Lakeside Assembly in 1895-1915 which was patterned after Chautauqua. It is our understanding all steamboats were gone around 1913.
Government direCtory TOWN OF
NORTH HARMONY
5350 Stow Road, Ashville, NY 14710, PO Box 167, Stow, NY 14785 • 716-789-3445 • www.townofnorthharmony.com
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate: 2,192 Median
north harmony history
The first family to settle in Harmony was that of Jonathan Cheney in 1806. His cabin was built at Cheney’s Point.
Ashville was the first village to be formed in the Town in 1808. The name was derived from the four asheries in the village. In 1808 Reuben Sleyton, Jr. built a saw mill and grist mill. He was an active pioneer in his Town. He became the Supervisor of Harmony in 1808.
In 1811 Thomas Beemus established the Stow Ferry which connected Bemus Point and Stow. He used a small rough-hewn log raft. A steel cable was first used in 1898.
Town board meetings are held on the second Monday of each month.
Robert E. Yates, town supervisor 716-785-1012 supervisor@townofnorthharmony.com
Stephanie Gibbs, town clerk 716-789-3445, ext. 2 townclerk@townofnorthharmony.com
Nikiel Adams, town council 716-789-3445
Bruce (Mike) Pfeil, town council 814-598-3980
Richard Sena, town council 716-782-2488
Louise E. Ortman, town council 716-789-3445
Benjamin Karlson, highway superintendent 716-789-2055
Howard E. Peacock, town justice 716-789-3445
Bradley N. Lawson, code enforcement 716-789-3445, xt. 3 zoning@townofnorthharmony.com
Anne Golley, assessor 716-753-2241
John Stow, dog control 716-969-5176
Pam Brown, historian 716-237-0527
Robin Miller, bookkeeper 716-789-3445, xt. 5
Zoning Board of Appeals members are, Leah Stow, William Ortman, Roger Vaillancourt, Dan Thomas, Greg Michalak - chairman, David Ensminger
Planning Board members are John P. Rice; Chairman, Richard Johnson, Gary Winger, John Warner, Gary Nelson, David Bryant Jr., Scott Kyser, Anna Sena (Alternate)
In 1907 Alton Ball used a shore-based engine.
Eben Pratt taught in the first school in Ashville in 1817.
The first church organized in the Town was The Congregational Church of Harmony located in Ashville in 1820.
In 1822 Dr. Vine Elderkin was Ashville’s first physician.
The North Harmony Baptist Church was formed in 1833.
Stow acquired its name when John Stow established the Post Office in 1880.
George and Alton Appleby established the Ashville - Panama Telephone and Telegraph in 1902.
The fire fighting department in the Village of Ashville was organized in 1914.
The Town of North Harmony was created by the adoption of a resolution by the Board of supervisors of Chautauqua county on December 19, 1918.
PANAMA
17 W. Main St., PO Box 118, Panama, NY 14767 716-621-4024 • www.panamany.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American
Government direCtory
William F. Schneider, mayor
Lisa Ireland, village clerk
716-621-4024
Kimberly M. Davis, village trustee 716-969-2555 kimmyd37@yahoo.com
Todd Eddy, village trustee 716-621-4024
Melanie A. Eddy, code enforcement 716-782-4526
Pam Brown, historian
Larissa Enlow, tax collector
Larissa Enlow, treasurer
Town of Harmony animal control officer, animal control
POLAND
3593 Church St., PO Box 4, Kennedy, NY 14747 716-267-2912 • www.polandny.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population Estimate:
Government direCtory
Kelly Snow, town supervisor, is available the second Tuesday of each month from 5:30 to 7 p.m. before the regular Town Board meeting.
