Once Upon A Time
Once
Upon A Time
by Marion Thomas
A HISTORY
Such tales as have come down from the long ago!
No household but has its favorite tales, the ones that have been told over
and over with the children eagerly prompting as the tale varies in its progress.
Such, embellished by the years, took on new proportions with each generation.
But what if Hanover were to tell its own story, not depending upon “the
tales” which have passed into the realm of legend. If Hanover were to tell
its own story based on its records, what a story that would be — a story peculiar
to no one house, the possession of no one family, the pride of no one fireside,
but a story belonging to us all. Surely it would begin with those nostalgic
words “once upon a time” and run something like this:
Once upon a time there was no Hanover, that is, no township of Hanover,
just Chautauqua. And, once upon a time before 1804 there was no Chautauqua
even, just Northwest Territory. It was a wild country, mile upon mile of dense
forest broken only by the indentations of Lake Erie’s shore and the sturdy
streams that wore their gorges ever deeper as they descended through the
hills to Lake Erie’s waters.
The Cattaraugus Creek, a wild stream and rightly named from the Indians
whose reservation bordered its east banks, marked the end of New York State
civilization. All beyond was a land uncharted, unsettled, and unknown but
to the Indians.
Our story begins with the coming of the first white settler, Amos Sottle.
Considerable mist accumulating through the years has shrouded this first
white man but has not obscured entirely the facts important to Hanover.
What a venturesome or desperate spirit Sottle’s must have been to have
abandoned himself to the mercy of that far shore in 1796? Could that explain
his presence in the deepest wilds, a self-exile from his people and way
of life?
Sottle, who admits to having lived on the reservation for a while, first
arrived in an Indian canoe on the south bank of the Cattaraugus at its mouth
in 1796. He cleared just sufficient space for the crudest abode about a
mile and a half above his landing point. This log cabin with its stone hearth,
clay chimney and built-in bed was to be Sottle’s dwelling place for four
years. Clearing the space, matching the logs, getting them placed with no
assistance, was a matter of time and arduous labor. Mixing the clay, building
the fireplace and chimney were achievements in themselves. Sottle had plenty
to fill his days for many a week while he slept in a shelter of heavy boughs
and leaves during the interval.
What were the furnishings of the cabin? There was the built-in bed already
referred to, primitive affair but ingenious certainly. Sottle took four
poles and fitted them into as many holes, which he had bored into the cabin
wall in one corner. This disposed of any bed posts, save one at the lower
outside corner. This firm frame he laced with long strips of elm and basswood
bark upon which he threw his blanket, and there was his bed.
A blanket was hung over the door opening as a protection against weather
and the threatening animals of the wild until a door of sorts could be constructed.
Above the doorway Sottle drove two pegs and upon these was supported his
indispensable rifle, second only to the ax in importance. As soon as possible
a wall bench was added to the room and a three-legged stool made of truncheon
wood upon which he could squat before his fireplace to turn his meat, tend
his fire or lose himself in thought. A chest came next, not only for a place
of safe keeping, especially for his surveying equipment, but to serve as
a table and as a desk. This hut, rude as it was, was to be the pattern for
many a pioneer cabin in the days to come. With meal from the Indians, fish
from the Cattaraugus and Lake Erie, and a world of wild life about him, Sottle
needed have but little concern for his living.
A surveyor by profession, in 1798 he was assigned by the Holland Land Company
of Batavia to assist in the surveying of the range and township lines of
all this part of the Holland Land purchase. From that date until 1800 his
evenings found him with no time for strange reflections or galling remorse.
Busy and intent he poured over charts and maps upon which he worked at his
chest by his fire’s light. By day he and his Indian chain-boy and ax-man
traveled the territory, sighting, measuring, and making notations. For days
and weeks his hut would be without him as he covered the territory on foot.
The white man had come into his life again according to records in the
county clerk’s files. Some of this work was done with one of the principal
surveyors of the company, Amzi Atwater. With this project of the Holland
Land Company the white men were bound to come filtering in to confer, check,
advise td give orders.
