OLD TOWNS

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LAMBERTON and MILFORD, and Little Canadaway in the town of POMFRET,
Lamberton is located three miles west of Fredonia, NY and 3 miles east of the village of Brocton, NY where US Rt. 20 dips into a small valley in the highway and crosses the Litttle Canadaway Creek. It was earlier called Milford.

A news item in the Fredonia Censor Newspaper from 1836 read: NEW VILLAGE: At a meeting of the citizens of the village in the west part of this town formerly known as Little-Canadaway, on November 1, 1836, it was resolved that the said village should hereafter be known as the village of Milford.

By 1890 Milford had grown in both population and industry. Some of the businesses were a cheese factory, tannery, 2 saw mills, a basket factory, a wagon shop, a tavern and a grocery store.

In 1890 its citizens petitioned for a post office to be established in Milford but a problem arose with the name. A village with a post office called Milford already existed in New York State and the application was denied. Another meeting of the citizens of the area was held and it was decided to rename the village in honor of Judge John Lambert, New York State Judge for the Eighth Judicial Court and a former County Court Judge for Chautauqua County from 1882 to 1890, and lived in Fredonia, NY in the town of Pomfret.

The post office at Lamberton was in operation from 1891 until it finally closed on September 15, 1900. Within a few years Lamberton (Milford) slowly went the way of many others, into history as a small settlement that almost made it.

"Names & Places in Chautauqua County, NY" compiled by E. T. Kurtz & L. C. Smith. Pages 84 & 85.

Submitted by Loraine Smith, Town of Ellery Historian, 2001