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Its early settlers were chiefly from New England. The founders of the town of Lansing, were Germans from Pennsylvania.

VILLAGES. ITHACA village, in the town of the same name, is the seat of justice for the county. It is situated partly on the alluvial flats bordering Cayuga lake, (from which it is about one and a half miles distant, ) and partly upon the hills, which form a natural amphitheatre around it. It is regularly laid out, its buildings are neat and tasteful, and its streets well shaded.

It is finely located for trade, communicating freely by means of the lake and canal, with eastern and western New York, and by the railroad and the Susquehanna river, with the coal region. of Pennsylvania. The completion of the Erie railroad will still further increase its facilities for business. Its lumber trade is very great.

In available hydraulic power for manufacturing purposes, it is second to no village in New York. It is already largely engaged in manufacturing. Here is located an incorporated academy, with spacious buildings, for the instruction of both sexes, a large Lancasterian school, and numerous select schools, in a flourishing condition. Population, 4200.

Trumansburgh, in the town of Ulysses, is a flourishing village, with some manufactories. Population, 1000.

Danby, in the town of the same name, is a thriving village. Population, 500.

Dryden, in the town of the same name, Burdette, in the town of Hector, Ludlowville, in the town of Lansing, and Newfield, in the town of the same name, are villages of some importance.

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7. Hamburgh, 1812. 8. Boston, 1812. 9. Amherst, 1818. 10. Holland, 1818. 11. Wales, 1818. 12. Collins, 1821. 13. Evans, 1821.

14. Sardinia, 1821.

15. Alden, 1823.

16. Colden, 1827.
17. Lancaster, 1833.
18. Black Rock, 1837.
19. Brandt, 1838.
20. Chictawaga, 1838.
21. Tonawanda, 1838.

Rivers, &c. M. Niagara river. b. Ellicott's creek. d. Seneca. f. Cattaraugus g. Cauquaga. h. Two Sisters. e. Cazenove. 1. Buffalo. n. Cayuga. p. Murder Creek. r. Tonawanda Creek. Lakes. L. Erie.

Islands. W. Grand Island.

Battle Fields. Lake Erie. Buffalo.

Cities and Villages. BUFFALO. Black Rock. Williamsville. Springville. Auroraville.

BOUNDARIES. North by Niagara county; East by Genesee and Wyoming; South by Cattaraugus and Chautauque counties; and West by Lake Erie and Niagara river.

SURFACE. This county lies upon the great western plain. Its northern half is level or gently undulating; the southern is hilly, particularly along the streams; the dividing ridge which separates the waters flowing northward, from the tributaries of Cattaraugus creek, passes through the southern tier of towns.

RIVERS. The county is well watered; Tonawanda creek forms its northern boundary. Its principal tributaries are Murder and Ellicott's, or Eleven mile, creeks. Buffalo creek, formed by the union of Seneca, Cayuga, and Cazenove creeks, waters the central portion of the county. The other streams are smaller the principal are Cauquaga, or Eighteen mile, Two Sisters, Delaware, and Little Buffalo creeks.

Lake Erie forms a portion of its western boundary. Grand Island, in the Niagara river belongs to this county. CLIMATE. From its proximity to the lake, the climate is moist, warmer in winter and cooler in summer, than some other portions of the state. The vegetation is from eight to ten days earlier than in the same parallels in the eastern part of the state.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. The Onondaga salt group, (limestone,) is the basis rock of this county. It appears on the surface in the northern tier of towns. The Helderberg series succeed this in the towns of Buffalo, Chictawaga, Lancaster and Alden, and these in their turn give place to the Hamilton group of limestones. In the southern half of the county, the Cashaqua, or Ludlowville shales, and the Chemung sandstones form the surface rocks.

The limestone is extensively quarried in the neighborhood of Niagara river and the Lake. It is not, however, generally susceptible of a high polish, but makes a fine building material, when hammer-dressed. Water limestone is found on Grand Island. Petroleum springs rise a few miles southeast of Cayuga creek. Iron pyrites, copper ores in small quantities, and water limestone are the principal minerals. There is a sulphur, spring about four miles from Buffalo, and one on Grand Island, containing free sulphuric acid in a very diluted state. The bituminous shale, in which the petroleum springs rise, is so thoroughly impregnated with bitumen that it burns freely when ignited. Geodes, or masses of impure limestone, exhibiting fantastic and singular forms, occur in this as well as in some of the other counties.

