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County History Items

NOTE: Most of the County Historical Items have been connected to Individual Towns of the Counties.  I have placed hundreds of these items on the Town and Villages pages.  Go to: "TOWNS & VILLAGES" page, to choose the Town/Village.

• MY BELVIDERE ...200, Alive & Well !!  by Ronald G. Taylor; Story of a visit.....
• "INTERESTING ARTICLE TELLS OF FIRST COUNTY ROAD BUILT IN 1801 THROUGH WELLSVILLE"
• Helene Phelan MAP Showing Underground Railroad Activity in Allegany County, NY
• Excerpt from books shows KING FARM & Allegany County,NY connection to Underground Railroad
• ALLEGANY COUNTY JAIL (1895) - "From the County Seat"; "Snap Shots Caught on the Fly by a Breeze Scribe"
• "MOSES VANCAMPEN RUNNING THE GAUNTLET"
• "the Boulder" marks the burial place of Copperhead
• A New County called LINCOLN!! - Movement in 1888 to Create from Allegany & Steuben Towns.
• Picture Gallery - Clark Family, owners of the Belvidere Estate 1910-1947
• A Souvenir of "Villa Belvidere" 1806-1906; Home of F. B. Keeney and Family A brief biography of the Church Family and of "The Villa" offered by the Keeneys in 1906 at the 100 year anniversary.
• WCTU in Allegany County - Brief History
• The Start of the Celebration -1806-2006;  Bicentennial Birthday Party for Allegany County; Pictures, Program & Brief History of Allegany County. 4/7/2006
• BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY NEWSPAPERS- Roger Stillman; From: "Allegany County and Its People: A Centennial Memorial HISTORY OF ALLEGANY COUNTY,NY",  1896)
• Honorable Asahel N. Cole, A founder of the Republican Party, Newspaper Man & Politician
• Maps of Formation -Allegany County & Towns of the County
• The Allegany County Fair - A Summary History
• Republican Party Formed in Allegany County
• Remembering the Genesee Valley Canal - by Richard Palmer
• PERPETUATING OUR REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY “Here in 1782 Major Moses VanCampen
  A Soldier of the Revolution Captured by the Seneca’s..."
• Allegany Pioneer Life
• Origins & Meanings of Names of Allegany County Towns, Villages & Hamlets Composed by County Historian, Craig Braack for this Website
•  County Courthouse 50th Anniversary - 1988 With Brief History of the Courthouse in Allegany County
• "A Visit to Elm Valley" by John S. Minard 1894 Reprint of Letter
•  1st Settler of Allegany County

•  Link to: 1895 Allegany County Atlas
•  Link to: 1895 NY State Atlas

Allegany County - 1851

(Historical Collections of the State of New York, Past and Present, John Barber, Clark Albien & Co. 1851)

"Allegany County was taken from Genesee in 1806. It is 44 miles long, 28 wide, being part of the tract ceded to Massachusetts. The two western tiers of towns are within the Holland Land Company’ s purchase. The Genesee river flows through the county by a deep channel, depressed from five hundred to eight hundred feet below the higher hills. By an act passed in 1828, this river was dechfted a public highway from Rochester to the Pennsylvania line. The soil is of a good quality, there being extensive tracts of alluvion, and the uplands embrace a variety. The northern part is best for grain, but as a whole it is better for grazing. Wheat and corn thrive well in the valley and on the river flats. Of the former, twenty-five bushels an acre are an average crop, and of the latter forty. On the upland, corn, rye, potatoes, oats, and buckwheat, are productive crops. The growth of forest trees being heavy, lumbering is carried on extensively. The Rochester and Olean canal, chartered in 1836, and now constructing, enters the county at Portage and terminates at Olean, in the adjoining county of Cattaraugus. The line of the Erie railroad also passes through it. The county contains 30 towns." (Historical Collections of the State of New York, Past and Present, John Barber, Clark Albien & Co. 1851)

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