So it was in 1800, his work completed, that he boarded up his small hut
and followed his profession into the Northwest Territory of Ohio. It was a
period of time before he returned to become a permanent settler there on the
“Cattaraugus Bottoms”, as it was later called, accompanied by William Sydney,
a ferryman, and the black woman of his story, the subject of lifelong speculation
and conjecture.
***************
The Northwest Territory, the Hinterland of New York State, was no longer
an unknown wilderness. The white men of the Holland Land Company’s project
had opened it to the white man at large.
By the time the whole territory had been plotted, various white men had
trickled through on many pretexts, legitimate and otherwise, and land agents
had been busily coming and going with prospective buyers. By 1804 land sales
were on. It may be possible that sales were made even earlier
or articles of agreement drawn up, for records were not always made as promptly
or as accurately in that early day as now. It is very possible that surveyors
and land agents made their reports upon their return to Batavia, and thus
the day of registry would also be the date of agreement.
However that may be, 1804 is the date recorded for the first land sale.
1804 — what a significant year; the year that all beyond the Cattaraugus became
Chautauqua, and Town of Chautauqua, and Northwest Territory (of New York)
passed into the realm of “once upon a time”!
The very first land sale was made to Charles Avery, a fine old name which
has come down through the years in Hanover’s history. (Forestville would
not be Forestville without its Avery family and home on the north side of
the street after crossing the Walnut bridge.) To ease the pioneer life, Mr.
Avery had the foresight to bring with him a small assortment of goods for
trade with the Indians. He, as did the first settlers who followed him, had
his land for two dollars and fifty cents an acre, land which the Holland
Land Company had bought from the government for thirty-two cents an acre.
Thus he could provide himself with eight acres for the cost of his necessary
ax, which in that day was twenty-five dollars. His was a cash purchase. Those
who entered into “Articles of Agreement” or bought on contract, as we say
today, could have a quarter of a section (one hundred sixty acres) by paying
eighty dollars down and the remainder in yearly payments of eighty dollars.
The purchaser had a period of five years, tax free, in which to make the
payments. At the expiration of that period the tract was forfeited if not
paid for.
The second land sale was made to William G. Sidney the same year. He accompanied
Sottle on his return from Ohio in 1803, A ferryman, he constructed a rude
ferry which he operated for the benefit of those who wished to bring more
than personal possessions, such as could not be accommodated by a canoe.
He rendered a real service to the settlement of the new country, not only
with his ferry, but by building a cabin of sufficient size to house guests.
The first transfer was made in 1804 by this same Sidney to John Mack, a
colorful name which follows the course of the settlement’s history from the
start.
In 1805, Jesse and John Skinner and John Tyler appear on the record, but
where they settled is unknown.
In 1806, the names Sylvanus Mabee, Abner Cooley and Amos Sottle appear.
An excerpt from a letter written to the county by John Mack’s son, Young John,
gives a graphic picture of life at that time. “There were then (1806) but
three white men on Cattaraugus flats: Amos Sottle, Michael Lane, and Charles
Avery. Sottle and Lane had built cabins and made small improvements and resided
in them. There was no land cleared for grain raising and no grain to be had
except that bought from the Indians to supply our own wants and those of
the travelers.” These wants were soon remedied by the energy and perseverance
of early settlers.
Little is known factually of the early life of Amos Sottle. He appears
in the records of the Holland Land Company as coming into their employ from
Chenango County, New York, and being twenty-one years of age. It is not until
1806 that Sottle’s name is on record as purchasing land. He evidently took
up his abode in his original hut until that time. His later home was on the
Irving Road near the West Irving crossroad. There he and his black woman
lived out their days and were commonly seen by the people of the community
going about their orderly life.
