Westfield is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the western part of Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 4,513 at the 2020 census. Westfield is also the name of a village within the town, containing 65% of the town's population. This unique town is accompanied by vineyards, gorges and historical buildings.

History

The area was first settled in 1802 by James McMahan, formerly of Northumberland County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. McMahan established a mill near the mouth of Chautauqua Creek, where it empties into

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

. The mill was later dismantled in advance of the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

to prevent it falling into the hands of the British. Today some of the millstones from McMahan's mill rest outside the Patterson Library in Westfield village. The town of Westfield was established in 1828 from parts of the towns of Portland and Ripley. The Barcelona Lighthouse was constructed in 1829 to overlook Barcelona Harbor and aided sailors on Lake Erie until being deactivated in 1859. It was the first lighthouse in the world to be powered by

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

. In 1897, the founder of

Welch's Welch Foods Inc., commonly known as Welch's, is an American company, headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. It has been owned by the National Grape Cooperative Association, a co-op of grape growers, since 1956.Hays, Constance LHow Too Much P ...

Grape Juice, Charles E. Welch, moved his company to Westfield from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

to take advantage of the ideal climate for the cultivation of grapes, particularly of Concord grapes. The region soon became noted for the growing of grapes for both wine and

grape juice Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7–23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as '' must''. The sugars in grape juice allow it to be ...

. An unusually large number of buildings, twenty in all, are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, with all but one (the Barcelona Lighthouse, listed in 1972) being listed on the register in fall 1983.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the town of Westfield has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.14%, is water.

Surrounding towns or areas

(

Clockwise Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite ...

) *

* Portland;

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua br ...

* Sherman * Ripley Chautauqua Creek serves as much of the boundary between Westfield and Chautauqua.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 5,232 people, 2,075 households, and 1,419 families residing in the town. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 110.8 people per square mile (42.8/km²). There were 2,493 housing units at an average density of 52.8 per square mile (20.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 96.98%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 0.27%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.25% Native American, 0.54% Asian, 1.30% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 0.67% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race were 2.64% of the population. There were 2,075 households, out of which 31.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.3% were married couples living together, 9.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.6% were non-families. 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.98. In the town, the population was spread out, with 25.4% under the age of 18, 6.8% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 18.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.0 males. The median income for a household in the town was $32,534, and the median income for a family was $43,156. Males had a median income of $30,203 versus $23,250 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $15,738. About 8.8% of families and 13.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 17.0% of those under age 18 and 14.8% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

The economy of the town is primarily agriculture, and the major crop is grapes. The Welch Grape Juice Company has ties to this region.

Infrastructure

Transportation

The New York State Thruway ( Interstate 90),

US 20 U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. S ...

, NY 5, and NY 394 pass through the town. CSX Transportation and

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

both have routes running through Westfield. CSX operates a

double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

mainline on the former New York Central "Water Level Route", and Norfolk Southern operates over former Nickel Plate Road, later

Norfolk and Western The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisi ...

, trackage. Both routes come east out of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

to Buffalo. As recently as 1967, the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

had a train, '' Empire State Express,'' (#51) making a stop westbound in Westfield itself, and the ''Fifth Avenue-Cleveland Limited'' (#6) and the ''Chicagoan'' (#90) stopping eastbound in Westfield. As recently as January 1968 the New York Central operated a Buffalo-Chicago daytime train, #51, the then former ''Empire State Express,'' that made a stop westbound. Two other daily trains eastbound stopped in Westfield, #64 and #90, the then former ''Chicagoan.''New York Central January 1968 timetable, p. 2 http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/ptt/images/tt-0168.pdf

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

's ''

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two sections east of Albany. The train began service in 1975; its predecessor was Amtrak's Chicago– ...

'' passes twice daily on the CSX tracks but does not stop. The closest stops are

Erie Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

, to the west, and Buffalo-Depew station, to the east.

Notable people

* Grace Bedell, girl who suggested to then-candidate

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

that he should grow a beard * Francis B. Brewer, US congressman * George Emerson Brewer, surgeon, urologist * Jimmy Caci, member of the

Los Angeles crime family The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia or the Southern California crime family, is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate based in Los Angeles as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the ea ...

Harry Castlemon Charles Austin Fosdick (September 6, 1842 – August 22, 1915), better known by his ''nom de plume'' Harry Castlemon, was a prolific writer of juvenile stories and novels, intended mainly for boys. He was born in Randolph, New York, and received ...

, writer * Marion Dickerman, vice-principal of the

Todhunter School The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located in ...

* Lou DiMuro, Major League Baseball umpire * Charles G. Groat, geologist * George W. Patterson, US congressman for the 33rd district and Lieutenant Governor of New York * Robert Weathers, former NFL running back * Alexander Wilson, former

Wisconsin Attorney General The Attorney General of Wisconsin is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Forty-five individuals have held the office of Attorney General since statehood. The incumbent is Josh Kaul ...

* John Wrench, mathematician * John H. Haight, Medal of Honor recipient in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

Communities and locations in Westfield

*Barcelona – A

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

located by Barcelona Harbor, a harbor in

. *Bournes Beach – A community at the mouth of Bournes Creek in the northeast corner of the town. *Camp Vernon Airport – A small

airfield An aerodrome ( Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for pub ...

between I-90 and Route 5 in the northeast corner of the town. *Forest Park – A small community on Lake Erie southwest of Barcelona. *Hawthorne Park – A lakeside community near Bournes Beach. *Lombard – A hamlet located in the western part of the town at the crossing of Lombard, Pigeon, and Parker Roads. *Volusia – A hamlet near Chautauqua Creek in the eastern part of the town. * Westfield – A

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

at the junction of Route 394 and Route 20 in the northern part of the town.

References

External links

Town of Westfield official website

{{authority control Towns in Chautauqua County, New York Populated places established in 1802 1802 establishments in New York (state)