Clarence Hollow Chronological History

1791 Robert Morris bought WNY lands from Massachusetts

1792-93 Holland Land Company buys land from Robert Morris

1797. Theophilus Cazenove, ......., contracts Joseph Ellicott to survey the land ...... tot
Worships

1799 "Great Survey" is completed

1799. Joseph Elliott named chief land agent.

1799. Asa Ransom ........ takes possession of 150 acres - the earliest settlement in Clarence territory.

1801. Elliott arrives and opens land office.

1801. Asa Ransom establishes a saw mill on Ransom Creek

1803. Ransom builds a grist mill (mill for grinding grain into flour)

1807. Asa Harris, a Revolutionary War colonel, constructs a ..... along Buffalo Road (later renamed Main street) - today Harris Hill

1808 Town of Clarence, named from the English House of Clarence, established - the oldest township in Erie County, formed from Niagara County. Township originally comprised of all all present-day northern Erie County, including the city of Buffalo and towns of Amherst, Alden, Lancaster and Newstead.

1811. First general store a opens

1808-18111. Post office established

1811-1813. Houses rebuilt in Adamesque Colonial style.

1813. Second tavern built

1813. (Harris Hill serves as a refuge to many Buffalonians who are driven out by the British in retaliation for the burning of present-day Niagara on the Lake during the War of 1812.)

1816. Territory post office moved to Clarence Hollow

1825-1860. Clarence Hollow prospers because Buffalo is the Erie Canal terminus.

1830. Second physician settles in the Hollow

1834. Methodist Church built

1836. Presbyterian Church built.

1842. Ransom's original mill rebuilt by new owners

1859. German Reformed Church organized in the Hollow, utilizing a structure built earlier for the Seventh Day Baptists

1864. Additional physicians tested up practice

1864. Cabinet-maker and shoe-maker settle

1875. Lime kiln (a kiln in which limestone is burned or calcined to produce quicklime established

1887. German Reformed Church rebuilt

1895-97. Ransom's grist and saw mills rebuilt

1897. Gothic style German Methodist Church built

End of the 19th century:

2 general stores
1 hardware store
1 grist mill
1 saw mill
2 hotels
1 basket factory
1 Union school
5 churches

Early 20th century. Trolley from Buffalo and Williamsville extended to Harris Hill