The township of Amity was created in
1825 and was formed by the subdivision of Union township, the
northern half being set off for the new township and the
southern moiety retaining the original name. Nearly the
whole of Amity township consisted of land of the Tenth Donation
District, being lands set apart by the State in the fulfillment
of its promise made in 1780, to make a donation "to the officers
and privates belonging to this State in the Federal army of
certain donations or quantities of land according to their
several ranks." But little of the land in the Erie county
donation district was taken up on soldiers’ warrants, and in the
course of time what remained unclaimed after the expiration of
the time limit was disposed of to actual settlers. The
settlement of Amity, or the area included in what is now Amity,
began almost contemporaneously with the first settlements in
Erie county. In 1796 William Miles, the
founder of Wattsburg, and one of the great
men in the beginning of affairs in the county, located 1.200
acres of land on the stream that has no better name than the
outlet of Lake Pleasant. He did not choose to settle
there, however, but made his home in Concord township.
About the same time John Fagan cleared up a piece
of land near Hatch Hollow, and immediately he was blessed with a
neighbor named McGahan. Mr. Fagan,
however, remained only until 1807, when he removed to Millcreek,
where he became the founder of an influential family, whose name
is still prominent in the eastern end of the township on the
lake shore. John Carron is said to be the
first permanent settler in Amity, but the date of his coming is
not known. Hazen Sheppard and wife came to
the township in 1812. In 1816 Benjamin Hinkston
moved west from Vermont, and took up land in Greene township,
but in 1818 removed to Amity, where he located permanently.
Early in 1819 Charles Capron moved in from New
Hampshire, and later in the same year Seth Shepardson
and Timothy Reed came. Capron’s
father and mother accompanied him. James
McCullough and Capt. James Donaldson
became residents of the township in 1820, the latter settling
near Lake Pleasant. He was from Cumberland county.
Others of the early settlers were: In 1829,[Pg. 438]
Jabez Hubbell with his wife and sons Hiram
and David from Otsego, N. Y., Royal D.
Mason and Jacob Rouse; in 1830, the
Duncombes, Pliny Maynard, and Elias
Patterson; in 1831, William B. Maynard, son of Pliny;
in 1833, George W. Baldwin; in 1847, John Allen
from Otsego, N. Y.
Amity is distinctively a rural section. There is
no railroad within the township and no settlements of
importance, Milltown and Hatch Hollow never having attained to
the dignity which would entitle them to be called villages.
The nearest railway station is Union City. The industries
of the township have always been few and unimportant. Not
withstanding the augmented stream of French creek crosses the
town ship diagonally, the east and west branches joining on the
northern boundary, there have always been but few mills, and
these were located upon minor tributaries. The first mill
was built on the stream which runs through the Hatch neighborhood
and empties into the out let of Lake Pleasant. The second
mill, a grist and sawmill combined, was erected by Capt.
James Donaldson in 1822 on the outlet of Lake
Pleasant. Both of these early mills have long since been
abandoned. Later mills were the sawmill on the Hatch
Hollow Alder run; a saw mill and shingle mill, a grist
mill and two sawmills at Milltown, these giving the hamlet its
name; a sawmill and shingle mill on the McAllister road.
The creamery at Milltown was started in 1888, and that at Hatch
Hollow in 1893.
The most important industry of Amity for many years has
been dairying and raising cattle. There is considerable
agriculture, but the character of the country favors grazing,
for it is chiefly hilly. Large quantities of butter have
for years been made in Amity, and the town ship has contributed
not a little toward the fame of Wattsburg as a butter market.
The Methodist Episcopal denomination established a
footing in Amity township at an early day, the beginnings of a
church dating from 1834 or 1835, when a class was formed in the
vicinity of Hatch Hollow. The M. E. Church at that place
was dedicated in 1859.
Schools began earlier. The first school, a
structure of logs, as most of the houses of all kinds then were,
was built in 1825, and stood about half-way between J.
Chaffee's and the borough of Wattsburg. A few years
later a school was built at Hatch Hollow, which served until the
development under the free school laws called for a better
building, the latter doing service until the present. A
log schoolhouse was built in Baldwin’s Flats in 1835.
It was built by private contributions, and when it burned down,
a few years later, another was built in its place by the same
means. That, too, was burned, and now the third building
occupies the same site.
No other township in Erie county, perhaps, has more
private or family graveyards than Amity. The cemetery at
Hatch Hollow was
[Pg. 439]
established about 1870, and is the principal burial place of the
township.
Amity has not had many public men among those enrolled
in the service of the county. Two citizens of the county,
however, have served in the State Legislature, William
Sanborn and Warren Chaffee. Francis
Stow was elected county auditor in 1867, and Clark
McAllister was a director of the poor.
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