village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 9,871 as of the 2020 census. Fredonia is in the town of Pomfret south of
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also ha ...
. The village is the home of the State University of New York at Fredonia (in the northwest part of the village).
Fredonia is one of only twelve villages in New York still incorporated under a
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...
, the other villages having incorporated or re-incorporated under the provisions of Village Law.
History
The village that is now Fredonia was most likely first occupied by early Mound Builders, then the
Erie people
The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvan ...
(13th to 17th centuries), then the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
(specifically, the Seneca).Daniel D., ''Architecture in Fredonia, New York, 1811-1997'', p. 26, White Pine Press (1997) () In 1791, Robert Morris purchased the Fredonia land from
and sold it to the Holland Land Company. Parcels were sold to pioneers around 1800, and the first settlers came around 1803 or 1804.
In 1821, William Hart dug the first well specifically to produce
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...
in the United States on the banks of Canadaway Creek in Fredonia. It was deep, excavated with shovels by hand, and its gas pipeline was hollowed out logs sealed with tar and rags. It supplied enough natural gas for lights in two stores, two shops and a
gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...
(currently the village's fire station) by 1825. Expanding on Hart's work, the Fredonia Gas Light Company was formed in 1858, becoming the first American natural gas company. A stone monument in downtown Fredonia marks the site of the first gas well.
The village of Fredonia was incorporated in 1829. The area's original name was Canadaway (from the Indian word ''Ganadawao'', meaning "among the hemlocks"). The name "Fredonia" was coined by
Samuel Latham Mitchill
Samuel Latham Mitchill (August 20, 1764September 7, 1831) was an American physician, naturalist, and politician who lived in Plandome, New York.
Early life
Samuel Mitchill was born in Hempstead in the Province of New York, the son of Robe ...
, coupling the English word "freedom" with a Latin ending. Mitchill proposed it as a replacement name for the United States. It failed in that regard, but became the name of many towns and cities.
Established within 20 years of the founding of Fredonia, the Fredonia Academy was the first higher educational institution in Chautauqua County. It was started in 1824 and opened in 1826. The academy became a State Normal School in 1866. On August 8, 1867, the cornerstone of the Fredonia Normal School was laid on a site where the Old Main building stands today. The Normal School used the academy's building, which stood on the site of the present village hall, until the Old Normal was completed in 1868. The Fredonia Normal School is now One Temple Square and Association, a 91-unit, NY HUD housing project for the disabled and the elderly that was started by Henry F. Sysol, Jr. in the late 1970s. Thereafter the academy building was used for some time as fire department headquarters.
Today the building houses the village offices and includes the 1891 Fredonia Opera House, a former
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
theater that fell into disrepair in the 1970s while being operated as a movie house. The theater underwent a complete nine-year restoration in the 1980s by the Fredonia Preservation Society and a cadre of volunteers. It now serves as a year-round performing arts center. In 1930 under the director of the Normal School, Hermann Cooper, of land west of Central Avenue were bought with the dream that one day it would become a campus. The construction of a music building took place in 1939, and in 1942 the
Feinberg Law
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, pronunciation =
, meaning = fine, beautiful + mountain
, region = Ukraine, Russia, Soviet, Israel, United States
, languageorigin = Yiddish
, variant = Fein (< ), teachers college. In 1948 the college became a vital part of the new State University of New York (SUNY) system.
In the mid-19th century Fredonia became the home of the first dues-paying
Grange
Grange may refer to:
Buildings
* Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906
* Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682
* Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery
Geography Australia
* Grange, South Austr ...
. The United States' first Grange Hall was erected in Fredonia in 1868, and the original building (Grange Hall #1) still stands on Main Street. Fredonia was also host to the first meeting of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which was held at the Fredonia Baptist Church in 1873.
Italian Immigration
Beginning in the late 1880s, Fredonia began seeing a large number of Sicilian immigrants from Valledolmo, Sicily. Subsequent the unification of the Kingdom of Italy many immigrants moved to the lush grape growing region to have a better life and seeking the ability to purchase land their ancestors were denied for centuries by the despotic Bourbon Kings of Sicily. You can still see the impact these immigrants made in growth of the town. Most predominantly, Saint Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, originally San Antonio's, named after the patron saint of Valledolmo, Italy. You can also see the strong Italian influence in the arts, music and culinary traditions which remain similar to foods and traditions back in Italy.
During the Olympic torch's trip in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games, sixth-grade teacher Kate Leary from Fredonia Middle School carried the torch as it went through the town on U.S. Route 20.
