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 627.
RATHBONE 10-- was formed from Addison, Cameron, and Woodhull,
March 28, 1856. It is an interior town, lying S. of the center of the co. Its
surface consists of a high, rolling upland, broken by the valleys of Canisteo
River and a branch of Tuscarora Creek. The upland is 300 to 400 feet above the
valleys. Naked and precipitous ledges of rock crop out on the hillsides along
the valleys. The soil is a clayey and shaly loam, and in the valleys
alluvium. Rathboneville, (p. v.,) on Canisteo River,
is a station on the Erie R. R. and contains 1 church, a flouring mill, and
33 houses. West Addison (p. o.) and Cameron
Mills (p. o.) are hamlets. The first settlements were made in
1793-95. 11 There are 2 M.E. churches in
town.
10 Named from Gen. Ransom Rathbone, who
settled in the town in 1842. 11 James
Hadley and Wm. Benham were the first settlers. Among the early settlers were
Isaac and Jonathan Tracy, Martin Young, Wm. Morey, Moses Powers, Zephaniah
Townsend, Thos. Maybury, and Saml. Colgrove. Isaac Tracy built the first
sawmill, in 1806; Lemuel Benham kept the first inn, in 1804, and Gen. Rathbone
the first store, in 1842.
