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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/
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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded.
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Gazeteer of the State of New York
J. H. French, 1860

                             ERIE COUNTY

  [-293-]

        WALES - was formed from Aurora, April 15, 1818; and a part of
     Marilla was taken off in 1853. It is situated near the center of the
     E. border of the co. Its surface is broken and hilly and inclined
     toward the N. The principal stream is Big Buffalo Creek. The soil in
     the N. is a gravelly loam, and in the S. clay underlaid by hardpan.
     WALES CENTER, (p.v.,) on Big Buffalo Creek, in the N. part of the
     town, contains 2 churches, a gristmill, a sawmill, and 40 dwelllings;
     WALES, (p.v.,) on the same stream, contains 1 church, a gristmill, a
     sawmill, and 30 dwellings; and SOUTH WALES (p.v.,) contains a grist-
     mill, a sawmill, and 25 dwellings. The first settlement was made in
     1805, by Oliver Pettengill.(7) There are 3 churches in town; 2 M. E.
     and a Free Will Bap.

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        (7) Ethan and Wm. Allen and Jacob Turner settled in the town in
            1806, and Chas. and Alex. McKay, Ebenezer Holmes, and Wm. Hoyt
            in 1807. The first birth was that of Wm. Pettengill, in June,
            1806. Isaac and Eli Hall built the first mill, in 1811; Isaac
            Hall kept the first inn, in 1816; and Orsamus Warren the first
            store, in 1824.  The first school was taught by Jas. Wood, in
            1811. In 1813 an Indian hatchet was found imbedded in a tree at
            Wales Center, and in 1825 John Allen related the following cir-
            cumstance concerning it. About the time of the first settlement
            of Buffalo an Indian came to that place and exhibited the skin
            of a white child, and boasted that he had murdered and skinned
            the child for the purpose of making a tobacco pouch.  Truman
            Allen, (brother of the narrator,) hearing the boast, became so
            enraged that he followed the Indian to Wales and shot him. He
            buried the body and rifle in the sand, and stuck the tomahawk
            into a tree, where it was afterward found as above stated.

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