Kelly A. Snow, town supervisor 716-450-2834
Bonnita R. Wallace, town clerk 716-267-2912 polandtownclerk@hotmail.com
Robert Smith, town council 716-499-8529 rob.h.smith83@gmail.com
Corey J. Swanson, town council 716-267-7521 coreyswan2@gmail.com
Norman R. Gustafson, town council 716-665-2452 norm.gustafson58@gmail.com
George R. Gustafson Jr., zoning officer 716-267-9621 polandzoning@outlook.com
Heather Y. Young-Deyell, assessor 716-267-9621 assessorheather@gmail.com
Constable Bonnita Wallace 716-267-3809 Ext. 3
Melissa Robbins, Dog Control Officer 716-640-0451
Rebecca Lindquist, historian 716-720-8902 historianpoland@gmail.com
Alan Short, cemetery caretaker 716-665-6630
Rebecca Lindquist, recreation leader 716-720-8092
Members of the Poland Planning Board are Dave Gustafson, chairman; Doug Brandow, Brian Carlson, Mark Snow and Ann Bloomquist, Penny Best, Denny Storms
Zoning Board members are Bob Sauer, Chairman, Darrin Carlson, Bonita Mead, Don Hold, Tommy Fox Board of Assessment Review members are April Ericsson, Michael Telford and Sue Abers.
POMFRET
9 Day St., Fredonia, NY 14063
716-672-7496 • www.townofpomfretny.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
American Community Survey Population: 13,035 (2020 census)
Median Household Income: $50,523
Individuals Below Poverty Level: 19.7% • Median Age: 31.3 Veterans: 821 • Total Housing Units: 6,228
Government direCtory
Daniel Pacos, town supervisor 716-672-6888 (cell 716-785-0682) supervisor@townofpomfretny.org
Samantha Kellogg, town clerk 716-672-7496 ext. 1, townclerk@townofpomfretny.org
Adam Rak, town council arak@townofpomfretny.org
Ann M. Eckman, town council 716-672-0838 aeckman@townofpomfretny.org
Mike Lee, town council mlee@townofpomfretny.org
Christopher H. Schaeffer, town council 716-969-3137 cschaeffer@townofpomfretny.org.
Jude A. Gardner, highway superintendent 716-672-6446 or 716-680-2198 (cell) highwaysuperintendent@townofpomfret.org
Michael Cerrie, town justice 716-672-7496 mcerrie@nycourts.gov
Nancy A. Dietzen, town justice 716-672-7496 ndietzen@nycourts.gov
Warren M. Kelly, code enforcement 716-673-5459 or 716-672-6800 (fax) pomfretcodes@townofpomfretny.org
Dog Control Officer: Gloria McCormick (716) 785-1827; dogcontrol@town.portland.ny.us
Town Court: (716) 792-9614 Ext. 1; towncourt@town.portland.ny.us
Town Justices: Daniel Thompson and Daniel Larish.
Court Clerk: Lisa Gugino
Deputy Clerk: Lisa Haltiner
Planning Board: Dale Carlson (Chairman), Harold Smith, Robert Patterson Sr., Dave Travis, and Mike McIntyre.
Zoning Board of Appeals: Mike Riforgiato, Mike Felsman, Lowell Reynolds, Michelle Patterson, and Dan Jones.
Portland history
Located in Chautauqua County, New York along the shores of Lake Erie and rising 1000 feet to the Chautauqua Escarpment, Portland remains a rural township. Outside of the Village of Brocton, the Town is largely dominated by farmlands, woods and low density residential land uses, and its defining features are the many vineyards dotting the landscape.
RIPLEY
Government direCtory
Town Board meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m.
Town Supervisor: Laura Pless, 716-413-8010 #6, ripleyts@fairpoint.net
Town Council: Lee Swoap, Jeffry Lyon, Philip A. Chimera and Calvin S. Janes.
Town Clerk: Ryleigh Enterline 716-736-6881, ripleytc@fairpoint.net
Deputy Clerk: Nicole Gollhardt
Town Court: Justice Vera Hustead and Justice David Hustead: 716-736-7575, ripleytowncourt@nycourts.gov
Court Clerk: Lisa Haltiner ripleytowncourt@nycourts.gov
MAIN STREET PIZZA
Building/Zoning: Melanie Eddy 716-736-3737
Acting Tax Assessor: Jason Jones 716-736-4050
Dog Control Officer: Gloria McCormick 716-269-9882
Highway Superintendent: Jason Jones 716-753-6553; ripleyhs@fairpoint.net
Ripley Fire Department Chief: Mark Smith
Deputy Chief: James Spacht.
riPley history
Ripley’s first settler to purchase land was Alexander Cochran. He arrived from Ireland in 1802, and made his land purchase official two years later. His fifth generation descendant, A. James Cochrane (whose grandfather added the “e”), still owns some of the original acreage.
