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by Donald H. Dayer (Author)
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, resourceful pioneers carved a small community out of the wilderness in far western New York State. An agent of the Holland Company opened the way by surveying a road from Big Tree Indian Reservation to Lake Erie in 1803. One mile section of that road today is Main Street, East Aurora. A year later, a man named Jabez Warren obtained a contract for 1,443 acres of land, which makes up a large part of the Town of Aurora. The earliest settlers arrived, cleared the forests, farmed the land, harnessed the waterpower, and built mills. Their efforts and the richness of the land formed the foundation of a town that in years to come provided food and materials for the the city of Buffalo and nearby areas. Town of Aurora: 1818-1930, presents more than a century of the history of this vibrant community. It includes some notable people and places. In the spring of 1823, young attorney Millard Fillmore opened the first law office in town--twenty-seven years before he became the nation's thirteenth president. In 1832, Aurora Academy, the most celebrated institution of learning in western New York, was incorporated. By the 1890s, Hamlin Village Farm, and Jewett's Stock Farm were world famous for the breeding of harness race horses. In 1895, Elbert Hubbard established the arts and crafts community of the Roycrofters, which flourished into the 1930s.
