About Us

Our History

The Chautauqua Society of History and Natural Sciences (Chautauqua County Historical Society today) was founded July 19, 1883 on the shores of Chautauqua Lake. Its eleven founding members – doctors, lawyers, professors, jurists, and businessmen – realized Chautauqua County enjoyed an illustrious past that was in danger of being forgotten. They recorded local history, published original research, and shared their work with each other. They began collecting important artifacts that formed the core of the CCHS collection now found at McClurg Museum. Much of the founders’ original research is contained in the museum’s library. 

What was it about Chautauqua County history that inspired such devotion?

Long before explorers arrived, various Native American tribes hunted in the unbroken forests and fished in the region’s plentiful lakes and streams. When the French passed through the area in the mid-18th century, they traveled the trails Indians had used for years. The Portage Trail, in particular, was used by the French to transport goods from Lake Erie to Chautauqua Lake, and from there downriver to forts and trading posts.

The period between 1800 and the Civil War brought tremendous growth and change to the area. Dense forests were cut and the timber was sold. Cleared land was purchased by a generation of immigrant farmers who came from New England, eastern New York, and Pennsylvania. Settlers bought land from the Holland Land Company, which had acquired all of western New York from Robert Morris, the "financier of the Revolutionary War". Starting in 1802, towns and villages were established and developed in response to the growing need for goods and services.

The coming of the railroad in 1851 transformed the economic landscape. Faster transportation anda  growing movement westward expanded the market for Chautauqua County farm goods and manufactured products. The discovery of oil in the county and surrounding areas in 1859 also had a tremendous impact on the local economy. It created rich men and paupers almost overnight.

During the Civil War, approximately 4,400 men from the county responded to Abraham Lincoln's call to save the Union. Some three thousand survived the war experience, though many were permanently disabled. The thoughts, feelings, and experiences of soldiers in the war, and the families left behind, were captured in diaries and letters to and from the front. Many records from the Civil War period are part of the CCHS collection.

In the decades immediately following the Civil War, there was a general thirst for self-improvement. The Chautauqua Assembly, The Lakeside Assembly in Findley Lake, and Lily Dale were all local manifestations of a national impulse. The founding of the Chautauqua County Historical Society in 1883 was just such a manifestation. Its founders focused their research on science, natural history, and recording their pride of place. Since the beginning, county residents, CCHS members, and historians have continued the founders’ vision and contributed time, research and family objects to CCHS. 

In 1951, CCHS found a permanent location for its growing collection when the family home of James McClurg in Westfield became the McClurg Museum. 

The accomplishments of the CCHS reflect the commitment of many to the ideals of the founders who recognized the value of preserving Chautauqua County's legacy: Samuel G. Love, William C.J. Hall, William W. Henderson, Lovell Bugbee, Obed Edson, Ai Waterhouse, Daniel Sherman, John A. Hall, Charles Parker, Brooks Fletcher, and Horace C. Taylor.