In 1816 the largest concentration of population in this area was established as a town and named Quincy. By 1873 it was known as Ripley, named for Gen. Eleazar Wheelock Ripley, active in the War of 1812. The township grew slowly until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and it became more accessible. One famous visitor about that time was the Marquis de Lafayette, on his way from Erie, PA, to Portland, NY. Many other nameless visitors came as the Underground Railway conductors brought escaping slaves to Ripley’s shoreline, just 25 miles from Canada.
In 1852 the first railroad line, called the Buffalo & State Line, was placed through the township. Another line, the Nickel Plate Road, rolled into town in 1881 and ran just south and parallel to the first. Today, after many mergers, both of these lines are known as CSX. The most famous person ever to ride this line through Ripley was Abraham Lincoln, on his way to his inauguration in 1861. Four years later his funeral train retraced the route back to Springfield, Illinois. Another famous traveler was William Jennings Bryan who campaigned in Ripley during his unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1902.
Trolleys, too, transected the township, running parallel with Route 20. The trolleys were part of the Buffalo & Erie Interurban Line, which began operation in 1905 and offered inexpensive, convenient travel opportunities to residents all along the route. In the early days of automobile travel, traffic ceased during bad weather due to road conditions. Until 1917 a horse and wagon was a more practical way, and certainly a more dependable way to get about. That year Route 20 was paved from Silver Creek to the state line.
Ripley fostered a weekly newspaper for many years, beginning in 1882 and ending in the early 1970s. Called the Ripley Review, it had many editors during its 90+ years of publication and served the township well. During its heyday it recorded many events including the growing importance of the fruit industry.
Today grapes are the largest and most important enterprise, with dairy cattle and other crops being second in the southern part of the township. The first vineyards were established in the mid 1800s and grapes today are sold to several regional grape processors including the National Grape Co-op for use in fruit juices, jams, jellies and wines. There are now several wineries located in Ripley. During the early 1900s until the Depression, two basket mills were located in the town near the railroad depots. They supplied the baskets that held the tons of grapes that were harvested and shipped out each day.
Two of Ripley’s sons became well known a century apart. One, Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, born in Ripley in 1841, founded the first rubber manufacturing company and named it Goodrich. More recently, the entire world applauded the bravery of Captain John L. Testrake during a 17 day ordeal in June 1985 when TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome, a Boeing 727 piloted by Testrake, was skyjacked to Beirut, Lebanon. During their hijacker forced odyssey around the Mediterranean, the TWA Crew navigated with a Rand-McNally road atlas as they had no navigational aids for that area. At the Mediterranean airfields, the aircraft was unwelcome as the locals wanted no part of the hijackers demands. A young Navy Seabee, Robert Stetham, was murdered in the cockpit as the hijackers enforced their demand for the aircraft be refueled. The passengers release in Beirut was arranged by the Lebanese government. Passengers and crew were given a hero’s welcome at Washington D.C. by President Ronald Reagan.
Because a waiting period was not required in New York State to marry, Ripley was the scene of many, many marriages from the 1880’s to 1945 making it known as the “Marriage Capital of the World”. The Town Justice was on call day or night to perform wedding ceremonies. Although requirements have changed somewhat, marriage licenses, along with hunting and fishing licenses are still big business in the Town Clerk’s office in this first community heading east into New York State. The Town Justices still perform many wedding ceremonies. Calling itself the Gateway to New York State brings certain responsibilities to the citizens of Ripley and they have risen to the occasion every time. A November snowstorm in 1956 stopped traffic on Route 20 and those unexpected guests were well housed and fed in the local school facilities. The scene was repeated in 1983 when nearly 1,000 holiday travelers were stranded on the New York State Thruway from December 24 - 26. McCall’s Magazine carried the story the following December with the title, “Ripley’s Miracle,” citing just about everyone in the township for helping. Even Ripley’s children shared their toys with others.