No figure of the county ever provoked so much controversy or inspired so
many conflicting opinions and conjectures. Did he or did he not come into
the wilds as a surveyor for the Holland Land Company in 1796, as always
supposed, or did that come later in 1798? Certain it is that he dwelt alone
and apparently to no great purpose for the greater part of two years, and
the Company’s records do not show that was in their employ before he crossed
the Cattaraugus. Certain grudging author I refuse to acknowledge Sottle as
a surveyor even, contending that on certain survey records in the County
Clerk’s file he is mentioned as “ax-man”. True that may be but it doesn’t
exclude him from being named as surveyor on other records.
Was he or was he not, then, the first settler of Chautauqua County? Many
stoutly claim he was but as many refuse to concede that honor to him on
the technicality that he cleared no acre and planted no grain, so was no
settler in the full meaning of the word as were the McMahon brothers at
the crossroads of Westfield. He made no effort to subdue the forest as they
did. And then the matter of the black woman what was she? who was she? where
had she come from? was she Indian or black? Only conjecture answers.
But in any case, while authorities argued and people speculated, all agreed
on the important points. It is a matter of authentic record that Sottle
crossed the Cattaraugus in 1796. He was in the employ of the Holland Land
Company from at least 1798. He helped survey the whole Northwest Territory
under Joseph Ellicott n some capacity. He bought land and became a permanent
settler in 1806 and lived out his life with a woman of a different hue. These
are known facts, and no one ever disputes his being the first white man of
Chautauqua County while Hanover honors him with the distinction of being
the first white settler. He died in 1848, Amos Sottle, the first white man.
The Hanover Town Park at the mouth of the Cattaraugus approximates the landing
place of the first white man, the one who supposedly laid out lines and
boundaries for the Town of Hanover.
****************
The ferrying of the creek was very unsafe. The ferry, being a scow, was
sufficient only to float a wagon. Horses and oxen were taken over separately.
There soon was provided a safe conveyance by building a scow sufficiently
large to transport teams of all kinds. The tavern was kept by widow Sidney
in a small log cabin. This had lean-tos attached which served for lodging
rooms and storage. A plank addition served as parlor and dining room.
John Mack has always been credited as having the first hostelry, and it
is interesting to learn from his son that he took over the Sidney property
which had already been established for the entertainment of guests.
1807 brought the first Smith (John), David Scott, Ezra Puffer, and land
was articled for the first time to Artemus Clothier.
In 1808, there arrived three settlers, Rufus Washburn, Walter Lull, and
Martin Tubbs, whose names were to figure prominently in Hanover’s early affairs
and politics.
In 1809, land was articled to six new corners. Among them Daniel Holbrook
and Joseph Brownell who were to be leaders of the future. Samuel Johnson,
Guy Webster, Asher Cooley, and Amos Ingraham were the others, only one of
whom settled on the “Bottoms” (Irving).
The year 1810 was the big year, bringing fourteen new settlers including
the first Knapp, the first Farnham (Daniel), the first White (Thomas), the
first Webb, and the first Bennett (James). Their descendants have been in
Hanover’s life through the generations.
1811 brought Benjamin Kenyon, Job Knight, Hezekiah Fisk, Isaac Smith, Erastus
Scott, Reuben Edmonds, and Salmon Prentiss.
In 1812 are two names, Jacob Burgess and Nedibiah Angell, that appear for
the first time. Jacob Burgess was the first physician and Nedibiah Angell,
a capable organizer, was to be one of Hanover’s first supervisors.
There seem to be no entries for 1813, but 1814 brought Benjamin Smith,
Otis Tower, and Uriah Nash, for whom a village was to be named.
1816 brought David Convis, Norman Spink, George Kirkland, Orlando Wilcox,
Christopher McManus and Walter Libby, whose family is still famous for its
maple sugar.
In 1817 there appeared Samuel Mckee, William McManus and Thomas Nevin,
well known in Smith Mills.
The old names which have come down through the years first made their appearance
in the record of land purchases due largely to the efforts and enterprise
of one Platt Swift.
