Fredonia, New York

Fredonia
Village
Fredonia, NY Fredonia, NY
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Chautauqua
Area
• Total	5.2 sq mi (13.4 km2)
• Land	5.2 sq mi (13.4 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation	722 ft (220 m)
Population  (2010)
• Total	11,230
• Density	2,159.6/sq mi (838.1/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	14063
Area code	716
FIPS code	36-27419
GNIS feature ID	0950652

Fredonia is a village in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 11,230 as of the 2010 Census.

The Village of Fredonia is in the Town of Pomfret south of Lake Erie. The village borders the City of Dunkirk and is the home of the State University of New York Fredonia (in the northwest part of the village).

Fredonia is one of only twelve villages in New York still incorporated under a charter, the other villages having incorporated or re-incorporated under the provisions of Village Law.

History

The area which is now Fredonia was most likely first occupied by early Mound Builders, then the Eries (13th to 17th centuries), then the Iroquois (that is, the Seneca). In 1791, Robert Morris purchased the Fredonia land from Massachusetts 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 in the United States in the Village of Fredonia on the banks of Canadaway Creek in Chautauqua County, New York. It was 27 feet 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 grist mill (currently the village's Fire Station) by 1825. Expanding on Hart's work, the Fredonia Gas Light Company was eventually formed in 1858, becoming the first American natural gas company. The site of the first gas well is marked by a stone monument in downtown Fredonia.

The Village of Fredonia was incorporated in 1829. The original name for the area was Canadaway (from the Indian word Ganadawao, meaning among the hemlocks). The name "Fredonia" was coined by Samuel Latham Mitchill, coupling the English word "freedom" with a Latin ending. He proposed it as a replacement name for the United States. It failed in that regard, but became the name of many towns and cities (Stewart, pg. 173).

Established within 20 years of the founding of the Village 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, a long-awaited event took place when 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 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, 58 acres (230,000 m²) 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 converted the Normal School into a 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. The United States' first Grange Hall was erected in Fredonia during the late 1860s (the Fredonia Grange was established on April 16, 1868), and the original building (Grange Hall #1) still stands on Main Street. Fredonia was also host to the first meeting of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which was held at the Fredonia Baptist Church in 1873.

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 US Route 20.

The Fredonia State campus was the location of training camps for two major professional sports teams: The Buffalo Bills of the NFL, and the Buffalo Braves of the NBA. The Braves relocated to San Diego (as the renamed San Diego Clippers) in 1978, and the Bills moved their training camp in 2000 to St. John Fisher College near Rochester, New York.

Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain had connections to Fredonia, via relatives.

The Fredonia Commons Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The U.S. Post Office was listed in 1988.

Geography

Fredonia is located at 42°26′27″N 79°20′02″W.Template:GR

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 5.2 square miles (13 km²), all of it land, though it does have a small stream flowing northward through the village toward Lake Erie called Canadaway Creek.

US 20 passes through the village. Exit 59 on the New York State Thruway, which passes north of the village, services both Fredonia and Dunkirk by way of New York State Route 60.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 10,706 people, 3,641 households, and 1,951 families residing in the village. The population density was 2,061.8 people per square mile (796.5/km²). There were 3,829 housing units at an average density of 737.4 per square mile (284.9/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.36% White, 1.02% African American, 0.32% Native American, 1.06% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.50% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.69% of the population.

There were 3,641 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.7% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.4% were non-families. 30.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the village the population was spread out with 15.7% under the age of 18, 38.0% from 18 to 24, 18.0% from 25 to 44, 16.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23 years. For every 100 females there were 83.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.2 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $34,712, and the median income for a family was $49,549. Males had a median income of $36,322 versus $27,718 for females. The per capita income for the village was $15,685. About 4.9% of families and 19.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.2% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those age 65 or over.

As of the Census of 2010, 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.

Twin towns — Sister cities

Fredonia is twinned with:

• Bamberg, Germany

Notable residents

• Alonzo Cushing, Civil War Union officer. Died on Cemetery Ridge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
• William Barker Cushing, U.S. Naval Officer during the Civil War
• Charles Luther Webster, Mark Twain's nephew by marriage. Born in September of 1851. He married Annie Moffett, the daughter of Mark Twain's sister, Pamela Clemens Moffett in 1875. He eventually became a business partner and managed Mark Twain's publishing company: Charles L. Webster & Co. This company published all of Mark Twain’s books from Huckleberry Finn (1885) to Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), as well as other works, including the successful Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (1885), but the company’s fortunes soon declined, due mostly to Clemens' repeated and cumulative investment failures, most notably Paige's Typesetting Machine. Webster was forced to retire, ostensibly because of ill health, in 1888; he moved back to Fredonia and died there in 1891, just short of his 40th birthday. The firm that bore his name declared bankruptcy in 1894.
• Jennifer Stuczynski, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games pole vaulting silver medal winner,2012 London Olympic games Gold medal winner
• Vice Admiral Russell Willson (1883–1948), U.S. Naval officer during the first and second World Wars.
• Dave Fridmann, Grammy Award Winning Record Producer.
• Charles Edward Smith, Baptist pastor in Fredonia from 1885–1900

Other mentions

In the 1933 film Duck Soup starring the Marx Brothers, the fictional name of the country "Freedonia" was used. According to Turner Classic Movies, certain citizens of Fredonia, New York, were appalled by the use of the name "Freedonia" for the country in the movie, even though "Freedonia" is spelled and pronounced differently than "Fredonia." Finally, they wrote to the studio asking them to have all references of "Freedonia" removed from the film, claiming that "Freedonia" defaced the name of their town "Fredonia". Groucho Marx reportedly wrote back that they should change the name of their town as it was defacing his movie.

References

• George R. Stewart. Names on the Land. Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston (1967)

External links

• Fredonia Village Offices
• Fredonia Chamber of Commerce
• SUNY Fredonia
• Home page of Fredonia High School (New York)
• Railroad Station
• Fredonia Opera House
• Festivals Fredonia