TOWN OF
SHERIDAN
2773 Route 20, PO Box 116, Sheridan, NY 14135 • 716-672-4174 • www.sheridanny.org
Government direCtory
Town board meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Sheridan Community Center.
Town Supervisor: Thomas Wik 716-203-7876
Town Clerk: Rebecca Schafer: 716-672-4174 Ext. 1, sheridantownclerk@gmail.com
Deputy Town Clerk: Marah Long sheridandeputytownclerk@gmail.com
Richard C. Feinen, Deputy Supervisor/Town Council: 716-672-2597
Deputy Highway Superintendent: Scott Thompson, Jr.
Code Enforcement Officer: James E. Crowell 716-672-7200, jcrowell@netsync.net
Dog Control Officer: Nicole Welka 716-785-0870
Town Assessor: Thomas F. Mleczko 716-679-9880; townofsheridanassessor@gmail.com
Town Justices: Lydia Romer and Jonathan Szumigala: 716-672-2600
Court Clerk: Eva Gadewoltz egadewoltz@nycourts.gov
The Planning & Zoning Board meets on the first Monday of each month at 7 p.m. Members are Brian Aldrich, Paul Wallenhorst, Eric Gentry, Stephen Roach, and John Yerico (Secretary).
The Board of Assessment Review meets annually on the fourth Tuesday of May at 5 p.m. Members are Romaine Hohenstein, Henry Hoisington and Paul DeMarco.
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Population: 2,564
Hispanic or Latino (Of Any Race): 131
Total Housing Units: 1,151 Total Households: 1,039
$95,521
60 %
sheridan history
The land which ultimately became the Town of Sheridan was initially inhabited by Native Americans. The Treaty of Big Tree, signed in 1797 moved the Seneca Indians to the Cattaraugus Reservation and opened the area to speculators, followed quickly by settlers from the east.
On August 1804, Francis Webber, William Webber, and Hezadiah Stebbins made purchases of land in Township 6, Range 11 from the Holland Land Company. In subsequent years, many more settlers followed. In 1827, the town was formed legally by taking 32 lots from the town of Pomfret and 35 lots from the town of Hanover. Early publications credit Nathaniel Gray, though thought a great admirer of the poet, playwright, and politician, Richard Brainsley Sheridan, with promoting the name.
Agriculture became the major industry in the town. For many years Sheridan was known for its production of fruits and vegetables, especially grapes. The raising of sheep, cattle, and horses was another profitable venture in the 1800s.
Situated on the shores of Lake Erie, Sheridan was home to at least 26 ship captains who sailed the Great Lakes in the 1800s and early 1900s. The first to be noted, Capt. Zephaniah Perkins was well respected. In 1815, Haven Brigham built a 40-ton schooner called the Kingbird, for Capt. Perkins.
Sheridan is still primarily agricultural with several fresh fruit and vegetable stands, vineyards and wineries, greenhouses producing seasonal flowers and plants. It is also the home of several small businesses, with some larger corporations on Progress Drive. The Chautauqua County Airport at Dunkirk is in the Town of Sheridan, as is the retirement home St. Columban’s on the Lake.
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SHERMAN TOWN OF
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Town population: 1,624
Median household income: $52,679
Individuals below poverty level: 13.7%
Government direCtory
Supervisor, Mark Persons, markpersons17@gmail.com
Town Clerk, Annette Swan, townsherman@gmail.com
Town Council
Jim Higginbotham, jldlhiggy@hotmail.com
Brant Henning, brant22@live.com
Howard Crump
Ben Nickerson
Highway Superintendent, Dennis Sweatman, 716-761-6478
Village Clerk-Treasurer, Jeanette Ramm, village.sherman@gmail.com
Trustees
Daniel Crane, daniellecrane120@gmail.com
Gary Emory, gemory.msid@gmail.com
Dennis Watson, dlwspc@yahoo.com
The Village Board meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6 pm at 111 Mill St.