Platt Swift, a land agent for the Holland Land Company, was all through
the Northwest over and over again during the period of its survey; probably
no one knew it better. He built for himself, according to his descendant,
Stanley Swift, a cabin on the Hanford Road where he made his headquarters
until later years when he built a plank house on the old Swift Farm, as it
has been long known, on the Irving Road. This is today in the hands of the
Dubert family.
Platt Swift is not the only land owner whose name does not appear on the
record of land sales. A number of other people are known to have lived in
the area and to have become permanent settlers. The proof of this is to
be found repeatedly in the minutes of the first Hanover Town meeting after
the organization of the township. Men were elected to office whose names
have not been encountered before. The citizen important enough to be the
first from Hanover to be elected to the Assembly is recorded nowhere: Elijah
Holt, Assemblyman in 1814.
The first settlers lived on the Cattaraugus flats, convenient to the reservation,
Their only source of grain. While the ferry brought in its newcomers from
the East across the hazardous Cattaraugus, other white men were pushing
their way north from the mountains and woods of Pennsylvania into Chautauqua
County searching for level stretches of land suitable for cultivation. Many
a settler made his way into Hanover via the southern route. Some of the
oldest farms on the highlands were those of the earliest Pennsylvania settlers.
As the land, stony at best, was worked out early, their sons moved toward
Lake Erie, dropping down to the next level to find greater fertility.
So while the New England settlers, entering the area at the Cattaraugus,
gradually fanned out and back through the country, the Pennsylvania settlers
persevered, strained forward on their northward trek to establish their
holdings on the table lands, too distant to overlook the Erie shore.
Some immigrants from Pennsylvania who entered from the west pushed their
way into the county through Erie, which, in turn, explains the Erie Road.
This road was originally made by the ox cart tracks from Erie into New York
State, instead of a road leading to Erie as generally supposed.
These settlers spread out over the Hanover area until a number of straggling
little communities came into existance. Outwardly their cabins were for
the most like Sottle’s but varying in size. The interiors, like his, would
have their built-in beds, truncheon wood stools and benches. In addition,
the women would bring the spinning wheels and the little niceties, the pewter
candlesticks and tankards, the occasional blue willow plates or lustre pitchers,
the bright homespun coverlets, and the little comforts which the pine chests
had carried on the long journey in the covered wagons. With the passage of
time these primitive homesteads lost some of the grim starkness of hardship.
Also, with the aging of timbers, the charring of fire places, the continued
hum of the spinning wheel, the soft flickerings of candlelight and the glow
of long-crackling fires, there came a pervading cheer, a spreading sens of
busy well-being less shadowed by fear and meagerness, a growing semblance
of graciousness, a substantial, peaceful, and industrious way of living which
was to be the pattern for Hanover home life and community standards.
****************
In looking through the old Road District Records one finds reference to
varios mills: so many rods and links from “R. B. Smith’s mills,” “turning
north at Bull’s mills,” so many rods “south of Kent’s mills,” etc. Aside from
water which the creeks supplied, nothing was of such importance as the mills,
for ground meal was an indispensable product. Naturally enough the little
straggling communities scattered over the surface of the new country centered
around the mill taking on in many cases the name of the mill owner. However,
that was not true in every instance.
The names of these communities, which endured and were to one day comprise
the Town of Hanover, were, for the most part, known by their surroundings
a by their first settlers: Cattaraugus Village, LaGrange, Forestville, Nashville,
R. B. Smith Mills, Angell Settlement, Fayette Village.
What could be more natural than for the very first settlement in 1804 to
take on the name of “Cattaraugus” on whose shores it was located? It was
here its first settler and surveyor, its first land agent and first tavern
were established. Cattaraugus Village was the name given the settlement of
“Bottoms” and that name persisted until 1846. Then it became Irving, taking
its name from the Irving Company which had in prospect the western terminus
of the New York and Erie Railroad. Great dreams were entertained for the
size and importance of Irving with its railroad terminus and marvelous natural
harbor.
