Gazetteer of the State
of New York:
Embracing a Comprehensive View of the
Geography, Geology, And General History of
the State, and
a Complete History and Description of Every County, City, Town,
Village, and Locality. With Full Tables Of Statistics.
By J. H. French.
Syracuse, N.Y.: Published By R.
Pearsall Smith
1860.
Page
622.
AVOCA 3 --
was formed
from Bath, Cohocton, Howard, and Wheeler,
April 12, 1843. It is an interior
town, lying N.W. of the
center of the co. The surface is mostly a broken upland,
divided into two ridges by the valley of the Conhocton.
The declivities of the
hills are steep, and their summits
are about 400 feet above the river. The
streams are
Conhocton River and its tributaries Twelve Mile and Ten Mile Creeks
from the N., and Bennetts and Neils Creeks from the S.W.
The valley of the river
is about 1 1/4 mile wide. The soil
is a clayey and gravelly loam. Avoca, (p.v.,)
situated in
the valley of the Conhocton, is a station on the B., N.Y. &
E.R.R. It contains 2 churches, an iron foundry, and a
flouring mill. Pop. 301.
Wallace (p.o.) is a station on
the B., N.Y. & E.R.R. The first settlement
was made in
1800, by Michael Buchanan. 4 There are 2 churches in town: Bap. and
M.E.
3 Probably named
from Tom Moore's "Sweet
Vale of Avoca." The early
settlers called the place "Buchanan," or the
"Eight Mile
Tree." 4 James Moore,
Joel Collier, Asa Phillips, James McWhorter, Finley
McClure, Daniel McKenzier,
Abraham Towner, Jonathan
Tilton, James Babcock, John Donahue, Richard and
John
VanBuskirk, Eleazur Tucker, _ Moody, Henry and Allen Smith, James Davis,
and Samuel W. Burnham were among the first settlers.
Michael Buchanan 2d was
born in 1809; Michael Buchanan
died in 1811; and James McWhorter and widow
Buchanan were
married in 1812. Eleazur Tucker built the first sawmill, and
Jonathan Tilton the first gristmill, in 1825. Joel Collier
kept the first inn,
in 1808, and Alonzo Simmons the first
store, in 1830.