sherman history
The earliest settlement in Chautauqua County and the Village of Sherman was by the Native American tribes, including the Huron-Iroquois groups. This family of tribes inhabited portions of Ontario, northern Ohio, nearly all of New York State, a majority of Pennsylvania, and portions of Quebec. The earliest identified tribe to inhabit Chautauqua County was the Erie, and later the region was occupied by the Seneca, an Iroquois tribe. These tribes shared a common language and were known to create permanent villages located in defensible positions, fortified with palisades and ditches. Limited agricultural practices were done by the Native Americans due to the dense forestation in much of their territory, and their primary crops included corn, beans, gourds, pumpkins, hemp and tobacco.
Evidence of the settlement of these earliest inhabitants was visible to the white settlers who came to the Chautauqua region. As farmers worked the land and settlement became more widespread in the early 1800s, it was not uncommon that artifacts, burials and settlements were uncovered. In Sheridan, an ancient three acre circular enclosure and skeletal remains were discovered on a farm, while near Fredonia additional fortified structures were located which yielded artifacts such as arrow heads, tools, pipes, hatchets and household objects as well as human remains. Early roadways with stone walls were also identified in the Chautauqua County town of Portland. In the county seat of Mayville, a notable circular earthwork fort was identified at the south boundary of the village. Despite uncovering thousands of human remains and numerous sites of past human settlements, many of the ancient remains were damaged and destroyed as farmers worked their fields and new settlement occurred in the early nineteenth-century.
Sherman is also home to the French Creek Yorkers. Headquartered in Cooperstown, NY the Yorker group is dedicated to historical studies and history, and has several chapters throughout New York state. The French Creek Yorkers began in 1946-47 with five members who were at the time in the seventh grade. Projects undertaken by the French Creek Yorkers included constructed full-scale models of forts, bridges and other objects, making historical scrapbooks from newspaper clippings, dressing dolls in authentic colonial-era clothing, making braided rugs and quilts and refinishing antiques for their museums. By 1950, the French Creek Yorkers boasted 162 members. Perhaps the most significant contribution to the Village of Sherman made by the Yorkers is the Yorker Museum at the corner of Park and Church Streets which was opened in 1951. The Museum features a collection of historic buildings and structures collected from throughout the area and relocated in one location. Buildings located in the open-air museum include the Peter Ripley House (dating to ca. 1830s), a French fort recreated as an 1800 pioneer dwelling, a general store, a school and several other 1800s-era buildings and objects. To this day the Yorkers continue to make contributions towards the study and promotion of Sherman’s history.
SILVER CREEK VILLAGE OF
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Population: 2,617
Hispanic or Latino (Of Any Race): 121
Total Housing Units: 1,182
Total Households: 1,053
Median Household Income: $66,250
Employment Rate: 61.2 %
Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 28.6 %
Without Health Care Coverage: 3.9 %
silver CreeK history
The community was first settled around 1803, and the first school house was erected around 1823. In 1822 a well-known black walnut tree, measuring about 10 feet (3.0 m) in diameter, was blown over in a storm. The village of Silver Creek was incorporated in 1848, and was an important port on Lake Erie until railroads reduced shipping. The village is home to a skew arch railroad bridge, one of the few bridges in the country built on an angle.
Silver Creek’s best-known resident was Howard “Bob” Ehmke, the pitching hero of the 1929 World Series. While playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, Ehmke struck out 13 Chicago Cubs in game one, a Series record until 1953. Former NBA and ABA basketball player George Carter is also a graduate of Silver Creek Central High School. Carter played for St. Bonaventure University and later in the 1971 ABA All-Star Game. Every third weekend in September Silver Creek hosts a Festival of Grapes to honor Concord grapes, an important agricultural product. The festival began in 1968 and features a parade, live music, a midway, a wine tent, children’s and adults’ activities and a grape stomping. In 2008, the Silver Creek Grape Festival was featured on the nationally televised Good Morning America. Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Sam Champion and Chris Cuomo visited a farm to stomp grapes on their trip across America; taken during the 2008 election, they visited 50 states in 50 days learning about the country. Diane Sawyer called it “the first and maybe last annual GMA grape stomping contest in honor of Lucille Ball, who was born 30 minutes from Silver Creek”.