Its nearest neighbor, “LaGrange,” anticipating even in its earliest days
a more pretentious future with its wonderful natural resources, chose a
name suited to the high place it would one day hold in the new world. It
chose its name in honor of Lafayette whose place of residence in France
was LaGrange. Later in 1856, the name was changed to West Irving.
The sad part is that the name LaGrange and the dreams might have been realized
but for the avarice of one unscrupulous man. In expectation of the terminus
of the New York and Erie Railroad being fixed near the mouth of the Cattaraugus,
a large village plot was surveyed and elaborately laid out by a company
of capitalists. Through their enterprise several appropriations for harbor
improvements were made by Congress, and a United States topographical engineer
was appointed superintendent. But, when the Boston representatives arrived
and made their munificent offer of $30,000 for the harbor land, (a more
than princely sum for those days) the owner of the lake front acreage feeling
the deal was secure, set his price at the ungodly stake of $50,000. The representative
never returned and Dunkirk became the terminus and the harbor. So much for
the greed of man!
“Moore’s Mills” was established by Jehiel Moore in 1808. He was a native
of Connecticut and was the son of a Revolutionary soldier who took up his
residence after the war in Butternut, New York. Jehiel Moore was thirty
years of age when he pioneered to the Chautauqua country, and he opened
a bush road from the Erie Road (Route 20 of today) to the falls of Walnut
Creek at the site of the present Forestville. There he set up the first saw
mill just below the falls. He brought his family in 1809, built Forestville’s
first grist mill and is supposed to have built the first plank house. His
mills attracted other settlers and Moore’s Mills came to hold a definite
place in Hanover’s history. Moore, himself, was an officer in the War of
1812 and was said to be “a good officer, a brave man, and an excellent pioneer
settler.’’
Moore’s Mills gave way to Walnut Creek and it was often referred to as
such after it was commonly known as Forestville, a name that was settled
upon sometime before 1813 when it became a part of the Town of Hanover. In
the town records it is Forestville from the first, and it was known as such
when the Post Office was first established in 1823. One need not ponder long
how Forestville came by its name. You have only to pass beneath its archways
of ancient trees to appreciate the forest it must have been in 1849 when
it was incorporated. With such settlers as Charles Avery and Jehiel Moore,
Forestville has a heritage of which to be justly proud.
But, isn’t it odd that the largest, most active town should have had the
most difficult time in becoming an established settlement? Silver Creek,
or Fayette as it was known for so many years, had its first shadowy beginnings
in 1803, then faded away into nothingness. Abel Cleveland and David Dickinson
bought land and articled most of it to John Howard. As it is generally known,
they built a tiny mill by the creek side of Silver Creek about opposite
the S. Howes Company on Howard Street. This beginning of a settlement collapsed
when Cleveland and Dickinson departed elsewhere leaving John Howard, the
only and first permanent settler. He built a “House of Entertainment” for
way-farers on the street which bears his name.
He was joined in 1806 by Artemus Clothier and Norman Spink and all bade
fair for a new settlement. However, they decided to return temporarily to
their New England homes for their wives, and again John Howard was left alone.
It was not until 1811 when they returned and were accompanied by Dr. Jacob
Burgess that the place could be called a settlement.
John Howard, being no wheelright, the original mill fell into disrepair
and had to be abandoned. One of the original millstones, however, is still
in existence and bears the D. A. R. marker on upper Main Street. It was not
until 1813 and the coming of Nehemiah Heaton and Thomas Kidder that a new
mill came into operation. It soon passed into the hands of the Roger brothers.
With this to attract new comers a real settlement sprang up in the vicinity
of the mill on the upper Main Street of today in the shade of the famous
black walnut tree. Fayette Village, the name chosen for reasons unknown,
had the center of its activities above the Main Street bridge of today. The
first school, store, and post office were within sight, if not shade, of
the famous tree; and the first plank houses built after the saw mill’s advent
in 1815 are still standing to bear witness to the importance of the Walnut
Creek settlement.
