CLERK'S OFFICE
HOURS
Monday and Tuesday by appointment only
COURT CLERK E-MAIL
Kiantone Town Court
716-488-0031 (please leave message)
Fax: 716-488-0031
kiantonecourt@yahoo.com
Court is held the 1st through
3rd Tuesday each month at 5:45 PM (unless otherwise noted)
QUICK LINKS
Transfer Station Info
Town of
Kiantone Solar Energy Law
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HISTORY
Kiantone was first settled by Joseph L. Akin, who came from Rennselaer
County in Eastern New York, in 1807. The area consisted of about 11,228
acres, or 17.5 square miles. Not long after Akin came to Kiantone,
Robert Russell also settled in the area, partnering with John Frew to
build the first sawmill on Kiantone Creek, just above the junction where
the creek met the Conewango Creek. Russell, PA, was later settled by
Russell, his father, and brothers.
Kiantone was a derivative of the Seneca word kyenthone, meaning roughly
- - a level place for growing corn. While the Seneca's received
exclusive rights to reservation lands in 1794, they did not move at once
to the reservations. When Anglo-Saxon settlers arrived in Kiantone,
they found the Kyenthono Village still inhabited by the Senecas.
Through the years, Kiantone made its name as a mill town, with settlers
either coming up the Allegany River from Pittsburgh or overland from
Buffalo.
The first Kiantone town meeting was held on February 21, 1854, with
Ezbai Kidder elected Supervisor; Levand Brown elected Town Clerk;
Francis Alvord Town School Superintendent; and Stephan Norton as Tax
Collector. According to a 2006 book, "Kiantone
Chautauqua County's Mystical Valley",
by Deborah K. Cronin, construction and improvement of roads was a
continuous concern, and one-room schoolhouses were built. A post office
took the new town name on April 4, 1855, and would remain the town's
only post office until it was discontinued in 1900.
For a time, Kiantone played host to one of Chautauqua County's numerous
spiritual communities - - a place called Harmonia. Harmonia had up to
30 people living in it at its peak before dying out in the 1860s.

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