Government direCtory
Village board meetings are held the first and third Monday of each month at 7 p.m.
The village was founded in 1809 after the American Revolutionary War by Major Samuel Sinclear as “Sinclearville.” The area was previously inhabited for hundreds of years by the Seneca people of the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) who, as allies of the British during the war, were forced to cede most of their lands to the United States and New York state.
Most of the Iroquois migrated to Upper Canada, where they were given lands by the Crown.
The village of Sinclairville was incorporated in 1887. Sinclairville calls itself “The Heart of Chautauqua County.” Martha Angle Dorsett (1851-1918), first woman attorney in Minnesota, wife of Charles Dorsett George Burritt Sennett (1840-1900), ichthyologist and ornithologist Rexford Tugwell (1891-1979), economist and New Deal theoretician, Governor of Puerto Rico (1941-1946).
stoCKton history
Stockton was formed in February 1821, and in April 1821 the first Stockton Town Board meeting was held. At that time, the supervisor was Calvin Warren, with the town clerk being John Curtis.
Stockton was named after one of signers of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton. In 1821, there were 12 roads, and each one had its own supervisor, and the town had 1,600 residents.
The first post office was located one mile south of the four corners. The four corners was named Delanti in 1831 and continued with that name for over 40 years. The reason for the change was because it was known at the “Corners” and the teacher Lorraine Danforth suggested the name Delanti which meant a place of paradise where the flowers bloomed with much color and the animals ran freely.
Government direCtory
Town Supervisor: David J. Wilson
716-595-3192; willsm@netsync.net
Town Clerk: Kathryn M. Palmer, 716-595-3192; willsm@netsync.net
Town Council: Hannah Abram, John Sipos, Olivia Lee, and John Beichner.
Financial adviser: Allen Chase
716-595-3192
Highway Superintendent: Aaron Burnett
716-595-3565
Town Justice: Jeremy Beichner
716-595-3192; StocktonTownCourt@nycourts.gov
Code Enforcement Officer: Toby Hammond
716-664-1676
Zoning Officer: James DeJoe
716-672-2616
Town Assessor: Darlene Fox
716-595-3192
VILLENOVA
1094 Butcher Road, South Dayton, NY 14138 716-988-3476 • villenova14138@gmail.com • www.villenovany.org
u.s. Census bureau estimates
Population: 1,057 • Hispanic or Latino (Of Any Race): 52 Total Housing Units: 514 • Total Households: 380
Median Household Income: $51,875 • Employment Rate: 54.5 %
Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 16.4 %
Without Health Care Coverage: 2.2 %
Government direCtory
Town board meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Villenova Town Hall.
Town Supervisor: Yvonne Park 716-988-3476; ympark4444@gmail.com
Town Clerk: Julie Goodway 716-988-3476; villenova14138@gmail.com
Highway Superintendent: Pam Miktuk 716-988-3678
Town Council: Keith Butcher, Daniel DiStasio, Jennifer Dye, and Nathan Palmer.
Code Enforcement Officer: Jayson Rowicki
Town Assessor: Jeanne Ebersole
Zoning Board of Appeals: Benny Bottita, David Ivett, and David Kelley
Board of Assessment Review: William Clarke and Stewart Ward
Town Justice: Ronald Lucas
Court is held on the first Thursday at 4:00 p.m. and second Thursday at 6 p.m. each month.
villenova history
Villenova,
meaning new village, originally the southern part of Hanover, was taken off as a separate town by an act of January 24, 1823. Its area is 22,826 acres. In the north part the surface is hilly, the highest lands having an altitude of 1,400 feet above tide water. The inhabitants follow agricultural pursuits, including dairying to a considerable extent, to which the surface and soil are adapted.
