Articles

This location is Private property.

Individual helping with Freeing Slaves - William Pitt Angel – Ellicottville, NY

Information By Douglas H. Shepard from http://orbitist.com/2014/07/07/anti-slavery-activists-in-the-1800s/

This location is Private property.

General Joseph McCluer was one of the first pioneers in what we know today as Cattaraugus County, New York. Born in May 1775, he was christened on 10 Sep 1775 in Greenwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. He was educated as a doctor, but decided to become an agent and surveyor for the Holland Land Company.

Follow Route 62 to a trip back in time, without looking very hard.  Traveling from just below Gowanda to Conewango, the route displays rural landscapes, small town charm, and our community of Old Order Amish.  Once bustling communities and factories lead people to settle in these parts.  Now, you will find agricultural businesses and houses dispersed along either side of the road.  Before hitting any historical sites, you will venture from Gowanda through a series of sharp curves, lush green treescapes, and alongside Thatcher Brook.  This is a tributary of Cattaraugus Creek, famous for its

Ellicottville has always been a very industrial village. Various industries flourished here in the 1800’s and early 1900’s for several reasons. It was the first settlement in the area with plenty of fast moving streams to support different industries and growing population. Also, it was the first county seat which added greatly to its popularity as a place to settle.

A sad part of our American and New York State history includes years of bondage. People were transported to our shores to be sold and used as slaves. It was not just the southern plantations that uitlized slaves in working  the farm land. "Early Dutch settlers brought slaves from Angola and Brazil to work their new farms in the Hudson Valley." Slavery continued through the next two centuries in New York State.  By the end of the eighteenth century, New York State had the largest number of slaves of any northern state.

Early in 1909 at the suggestion of Dr. John H. Pryor of Buffalo, a bill was brought before the New York Legislature. This bill, which was passed March 25, 1909, authorized the city of Buffalo to build equip and run a hospital for the treatment of in-patient tuberculosis (TB). On December 18 1909, after an extensive search for a proper setting, the Buffalo City Council, on the recommendation of Dr. Pryor, chose the hillside location in Perrysburg where J.N. Adam Memorial Hospital is located.

Now the Cattaraugus County Museum and Research Center there are years and years of varied uses attached to this property.  

In 1907, at the beginning of the fall term at Ten Broeck Academy, twelve young ladies formed an organization called the Polly Prims. The following year, Mr. Royal S. Litchfield of Independence, Kansas, sent a gift of $50 to the group to help them organize a girl’ basketball team. Mr. Litchfield was a former resident of Franklinville and had graduated in the Class of 1889 from Ten Broeck Academy. He had been a cashier at the Union National Bank for several years before moving out West.