Research by Norman Carlson, the Chautauqua County Historian, has highlighted notable historical events from Chautauqua County and surrounding areas for the week of March 30 to April 5.
On March 30, several historical milestones occurred. In 1851, Ellington Academy was organized. By 1883, the Chautauqua Institution was chartered as a formal university, maintaining this status until 1902. The first issue of the Jamestown Furniture Index, an industry periodical, was published in 1900. The Jamestown Boys’ Club opened its facilities in 1939. Public television station WNED-TV in Buffalo began broadcasting in 1959. Finally, in 1998, the Lakewood post office moved its location from Summit Avenue to Fairmount Avenue.
March 31 also bore witness to significant events. An ice dam froze Niagara Falls dry in 1848. The deed for Burtis Bay (a bathing beach) was presented to the city of Jamestown in 1947 before it was sold to the Town of Ellicott in 1972. Although designed for a bathing beach by the Jamestown Jaycees, pollution halted its use. In 1959, Art Metal shareholders decided to relocate the company’s executive offices from Jamestown to New York City. The last Western Union telegram sent via Morse wire in Western New York was received in Cherry Creek in 1961. In 1993, the Dunkirk Walmart opened to the public, and the discovery of chronic wasting disease in New York State was announced in 2005—a prion disease affecting wild deer.
April 1 highlights include the arrival of Paul Busti, a Holland Land Company executive, in the U.S. in 1797. The Town of Charlotte saw its first settlement in 1809. The Cherry Valley Land Company bought remaining Holland Land Company holdings in parts of Chautauqua County in 1828. Blockville Post Office was established in 1847. A steamship named Maple Leaf sank in St. John’s River, Florida, in 1864, carrying gear of the 112th N.Y. Infantry, which included a unit from Chautauqua County. Lakewood became a railroad stop in 1874, and a telegraph station followed. In 1903, the city government of Jamestown acquired the local water system. In 1919, the Busti Village Improvement Society made plans for a flower bed in a local triangle. Busti District #11 School opened in 1925 and now serves as an apartment building. The Gideons dedicated 300 Bibles for Jamestown Public Schools in 1938. Hotel Jamestown ceased operations in 1968 and now serves as a home for the elderly. In 1975, the Frewsburg Rest Home opened in a former Zion Covenant Home, also designated for elderly care. Finally, the Second Lake Room at Fenton Museum opened in 1984.
A noteworthy transition on April 2 was Jamestown’s change from a village to a city in 1886. The closing concert for a Busti music school occurred in 1887. Robert G. Ingersoll, a well-known atheist, delivered a lecture in Jamestown in 1898. That same year, the Lakewood Ice Company experienced a fire that destroyed its ice houses at Burtis Bay. Basket makers in Dunkirk also organized in 1900.
On April 3, 1897, Jamestown’s telephone company decided to place its wires underground for improved infrastructure.
By April 4, 1849, Forestville was incorporated, although it dissolved into the Town of Hanover by the end of 2016. In 1850, Jamestown opened its telegraph office. By 1864, a cheese factory was raised in Busti. In 1913, socialist Fred D. Warren spoke at the Institute Hall in Jamestown. Bemus Point High School formally opened its doors in 1930. The Order of Vasa’s Tule Lodge 127 relocated to 208 Pine St., Jamestown, in 1946, and presently meets at Falcon’s Nest in Falconer. In 1950, Jamestown Telephone Company acquired Central Chautauqua Telephone Company in Sinclairville. The Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jamestown, established in 1884 as First Swedish Baptist, was dedicated in 1971. The Buffalo Community Bank’s first local branch in downtown Jamestown opened in 2005.
April 5 saw the reporting of diamond-like gems found by C.H. Martin in Fredonia in 1928. In 1971, the Lakewood Library joined the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System.