The two branches of the Conewango creek join near the southeast corner of the town, and they receive the waters of a number of small streams which arise in the northern uplands and of the outlets of Mud Lake and East Mud Lake. The last named body of water is within Villenova, while the possession of Mud Lake is divided with Arkwright. In the southern part of the town the surface is rolling rather than broken and hilly, with soil of clay and a gravelly loam.
The town is a great producer of apples. Villenova has felt the effects of the disposition of the rising generations of people, since the pioneer days to leave the rural regions, especially in this part of the country, as it has had a net loss in population since 1835. In that year the population was 1,453. The population (State census of 1915) 1,148, including 26 aliens. It must be remembered, however, that Villenova is an inland town without railroads. There are four villages in the town, Balcomb, Hamlet, Villenova and Wango. The value of real estate in the town in 1918 was placed at $593,135; the assessed value, $465,357.
Chris Reese, Fire Chief: (716) 450-8715 Car291@ villageofwestfield.org
Corbin Meleen, Acting Chief of Police: (716) 326-2531, meleenc@westfieldpd.com
Jeffrey R. Thomas, Village Justice; Jerry A. LaPorte, Associate Village Justice; Court Clerk Lisa Haltiner; Court Clerk Julie Martin. (716) 326-6135; westfieldvillagecourt@nycourts.gov
westfield history
The first Europeans to visit Westfield were French explorers interested in finding a water route between the Great Lakes and Ohio River systems. None exists, but in 1615 Etienne Brule found the next best thing when he discovered that only a short eight miles separate Lake Erie and Chautauqua Lake between the present towns of Westfield and Mayville. Indians had used the same path for centuries, but the French soon established their own trail that started in Barcelona Harbor, followed Chautauqua Creek for several miles, then ran over an escarpment to current-day Mayville. This trail remained in use more than 130 years, and today is known as the Old French Trail or, more commonly, the Portage Trail.
The first European settlers came to Westfield in 1802 with the arrival of the McMahan family, and more followed on their heels. The early village was known as the “Cross Roads” because it lay at the intersection of the Portage Trail and the road between Buffalo, New York and Erie, Pennsylvania.
Chautauqua County at that time was blanketed with great hardwood forests and the first industry in Westfield arose to process this timber as it was cleared to create farmland. The main products were pot and pearl ashes and black salts produced by burning the trees, which could be shipped to the emerging cities in Pittsburgh and Montreal and also across the Atlantic Ocean to the ports of Europe. Sawmills, gristmills, textile mills and other manufactories eventually
grew up around Chautauqua Creek to serve the burgeoning population. John McMahan’s grist mill, built in 1804 at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek, was dismantled during the War of 1812 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British. The millstones can be seen at the entrance to the Patterson Library.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave manufacturers a faster route to markets on the Atlantic coast and in Europe, and it was soon followed by the railroads, which opened up trade routes with markets both to the east and west.
The most important agricultural product in Westfield’s history arrived in 1859 in the form of the Concord grape. Though it was popular as a table grape, the production of the Concord rose to new heights when Dr. Charles Welch popularized the consumption of pasteurized grape juice. This product was introduced to a wide audience at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, and it quickly became a popular drink across the nation. In 1897 Dr. Welch built the world’s first large grape juice plant in Westfield and Westfield quickly became known as “The Grape Juice Capital of the World.” Today, Chautauqua County is the largest grape growing county outside of California, with approximately 20,000 acres devoted to vineyards. Some grape growers have transitioned to winemaking and the town is home to several well-known labels.
