User:Rocfan275/Timeline of town creation in Western New York

The towns and cities of Western New York were created by the U.S. state of New York as municipalities in order to give residents more direct say over local government. Western New York (consisting of the Buffalo Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area and other counties west of the Genesee River) is an eight-county area–Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Cenesee, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming.

The land comprising Western New York was owned by the Seneca prior to the Holland Purchase at the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797, in which most of the land was purchased by the Holland Land Company. The company managed real estate and settlement in the region over the subsequent decades, selling the last of the land in 1839, and facilitated the creation of new counties and municipalities in the area. Western New York was initially organized as part of Ontario County before the creation of Genesee County in 1803.

Genesee County

 * Notes