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Elma |
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Address
1600 Bowen Road
Elma, NY 14059
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Phone
716-652-3260 |
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This town is situated a little northeast of the center of the county with Lancaster on the north, Manila on the east, Aurora on the south, and West Seneca and East Hamburg on the west. Elma was formed December 4, 1857, from a tract of six miles square which was taken from Lancaster and Aurora; it was the last town erected in Erie county. Had it been included in the Holland Company’s survey, it would have been township 10, range 6; but its territory was all embraced in the Buffalo Creek Indian Reservation.
The surface of this town is gently rolling, the summits of the elevations being from fifty to one hundred feet above the valleys. Big Buffalo Creek and Cazenove Creek flow across the town, the latter in the southwestern part and the former in the northeastern. The soil is clayey loam in the north part and gravelly loam in the south part. The farmers of the town are principally engaged in mixed agriculture and raising garden products for the Buffalo market.
Among the early settlers in the territory of Elma were Lyman Chandler (1829,) Willard Fairbanks (1830), Wilder Hatch, Hiram Pettingill, Taber Earl, Martin Taber and Luther Adams (1834). Joseph Briggs settled in the town in 1829, Thaddeus Hurd in 1832, Ichabod Griggs in 1833, Epsom Woodard in 1834, Lewis Wilson in 1835, John Schmalz in 1837, Jacob Young in 1842, Jacob Jergee and Thomas E. Wier in 1848, Otis A. Hall in 1850. Other settlers and residents were John Quincy Adams, Silas H. Arnold, Eleazer Bancroft, Frank G. Buflis, James J. Grace, Joseph Grace, Albert Davis, James C. Davis, John W. Griffin, Michael Grise, Cyrus Hurd, Tames Tillou and Horace Kyser.
In 1827 Taber Earl built a tavern on the road from Aurora to Buffalo; it soon passed to Samuel Harris, who kept it until his death, when it was used for a dwelling. About 1821 Martin Taber built a second hotel on the opposite side of the road from the first; it is still standing and was long known as the North Star House.
About 1832 a Mr. Estabrook built a saw mill, the first one in the town, on the site of the later Bullis mill. In 1835 or 1836 Lemuel Hatch and Robert McKean arranged with Seneca White, an Indian chief, for the privilege of building a saw mill on Buffalo Creek, on the site of East Elma. McKean’s interest in the project was transferred to Joseph Riley and he and Mr. Hatch built the mill in 1836. Riley sold out to Hatch, who died in 1842, and Zina Hemstreet took the property and operated the mill twenty-five years.
In 1840 Zabina Lee took up his residence, with consent of the Indians, on the farm now occupied by 0. J. Wannemacher, on the site of Spring Brook village. In May, 1842, the last of the reservation was sold to the Ogden Company, and the region was soon subdivided and settled.
Lewis Northrup located on the site of Spring Brook in 1843 and built a saw mill the next year. A Mr. Flannigan had, with consent of the Indians, kept a tavern in a log house on the hill at the north end of the Spring Brook site. Another log tavern was built by David J. Morris in 1844, in which year Horace Kyser, Joseph Tiilou (before mentioned) and Zenas Cobb settled there. Alfred Marvel settled in the town in 1848 and opened a road from Spring Brook to his well known farm. James Davis lived a mile south, and Chester Adams a mile north of Mr. Marvel. James H. Ward settled at Spring Brook in 1849 and was justice of the peace about twenty-five years.
The northwest part of Elma was chiefly settled by members of the Ebenezer Society, which has been sufficiently described in an earlier chapter. In the mean time the saw mills of the vicinity were rapidly converting the forests into lumber and excellent farms were brought under cultivation. The building of the Buffalo and Aurora plank road in 1848 was of considerable benefit to Elma, making it possible to haul the large quantities of wood and lumber to market with greater facility. The construction of what is now the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad across the town in 1867 still further improved communication with markets and gave the town a marked impetus.
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