NAPOLI — This is the town of Napoli’s bicentennial year.
The town was born 200 years ago in 1823 when it was formed from a portion of the town of Little Valley. For the first five years, the town was named Coldspring, then was renamed Napoli in 1828.
According to the Historic Path of Cattaraugus County, the original town of Coldspring included the present towns of Napoli, Coldspring and a small portion of South Valley. In 1837, the town of Napoli was divided, forming the current town and the new town of Coldspring to the south.
The following information was found in the publication, “Cattaraugus County Bicentennial History, 1808-2008.”
During the 1800s, there were several settlements scattered throughout the area that became the town of Napoli. They included Cold Spring in the northwest part of the town (not to be confused with the town of the same name), The Narrows in the eastern part, Peaslee Hollow in the northwest, Owensburgh in the north, Seelysburgh in the area of upper Elm Creek Road and Napoli Corners located near the center of the town. The hamlet of Napoli is the only one that remains.
Chautauqua Road, the first actual road in Cattaraugus County, was built by the Holland Land Company in 1812. It connected Geneseo and Canandaigua with Mayville where all their offices were located. The road crossed through Farmersville, Franklinville, Ellicottville, Mansfield, Little Valley, New Albion, Napoli, Rutledge and Conewango.
Major Timothy Butler was the first permanent settler, arriving from Onondaga County around 1818. George Hill, who planted the first apple orchard in 1820, came next followed by Sargeant Morrill from Vermont in 1819. Benjamin Hillman, a shoemaker, came from Washington County in 1822 and opened a temperance tavern.
In 1819, Major Butler, Mr. Morrill and Timothy Boardman cut a road from Little Valley to Napoli. These three men and their families were the only persons in Napoli at the time.
The town of Napoli was a bustling community with sawmills, a tannery, an ashery, creameries, blacksmith shops, cheese factories and other businesses needed to sustain life in the 1800s.
Black Salts, also known as crude potash, was one of Napoli’s first cash products. It was created by burning tree stumps and vegetation to clear the fields, which led to the decimation of local forests. Potash was used in the manufacture of textiles, glass, soap and fertilizer. The black salts found a new use in the manufacture of saltpeter for gunpowder.
Napoli had a jail farm, in 1818, where prisoners raised potatoes, beans and other vegetables. This system provided work and food for the prison population.
IN 1823, it was voted that a $10 bounty would be allowed to every white person who killed a full-grown wolf in the town. The bounty on wolves allowed by the state doubled the following year. In 1825, a bounty of $5 was voted for every full-grown bear and $2.50 for every cub. It was also voted that distilled liquors would not to be sold on election days.
Brothers Ashbel and Amasa Bushnell came to Napoli in 1824 and 1826, respectively. Ashbel kept a store on Bushnell Flats and, in 1831, he opened a hotel at Napoli Corners. Bushnell Stagecoach Inn was also there along with the first inn, kept by Eastman Prescott, in 1831. A post office was established at Napoli Corners in 1827. Prescott carried the first mail from Ellicottville to Randolph.
Sawmills dotted the countryside. James Waite erected the first sawmill in 1826. David Brown, a man with the last name of Davis, Otis Pratt and Lyman Giles also built sawmills.
In the early 1900s, the hamlet flourished with two stores, four churches, a blacksmith shop and a cheese factory. Napoli also had a meat market and small grocery, a carpenter shop, blacksmith shop and a wagon shop.
Napoli had five creameries between 1870 and 1920. The facilites gradually closed and the milk was sent to the Borden Condensory in Randolph and Merrill-Soule’s powdered milk plant in Little Valley.
Stephen Gladden came from Onondaga County in 1827 and purchased his farm from the Holland Land Company. His son, George, built a house on Pigeon Valley Road in 1874-76 that still stands today. He also built a unique windmill behind the house in 1890-91 that was believed to be the only one of its kind in the United States at the time. The Gladden Windmill was put on The National Register of Historical Places in 1973.
Napoli made national news in December 1951 when Continental Charters Flight 44-2 crashed on Bucktooth Ridge, taking the lives of 26 passengers and leaving 14 survivors trapped in the snow for two nights.
More recently, about 1969, the Development Services, Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska planned to make a lake development in Napoli, named “Enchanted Lake.” A 400-acre lake was planned, but the development never came to fruition.