Custom Search

New York State...

New York Landscape

New York

New York Counties

Click Image to Enlarge

New York Counties

There are 62 counties in the State of New York. The first twelve counties in New York were created immediately after the British annexation of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, although two of these counties have since been abolished. The most recent county formation in New York was in 1912, when Bronx County was created from the portions of New York City that had been annexed from Westchester County. New York's counties are named for a variety of Native American words, British provinces, cities, and royalty, early American statesmen and generals, and state politicians.

Allegany County, New York

Allegany County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Belmont
Year Organized: 1806
Square Miles: 1,030

Court House:

7 Court Street
County Office Building
Belmont, NY 14813-1039

Etymology - Origin of County Name

derived from a Delaware Indian word, applied by settlers of Western New York to a trail that followed the Allegany River

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Places in Allegany County

History

"Allegany County was taken from Genesee in 1806. It is 44 miles long, 28 wide, being part of the tract ceded to Massachusetts. The two western tiers of towns are within the Holland Land Company’ s purchase. The Genesee river flows through the county by a deep channel, depressed from five hundred to eight hundred feet below the higher hills. By an act passed in 1828, this river was dechfted a public highway from Rochester to the Pennsylvania line. The soil is of a good quality, there being extensive tracts of alluvion, and the uplands embrace a variety. The northern part is best for grain, but as a whole it is better for grazing. Wheat and corn thrive well in the valley and on the river flats. Of the former, twenty-five bushels an acre are an average crop, and of the latter forty. On the upland, corn, rye, potatoes, oats, and buckwheat, are productive crops. The growth of forest trees being heavy, lumbering is carried on extensively. The Rochester and Olean canal, chartered in 1836, and now constructing, enters the county at Portage and terminates at Olean, in the adjoining county of Cattaraugus. The line of the Erie railroad also passes through it. The county contains 30 towns." (Historical Collections of the State of New York, Past and Present, John Barber, Clark Albien & Co. 1851)

Allegany County is located in the Southern Tier of Western New York in an eroded plateau of the Allegany Mountains, approximately 40-70 miles due south of Rochester and has about 50,000 inhabitants. There are twenty-nine townships, ten villages and numerous hamlets. Our rural county is served by twenty-nine post offices. A geologic feature is that we are the only county in the State that is home to three primary watershed headwaters: The Allegany, Susquehanna and Genesee Rivers. Respectively they end in the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River, Chesapeake Bay and the St. Lawrence River. More County History at NYSAC

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,034 square miles (2,679 km²), of which, 1,030 square miles (2,668 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (11 km²) of it (0.41%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Livingston County, New York - northeast
Steuben County, New York - east
Potter County, Pennsylvania - southeast
McKean County, Pennsylvania - southwest
Cattaraugus County, New York - west
Wyoming County, New York - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Alfred	village	Incorporated Area
- Allen	town
- Alma	town
- Almond	village	Incorporated Area
- Amity	town
- Andover	village	Incorporated Area
- Angelica	village	Incorporated Area
- Belfast	town
- Belmont (County Seat)	village	Incorporated Area
- Birdsall	town
- Bolivar	village	Incorporated Area
- Burns	town
- Canaseraga	village	Incorporated Area
- Caneadea	town
- Centerville	town
- Cuba	village	Incorporated Area
- Friendship	town
- Genesee	town
- Granger	town
- Grove	town
- Hume	town
- Independence	town
- New Hudson	town
- Oil Springs Reservation	Reservation
- Richburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Rushford	town
- Scio	town
- Ward	town
- Wellsville	village	Incorporated Area
- West Almond	town
- Willing	town
- Wirt	town

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Custom Search