East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 14) 14 2,500 YEARS IN 20 MINUTES Once a gathering place for the famous Roycrofters, “The Chapel” at the corner of Main and South Grove streets is now the location of Aurora Town Hall. Board meetings are held in a beautiful room. But as the motions fly in Hubbard’s former Art Gallery, history takes its turn on the floor. The perimeter of the gallery is a bonanza of artifacts, documents, illustrations and interesting tidbits. Together, they represent the Town of Aurora Historical Museum, established in 1978. Glass displays preserve the collection. Walking counterclockwise, the casual visitor can take in the exhibits in 20 minutes; history buffs hungry for detail will spend at least an hour. The local timeline begins at 500 B.C. with the Woodland Indians, two millennia before the arrival of the area’s first white pioneers. The Seneca Nations were still flourishing here well into the 1700s. Indian reservations weren’t established in the region until the 1797 Big Tree Treaty. This agreement, between the Senecas and a fledgling American government, paved the way for white settlements in what would eventually become the Town of Aurora. The Indian segment of the museum features dozens of flint arrowheads, stone tools and other native implements. The exhibit’s centerpiece is a hefty stone war club, a menacing relic to behold. In 1800, the Holland Land Company acquired nearly four million acres west of the Genesee River as a result of the Big Tree Treaty. Parceled for profit, this massive tract became the geographic basis for modern Western New York. The region was part of what was then considered America’s western frontier. According to the exhibit, in 1803 a white settler named Jabez Warren purchased 7,743 acres from the Holland Land Company at the cost of $2 each. Indian-inspired “Big Tree Road” was incorporated in the survey of this property. Today, we call that same road “20-A,” better known in East Aurora as Main Street. Back then the town was still called “Willink,” one of the Holland Company’s trustees. Ultimately, in 1818, town residents Continued on page 16 Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 1) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 2) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 3) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 4) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 5) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 6) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 7) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 8) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 9) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 10) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 11) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 12) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 13) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 14) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 15) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 16) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 17) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 18) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 19) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 20) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 21) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 22) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 23) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 24) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 25) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 26) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 27) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 28) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 29) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 30) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 31) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 32) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 33) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 34) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 35) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 36) http://www.nxtbookMEDIA.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.