The Fredonia State campus was the location of training camps for two major professional sports teams: the
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1978. The U.S. Post Office was listed in 1988.
On January 28, 2020, Fredonia was named the winner of the 2020 Small Town Revolution reality show. The show will begin filming in March and will be airing on Hulu and Amazon Prime sometime later 2020.
Geography
Fredonia is located at in the northern part of the town of Pomfret. It is bordered to the north by the
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an o ...
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...
, the village has a total area of , all of it land, though it does have a small stream flowing northward through the village to
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also ha ...
called Canadaway Creek.U.S. Route 20 passes through the village. Exit 59 on the
New York State Thruway
, direction_a = South
, terminus_a = {{Jct, state=NY, I, 95 at the The Bronx, Bronx–Yonkers, New York City line
, junction = {{plainlist,
* {{jct, state=NY, I, 287, Parkway, Saw Mill, NY, 119 in Elmsford, New York, Elmsford
* {{jct, state=NY, ...
, which passes north of the village, serves both Fredonia and Dunkirk by way of New York State Route 60.
''Notes'':
Demographics
As of the 2010 census, there were 11,230 people (an increase of 524 people or 4.89%) and 3,811 households (an increase of 170 or 4.69%). The population density was 2,159.6 people per square mile (838.1/km2). The racial makeup of the village was: 93.82% (10,536 people) white; 1.80% (202 people) African-American; 1.61% (181 people) Asian; 0.27% (30 people) Native American/Alaskan; 0.04% (4 people) Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander; 1.19% (134 people) other; and 1.27% (143 people) of two or more races. Of any race, 3.91% (439 people) were Hispanic/Latino.
In the village, the population was spread out, with 13.11% (1,472 people) under the age of 18, 15.68% (1,761 people) ages 18 and 19, 26.5% (2,977 people) ages 20–24, 7.52% (844 people) ages 25–34, 11.96% (1,343 people) ages 35–49, 13.46% (1,511 people) ages 50–64, and 11.77% (1,322 people) over the age of 65. The male population made up 46.85% (5,261 people) of the total population and the female population made up 53.15% (5,969 people) of the total population.
Previously, in 2000 there were 10,706 people, 3,641 households, and 1,951 families residing in the village. The village's median household income was $34,712, while the median family income was $49,549.
Bamberg
Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castl ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
Pete Correale
Peter M. Correale (born April 20, 1970 in Oakdale, New York) is an American actor, stand up comedian, and writer. He currently co-hosts ''The Pete and Sebastian Show'' podcast with fellow comedian Sebastian Maniscalco that airs weekly on iHeart ...
, stand-up comedian, broadcaster and writer
* Enoch A. Curtis, architect
*
Alonzo Cushing
Alonzo Hereford Cushing (January 19, 1841 – July 3, 1863) was an artillery officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action during the Battle of Gettysburg while defending the Union position on Cemetery Ridge aga ...
, Civil War Union officer; died on Cemetery Ridge at the
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the ...
*
William Barker Cushing
William Barker Cushing (4 November 184217 December 1874) was an officer in the United States Navy, best known for sinking the during a daring nighttime raid on 27 October 1864, for which he received the Thanks of Congress. Cushing was the yo ...
, U.S. naval officer during the Civil War
*
Samuel T. Douglass
Samuel T. Douglass (February 14, 1814 – March 5, 1898) was an American lawyer and jurist. He served as a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
Russell Willson
Vice Admiral Russell Willson (December 27, 1883, Fredonia, New York – June 6, 1948, Chevy Chase, Maryland) was a flag officer of the United States Navy and inventor of the Navy Cipher Box (also called 'Naval Cipher Box' or 'Navy Code ...
, Vice Admiral, United States Navy
* Louis E. Woods, Lieutenant General, United States Marines
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...
, the fictional name of the country "Freedonia" was used. The name came from the railroad stop Dunkirk-Fredonia on the New York to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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route.
Groucho
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
liked the name.
In his book ''Houses from Books'', Daniel D. Reiff subjects Fredonia's housing stock to a detailed analysis. Fredonia is used as a model for the influence of pattern books, catalogs and journals on the style of houses in the whole United States. Reiff chose Fredonia because he himself lived there and conducted a survey of the style of all 2,239 houses in 1984. Moreover, historically there were only a few losses of houses.Reiff, Daniel D. (2000). ''Houses from Books. Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in American Architecture, 1738–1950: A History and Guide''. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, p. 257