These mills which formed the nucleus of the settlement passed into the
hands of the Roger brothers in 1816 after the untimely death of Mr.Heaton
who was drowned while rowing to Buffalo to pay for the mill machinery. The
Rogers’ mills continued to be the lodestone which drew settlers to it for
many a long year. Many a covered wagon, bent on a longer trek, heeded the
mill’s promise of food and security in a land of hardship and uncertainty,
settled permanently nearby. The sawmill outlived the feed mill and is easily
recalled by the older residents of today as the Andrus Mill, owned and operated
by the Rogers’ successors, Wilson and Joseph Andrus, the grandfathers of
the “Dawley Girls” and “Cap” Lanphere respectively. This was truly an historic
mill and was in existence up to the end of the century.
Nashville, on New York Route 39 west of Perrysburg, is another of the small
communities existing today. Uriah Nash was one of those who negotiated with
the Holland Land Company in 1810 for his land. The community which sprang
up around his original holdings took on the name of the first settler, especially
since Mr. Nash proved to be a man of initiative and influence. As his name
would indicate, Uriah was of religious heritage, and it was at Nashville
that the first religious services were ever held. Here a Baptist group was
organized in 1811.
Angell’s settlement came by its name in the same natural fashion. When
Nedebiah Angell, a New Englander, decided in 1812 to stay this side of the
fateful Cattaraugus, he chose for his land a tract in the central part,
to the northeast of Forestville. His brother Ethan, who followed soon after,
chose a neighboring tract and built the frame house still in existence after
the log cabin days. This home was eventually owned by the late Attorney
Firnum Anderson. The Angells were pioneers of not only Hanover but of New
England. Their family line is distinctly traced to the one of that name who
accompanied Roger Williams to America. The Angells were great gentlemen and
settlers of the highest type. It was only natural that the settlement would
take on their name and Angell Road take its place in the Highways of Chautauqua.
This settlement became known as Hanover Center after the formation of the
township of which it was most nearly the central part.
Smith Mills grew out of the name of the owner of the original mills. All
through the early records are frequent references to highways, places, or
functions near Mr. R. B. Smith’s mills. Mr. Smith was a man of great dignity
as well as property. The greatest of respect was held for him and his standards
with the result that it was many a year before common parlance brought about
the contraction of “Mr. R. B. Smith’s mills” to Smith Mills. It was Mr.
Smith’s daughter, Mrs. Mary Smith Lock. wood, who originated the idea of
the Daughters of the American Revolution. It was in her parlor in Washington,
0. C. that the founders met in 1890 to organize the National Society, a
distinction of which Hanover is proud, and with reason. To commemorate her
contribution to the nation, the site of her girlhood home in Smith Mills
has been set apart by the Town of Hanover, and upon it has been erected a
D. A. R. tablet by the Chautauqua County chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution.
Thus were the original settlements which were to comprise the Town of Hanover
when it came into being in 181 3.
1804 Cattaraugus Village (later Irving)
1804 LaGrange (later West Irving)
1808 Moore’s Mills, Walnut Creek (later known
as Forestville)
1810 R. B. Smith’s Mills
1810 Nashville
1811 Fayette Village (later
Silver Creek)
1812 Angell Settlement
(later Hanover Center)
1813 Forestville
1820 Smith Mills
1834 Silver Creek
1846 Irving
1856 West Irving
There you have it, the way it was “once upon a time” before there was a
Hanover, while it was all the Town of Chautauqua.
Published December 1950
***************
February 1811 marked the beginning of Chautauqua as a county. With transportation
slow and laborious and no means of communication speedier than runners,
the necessity for townships was recognized early. Just to communicate with
the Cattaraugus group, for instance, from Mayville as the center meant days.
Then began the divisions of the county to facilitate better administration.
