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.[4]
History
The village that is now Fredonia was most likely first occupied by early Mound Builders, then the Erie people (13th to 17th centuries), then the Iroquois (specifically, the Seneca).[5] In 1791, Robert Morris purchased the Fredonia land from Massachusetts and sold it to the Holland Land Company.[5] Parcels were sold to pioneers around 1800, and the first settlers came around 1803 or 1804.[5] Among the first settlers included Zattu Cushing, the county's first judge, and David Eason, the county's first sheriff.
In 1825, William Hart dug the first well specifically to produce natural gas in the United States on the banks of Canadaway Creek in Fredonia. It was 27 feet (8.2 m) deep, excavated with shovels by hand, and its gas pipeline was hollowed out logs sealed with tar and rags.[6] It supplied enough natural gas for lights in two stores, two shops and a gristmill (currently the village's fire station) by 1825. Expanding on Hart's work, the Fredonia Gas Light Company was formed in 1858, becoming the first American natural gas company. A stone monument in downtown Fredonia marks the site of the first gas well.
The village of Fredonia was incorporated in 1829. The area's original name 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. Mitchill proposed it as a replacement name for the United States. It failed in that regard, but became the name of many towns and cities.[7]
Established within 20 years of the founding 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, 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 in 1868, and the original building (Grange Hall #1) still stands on Main Street. Fredonia was also host to the first meeting of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which was held at the Fredonia Baptist Church in 1873.[8]
Italian Immigration
Beginning in the late 1880s, Fredonia began seeing a large number of Sicilian immigrants from Valledolmo, Sicily. Subsequent the unification of the Kingdom of Italy many immigrants moved to the lush grape growing region to have a better life and seeking the ability to purchase land their ancestors were denied for centuries by the despotic Bourbon Kings of Sicily. You can still see the impact these immigrants made in growth of the town. Most predominantly, Saint Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, originally San Antonio's, named after the patron saint of Valledolmo, Italy. You can also see the strong Italian influence in the arts, music and culinary traditions which remain similar to foods and traditions back in Italy.
On January 28, 2020, Fredonia was named the winner of the 2020 Small Business Revolution reality show, which aired on Hulu and Amazon Prime. The show began filming in March, 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 5.2 square miles (13.4 km2), all of it land, though it does have a small stream flowing northward through the village to Lake Erie called Canadaway Creek.[11]
As of the 2010 census, 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 inhabitants per square mile (833.8/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.[16]
Previously, in 2000 there were 10,706 people, 3,641 households, and 1,951 families residing in the village. The village's median household income was $34,712, while the median family income was $49,549.
This article's list of residents may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are residents, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (October 2019)
Louis E. Woods, Lieutenant General, United States Marines
Other mentions
In the 1933 film Duck Soup starring the Marx Brothers, "Freedonia" was used as the name of a fictional country. The name came from the railroad stop Dunkirk-Fredonia on the New York to Chicago route. Groucho liked the name. In a later reference, the 2017 film Despicable Me 3 has the protagonist Gru and his family visit his brother Dru, who lives in Freedonia.
In his book Houses from Books, Daniel D. Reiff subjects Fredonia's housing stock to a detailed analysis. Fredonia is used as a model for the influence of pattern books, catalogs and journals on the style of houses in the whole United States. Reiff chose Fredonia because he himself lived there and conducted a survey of the style of all 2,239 houses in 1984. Moreover, historically there were only a few losses of houses.[19]
^"Local Government Handbook"(PDF) (5th ed.). New York State Department of State. 2008. p. 72. Archived from the original(PDF) on March 26, 2009. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
^Edwards, E.M.H., Commander William Barker Cushing of the United States Navy, New York, 1898
^Johnson, Crisfield. "James Mullett". Historical Society of the New York Courts. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
^Reiff, Daniel D. (2000). Houses from Books. Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in American Architecture, 1738–1950: A History and Guide. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, p. 257
