The history of the county of Erie begins about the year 1620, when the first Europeans visited its vicinity. Before that time all is either tradition or inference. Afterwards, although the historic trace is often extremely faint, yet it is still to be seen, growing gradually plainer for a hundred and eighty years, until in the beginning of the present century (1800s) it swells into a broad and beaten pathway, trodden by the feet of scores of surveyors, of hundreds of pioneers, of thousands of farmers, of tens of thousands of all classes, conditions and nationalities.
Covering the major, history-shaping events that occurred between 1620 and 1876 over an area that encompasses much of modern day western New York state, this book is a valuable research aid to the genealogist or historian interested in this part of the country. From early exploration to the time of the book’s original printing, it’s all here, including: the founding of Buffalo, the Holland Land Office selling plots to settlers, the War of 1812, the first stages of trade and commerce on Lake Erie and Western New Yorkers in the Civil War. In addition to the detailed descriptions of the major events, the book is also filled with anecdotes, personal accounts, stories of miraculous deeds, and lists of registered settlers and town officers from across the region. These lists contain the names of many of those who, though not mentioned in a folktale or anecdote, still did something quite remarkable, they helped settle the wilderness. A new everyname index also makes finding these pioneers easier.
Crisfield Johnson
(1876), reprint, paper, 512 pp.
ISBN: 9780788402777
101-J0277