Pomfret was first organized by the Legislature in the spring of 1811. Chautauqua
was split practically at the halfway mark, dividing the county into the two
townships: the west. em half into Chautauqua and the eastern half into Pomfret.
But administration was still cumbersome and unwieldy at best. The following
spring the Legislature divided Pomfret. Again it was a fairly even split
with the eastern half beginning in Sheridan (already named) and embracing
all that territory extending east to the Cattaraugus Creek and south to Conewango.
The State Legislature at its 1812 session incorporated the new Township
of Hanover. This was thrilling and gratifying beyond all measure; but, upon
closer consideration, it was robbed of some of its glory. Since the Legislature
had been adjourned by the governor for reasons long since forgotten, the
act was not able to be passed until the second session which brought it too
late in the spring for a town meeting. A whole year had to pass before it
could organize! It was not until 1813, April 4, to be exact, that the Town
of Hanover, the third township in the county had its official town meeting.
It was an historic date for its sons and daughters who have shared its benefits
through more than the one hundred sixty years of its life span.
There are those, however, who stoutly maintain that 1813 was not the first
town meeting; that one was held in 1812; their great grandparents had attended
it, and the story had come down through the family. Now that the irritating
contention is not without some grounds of support. The wording of the first
minutes would imply an element of truth. The minutes of the 1813 meeting
read: “Annual Town Meeting April 4, 1813 pursuant to adjournment.” Pursuant
to an adjourninent -- adjournment of what? Doubtless, a meeting which
had to be affixed to an official meeting later was held and a year was a
long time to wait action on the part of eager, enthusiastic, ambitious, “getter-on-ers”
such as those early Hanover pioneers.
Regardless of any and all preliminary meetings, however, it is a recorded
fact that the first official meeting of Hanover was held April 4, 1813.
There in a fine, old, calf.skin bound volume with heavy parchment-like pages
appear the minutes of that historic meeting, inscribed with the most infinite
of pains in brown ink and fine script, embellished with such flourishes
as only a carefully sharpened quill pen could execute.
The Town of Hanover has not only the distinction of being the third oldest
township in the county but that of having the most complete records. Very
few townships in the State of New York can make that boast. Town historians
hasten to explain: that fire destroyed their early records; mice and other
rodents mutilated many of their pages; leaking roofs soaked their volumes
and blurred their pages; or, more commonly still, certain volumes were lost.
But not so Hanover’s records. They are complete, intact, and in fine state
of preservation in the safe in the Town Clerk’s office where they have been
conscientiously guarded through the years. Their care and condition testify
eloquently to the serious minded people who made tip early Hanover and who
have held office through her history. These individuals respected and revered
things important to their township and office and appreciated what might
be valuable in the years to come.
Up to this point, April 4, 1813, Hanover history had been open to question
with points of variance showing from time to time. But from this date forward
there is no question, doubt, or speculation. Hanover’s recorded history
is in our possession, open to references that tell its own recorded story
without interruption forward from the original town meeting. What a priceless
possession!
Published March 1951
A HISTORY
EARLY HARBOUR
DAYS
THE VILLAGE
OF SILVER CREEK
OVER THE
YEARS
LIGHTHOUSE POINT
THE LIBERTY POLE
UNDERGROUND
SILVER CREEK
FAYETTE'S FIRST PLANK HOUSE
GATES-WARD-THOMAS HOMESTEAD
DR. SPENCER
WARD
THE BLUE EAGLE TAVERN
OLIVER LEE HOMESTEAD
OLD SILVER
CREEK HOMES THANKSGIVING DAY
THE MIXER-BARRESI HOUSE
TEW-STEWART HOME
THE SWIFT
MANSION
OBITUARY FOR AN OLD HOUSE
THANKSGIVING MEMORIES
THE FOX HOUSE
MARY SMITH
LOCKWOOD: FAMOUS WOMAN OF HANOVER
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY CHURCHES - A HISTORY
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
MT. CARMEL PARISH
EARLY TOWN OF HANOVER CEMETERIES