Town of Ossian - 1808 Livingston County, New York You are the 15965 visitor, since 11/03/97. French's Gazetteer of New York State, 1860 OSSIAN---was formed from Angelica, (Allegany co.,) March 11, 1808. It was set off from Allegany co., in 1856. It is the center town on the S. border of the co. Its surface is broken and hilly, the highest summits being 600 and 800 feet above the valleys. Sugar Creek flows S.E. through near the center. The soil in the valleys is a gravelly loam, and on the hills, a sandy loam, with some clay in the E. part. In the N.W. part is a small gas spring. Ossain Center,(Ossian, p.o.) contains 2 churches and about 18 houses; and West View(p.v.) a sawmill and about 12 houses. The first settlement was made at the center, by Judge Richard W. Porter, and his brother, James Porter, from N.J., in 1804. The first church (Presb.) was formed Sept. 29, 1818. Cemeteries

Resources TOWN CLERK : Stephen Rauber, Ossian Town Clerk, Dansville, NY 14437 TOWN HISTORIAN : Rhea Walker, 585-335-5312, eMail: Ossian Historian BOOKS Doty, Lockwood R., A History of Livingston County, New York, Geneseo,NY, E.E. Doty, 1876. Doty, Lockwood R., History of the Genesee Country, Chicago, S.J. Clark Publishing Co., 1925. Smith, James H., History of Livingston County, New York, Syracuse,NY, D.Mason & Co., 1881. LINKS Dansville Community Home Page. FOOTNOTES [in 1804.] Among the other early settlers were Richard N. Porter, Jas. Haynes, and James Croghan, about 1806, Jacob Clendenin, in 1807, Orrison Cleveland, Wm. na dJohn Gould, and Heman Orton, about 1810. Luther Bisbee was an early settler in the N.W. corner of the town. The first child born was Abraham Porter, in 1805; the first marriage was that of John Gelson and Betsey Shay, in 1816; and the first death, that of John Turner, killed by the fall of a tree, in 1807. ---- Weston taught the first school, in 1813 and '14; Oliver Stacy kept the first inn, in 1817; and Daniel Canfield the first store, in 1824. The first sawmill was built by Nathaniel Porter, in 1808 or '09; amd the first gristmill, by John Smith, in 1826 (back) [formed Sept. 29, 1818] There are 2 churches in town; Presb. and M.E. (back)