Hamlet of Indian Falls

Rt 77 & Indian Falls Rd

Indian Falls was the site of an Indian village until 1857 when the Tonawanda Indian Reservation was reduced to its present size and the area was opened up to settlers. Around the turn of the century Indian Falls was a busy village with many businesses and a social life. There were about 150 individuals who had post office boxes. There were four prosperous stores, a hotel, two flour mills, a plaster mill, saw mill, creamery, apple dryer, cider mill, a blacksmith shop, wagon shop, four churches, and a schoolhouse.

The first record of pioneers visiting the area was in Turner’s Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase, which states that in the spring of 1804 a Col. Dunham went with a party of new settlers to attack a den of rattlesnakes at the falls of the Tonawanda. The snakes lay upon the rocks in coils. There were hundreds of them, and the party killed them by scores. This is probably why the Indians know the falls as “the place of snakes.”

On Sunday, July 16, 1865, Levi Mayhew murdered Theodore Dunham at Indian Falls. Mayhew was convicted of murder and executed by hanging on May 4, 1866 at Batavia.

Thomas B. Quackenbush murdered Sarah Norton on December 3, 1875 at Indian Falls and was executed by hanging in August 1876 by Sheriff Ward in Batavia.

 

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