Family Services of the Chautauqua Region 716-488-1971
First Candle/SIDS Alliance 1-800-638-7437
FIRST CALL FOR HELP
2-1-1 Western New York ........................................................ 211 Or ........................................................................... 1-866-733-3748
A toll free help line of the United Way NY Connects 716-753-4582, 716-363-4582, 716-661-7582
DISABILITY/HANDICAPPED SERVICES
Care Van Transportation Services Corp
716-665-6535
775 S. Work St., Falconer Carrier Coach Inc 716-488-0413
185 Livingston Ave., P.O. Box 494, Celoron, NY 14720
Chaut. Home Rehabilitation & Improvement Corp. (CHRIC) Mayville .....................................................716-753-4650
2 Academy St., Mayville, NY 14757 (CHRIC) Dunkirk 716-363-4650 (CHRIC) Jamestown 716-661-7650
Chautauqua Blind Association - Vistion Rehabilitation Services 716-664-6660
510 W. Fifth St., Jamestown, NY 14701
Chautauqua Region Multiple Sclerosis Society 716-488-1883
335 E. Third St., Jamestown, NY 14701
Disabled Information & Referral Line 1-800 522-4369
1 Empire State Plaza, Suite 1001, Albany, 12223
Make A Wish Foundation .................................. 1-800-722-9474
NYS Dept. of Employment Services ...................716-661-9553
23 East Third St., Jamestown, NY 14701
Social Security Administration 1-(877) 319-3079
321 Hazeltine Ave., Jamestown, NY 14701
Social Security Administration 1-800-772-1213
Social Security Administration 1-(888) 862-2139
437 Main St., Suite 2, Dunkirk, NY 14048
Southwestern Independent Living Center, Inc. (SILC) 716-661-3010
843 N. Main St., Jamestown, NY 14701
Southwestern Independent Living Center, Inc. (SILC)
UPMC Chautauqua Adult Mental Health Unit ..716-664-8640
Compeer - Dunkirk 716-366-7792, ext. 208
Compeer - Jamestown
Jamestown Psychiatric, PC
716-487-2956
716-526-4041
Mental Health Association - Dunkirk ................716-366-1827
Mental Health Association - Jamestown 716-487-0616
Chautauqua County Department of Mental Health, Dunkirk ...................................716-363-3550
Chautauqua County Department of Mental Health, Jamestown 716-661-8330
The Chautauqua Center Dunkirk .......................................................................716-366-6050
Jamestown
716-484-4334
The Resource Center Behavioral Health, Counseling and Psychiatric Services Jamestown: 716-661-1590 Dunkirk ........................................................................16-366-7660
POST OFFICES
Bemus Point, 9 Main St., Bemus Point, NY, 14712 Brocton, 42 E. Main St., Brocton, NY, 14716 Cassadaga, 15 Maple Ave., Cassadaga, NY, 14718 Chautauqua, 10-12 Roberts St., Chautauqua, NY 14722 Clymer, 8727 E. Main St., Clymer, NY, 14724 Dewittville, 5452 E. Lake Rd., Dewittville, NY 14728 Dunkirk, 410 Central Ave., Dunkirk, NY, 14048 Findley Lake, 10404 Main St., Findley Lake, NY, 14736 Forestville, 17 Main St., Forestville, NY, 14062 Fredonia, 21 Day St., Fredonia, NY, 14063 Irving, 12746 Erie St., Irving, NY, 14081 Jamestown, 300 E. Third St., Jamestown, NY, 14701 Lily Dale, 30 South St., Lily Dale, NY, 14752 Maple Springs, 5608 Summit Ave., Bemus Point, NY 14712 Mayville, 19 East Chautauqua St., Mayville, NY, 14757 Panama, 6 E. Main St., Panama, NY, 14767 Portland, 6372 W. Main Rd., Portland, NY, 14769 Ripley, 7 West Main St., Ripley, NY, 14775 Sheridan, 2707 Main Rd., Sheridan, NY, 14135 Sherman, 109 Miller St., Sherman, NY, 14781 Silver Creek, 37 Main St., Silver Creek, NY, 14136 Sinclairville, 11 Main St., Sinclairville, NY, 14782 Stockton, 7254 Rt. 380, Stockton, NY, 14784 Stow, 3479 Old Bridge Rd., Stow, NY, 14785 Westfield, 7 Academy St., Westfield, NY, 14787
RECREATION/ENTERTAINMENT
Abe Mattison Millrace Park Everett Street, Falconer
716-484-0204
Allegany State Park ................................................716-354-2182 2373 ASP Route 1, Salamanca, NY