[Source: Gazetteer and Business Directory of Allegany County, N. Y. for 1875. compiled and published by Hamilton Child; Syracuse: 1875, pp 64-65.]
Birdsall was formed from Allen and Almond, May 4, 1829, and derives its name from Judge John Birdsall, Circuit Judge of The Eighth Judicial District in 1829-9. The first town meeting was held at the house of James Matthews in 1829, and the following named officers were elected:
It is an interior town, lying north-east of the center of The county, and contains 22,267 acres. The surface is principally a hilly upland, separated into several distinct ridges. The declivities of the hills are usually very abrupt, and their highest summits are 500 to 800 feet above the valleys. Black Creek, flowing south through the west part, and the head waters of Canisteo River, in The south-east part, form the principal drainage. The soil is clay loam, underlaid by hard-pan, and is well adapted to wheat and grass.
The line of the proposed Rochester, Nunda & Pennsylvania R. R., as surveyed, extends in a south-westerly direction through the central part of the town.
The population of the town in 1870 was 755; of whom all were white, 652, native and 103, foreign.
BIRDSALL, (p.o.) situated on the line of the proposed R., N. & P. R. R., one mile west of the center of the town, contains a church, (M. E.) two stores, one blacksmith shop, one saw mill and a few dwellings. The building of a hotel is contemplated.
The first settlement was made on lot 24, by Josiah Whitman, in 1816. Wm. P. Schaack and a man named Vance, from New Jersey, and Jeremiah VanWormer, from Cayuga Co., settled here soon after. James Matthews, also from New Jersey, settled on lot 21, near the center, in 1818. Wm. Dey and his son, Lemuel C. Dey, came in from Cayuga Co., in 1822 and settled on lot 5. John I., James I., and Lawrence J. Dey and John Meserall came in from Middlesex Co., N. J., in 1823, and settled on lot 5. The first birth was that of James E. Matthews, son of James Matthews, March 7, 1820; the first marriage was that of Samuel VanWickle to Harriet Freeman, daughter of Reuben Freeman, in 1821; and the first death, that of Leah Riggs, daughter of John Riggs, in 1824. Hannah Scott taught the first school in 1822. Elias Hull kept the first inn and Joseph B. Welch the first store, in 1828. Wm. Lord erected the first saw mill, on Black Creek, in 1823 or '24.
The first religious services were held at the house of Wm. Dey, by Rev. Robert Hubbard, a Presbyterian, in 1823; and the first Church (M. E.) was formed by Rev. Eleazur Dewey, in 1825.
Crittenden M. E. Church, at Birdsall, was organized with four members in 1857, by Rev. Alfred I. Blanchard, the first pastor. The church edifice was erected in 1871. It cost $2000, one-half the present value of the Church property, and will seat 200 persons. There are sixty members, who are under the spiritual tutelage of Rev. George Shere. [Information furnished by Mr. Charles P. Headley
St. Joseph's Church (Catholic) was organized with forty-three members, and their house of worship, which will seat eighty persons, was erected in 1850, at a cost of $900. The first pastor was Rev. Daniel More; the present one is Rev. Peter Donehue. The Society numbers forty-five, and its property is valued at $1,000. [Information furnished by Mr. Thomas Riley]
Created on ... November 14, 2003