SOIL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. The soil is generally good, consisting of warm, sandy, gravelly loam, occasionally mingled with clay, and well adapted to wheat; in the southern part it is more clayey, and is very productive of grass.

The timber is large and abundant in the southern part, consisting of oak, bech, maple, linden, elm, ash, poplar, hemlock, white pine, butternut, black walnut, wild cherry, &c. In the north it is principally diminutive oaks and underwood. The peach and other fruits attain extraordinary size and perfection.

PURSUITS. Agriculture is the pursuit of a majority of the inhabitants. The culture of grain and of grass occupy nearly equal attention.

Manufactures also form the occupation of a large number of the inhabitants. Flour, lumber, cloths, iron, leather, malt liquors, distilled liquors and potash, are the principal articles manufactured. The flour mills produced, in 1845, flour to the value of more than a million of dollars. The entire value of the manufactures of the county, during the same year, was over $2,300,000.

The commerce of Erie county is very extensive. Buffalo and Black Rock, the principal lake ports, carry on a large trade with all the states situated upon the upper lakes, and with Canada. The shipping of these ports amounted, in 1845, to 25,000 tons. In addition to this, the immense quantities of produce, manufactures and furniture transported on the Erie canal and its branches, are here transhipped.

STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. wool, beef and pork.

Butter, cheese, oats, wheat, corn,

SCHOOLS. There are in the county 291 school districts. In 1846, the schools were taught on an average eight months. The same year, 24,523 children received instruction at an expense of $30,539. The district school libraries contained 31,032 volumes.

There were fifty-seven private schools, with 1304 pupils; and three academies, with 244 students. The school system of Buffalo has been already described, (see page 125.)

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Roman Catholics, Friends, Episcopalians, Universalists, Dutch Reformed, Unitarians and Lutherans. There are in the county ninety-four churches, and one hundred and twenty-five clergymen, of all denominations. HISTORY. The whole county, except a strip a mile wide, on the Niagara river, is within the limits of the Holland Land Company's purchase.

Its settlement dates since the commencement of the present century. Buffalo, the first town in the present limits of the county, was laid out in 1801, but its increase was very slow until 1812, when it became a military post. In December, 1813, the British made a descent upon this county, and burned Buffalo and Black Rock. These villages were soon rebuilt.

In 1816-17, a number of persons from Canada and the United States took possession of Grand Island, in Niagara river, now forming a portion of the town of Tonawanda, and dividing the land between themselves, gave out that they were an independent community, and amenable to neither government. After the question of the boundary was settled, they were expelled by force, under the authority of a law of the state; their houses being destroyed by the sheriff and posse of Erie county.

In 1825, ajor Noah, of New York, a learned Jew, and editor of a newspaper in that city, formed the design of building a city of refuge, upon that island, colonizing it with Jews, and making it a resting place for that dispersed people. He erected a monument, which is still in existence, upon the island. But the European Rabbins did not sanction the scheme, and it failed of completion.

Red Jacket, Sagoyouwatha, or Keeper Awake, as his name signifies, the most eloquent and intelligent of his nation, was one of the chiefs of the Senecas, and resided on the Buffalo reservation. He was warmly attached to his tribe, and opposed the whites with the utmost daring, until he saw that resistance was vain. He died in 1832.

Mary Jemison, the Seneca white woman, was buried in this reservation.

The completion of the Erie canal, in 1825, brought a vast tide of emigration into this county, and it has now become the fourth county in the state in population.

CITIES AND VILLAGES. BUFFALO city, the county seat of Erie county, as has been already stated, is a city of modern growth, laid out at the commencement of the present century, and contained in 1817, but one hundred houses. It owes its growth to its advantageous commercial position on the lake, rendering it the depot of the immense quantities of produce, which find their

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