Historically, Irving developed in the early 1800s around lumber shipping, grain milling, and ferry traffic at the creek’s natural harbor. Although it was once considered as a possible western terminus of the New York & Erie Railroad, the choice of Dunkirk curtailed its industrial prospects, and the community centered instead on farming — first grains and later grapes, as part of the Lake Erie viticultural belt. It is the site of the Thomas Indian School (1855–1957), a state-run boarding school for Native American children that is remembered today both as a significant local institution and as a site of cultural trauma for the Seneca and other Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) peoples. In the 20th century, Sunset Bay, another hamlet, grew into a seasonal beach community and the New York State Thruway made Irving more accessible, with Interstate 90 and Seneca-owned businesses emerging as drivers of the local economy.
Prominent Residents
Lewis "Deerfoot" Bennett: A renowned Seneca long-distance runner from the mid-1800s who set world records while touring Britain.
Bemus Pierce: An early football star, an All-American guard at the Carlisle Indian School and believed to be the first Native college football head coach, of the University at Buffalo.
Porter Cornelius Bliss, a 19th-century journalist and diplomat with strong ties to the reservation.
Traynor Ora Halftown: Known as "Chief Halftown," he was a popular children's TV show host for WPVI-TV in Philadelphia for several decades.
Alice Lee Jemison: Journalist and political activist who advocated for the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the New Deal.
Everett Russell Burmaster: A local historian, preservationist and paleontologist who was adopted by the Seneca.
George Carter: A star basketball player at St. Bonaventure and an A.B.A. all-star who is one of only three people known to have been drafted by four major North American professional leagues.
Agnes Williams: An activist and social worker from the Cattaraugus Reservation who co-founded the Indigenous Women's Network, often focusing on environmental and women's rights.
Dean Stanley Seneca: An epidemiologist and former Senior Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He gained prominence for his work on infectious diseases, including H1N1 and Ebola.
Barry E. Snyder Sr.: A five-time Seneca Nation president who played a key role in developing the nation's gaming enterprise, he founded the Seneca Hawk gas station and smoke shop, the first of its kind when it opened in 1983.
Miya Scanlan, who set a New York state high school record for goals in a game (16)[3] before playing Division I collegiate lacrosse and competing for the Haudenosaunee Nationals team.
Founding and Early Settlement
The first people to live in the area were the Erie people, an Iroquois tribe who were largely destroyed in the mid-17th century after a war with the Seneca. The area that became Irving grew from the strategic junction where Cattaraugus Creek flows into Lake Erie, a natural boundary and travel route long used by the Seneca. An early road led from the settlement southward into the Conewango Valley, following a route through what are now the eastern parts of Hanover, Villenova, Cherry Creek, and Ellington. Initially used by the Seneca for travel and trade, the route later became important for European-American settlers moving into these towns.[4]
One of the area’s earliest settlers, Amos Sottle,[5] established a tavern and ferry service across the creek in the early 1800s, making the spot a natural crossroads for travelers moving between Buffalo and points west. A historical marker[6] about him reads: “First non-Indian settler of Hanover and Chautauqua County, built his home nearby in 1796. Indian friend, farmer, fiddler, and worker on the HLC survey.” Crossing the creek, which is actually a river, was dangerous at the time. Early ferry service across it was unsafe, with a small scow— a flat-bottomed boat commonly used for transporting goods — that could carry only a single wagon. Horses and oxen had to be taken across separately until a larger scow was later built.[7]
Originally known as Cattaraugus, Cattaraugus Village and Cattaraugus Bottoms for the creek and reservation, the hamlet began in 1804. In 1812, the first post office in Chautauqua County was located there. [8]It was later called Acasto, then renamed Irving in 1846. The new name distinguished it from Cattaraugus County and another Cattaraugus village further southeast and was taken from a group of investors called the Irving Company,[9] which led the failed effort to land the western terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad. Part of the community was called "La Grange" after the Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette who lived at La Grange in France, and was renamed West Irving in 1856.[10]
American Revolution and War of 1812
During the American Revolutionary War, the area that became Irving was Seneca territory. In 1780, a Seneca settlement was established near the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek under British encouragement. Local Senecas, backed by the British, fought against American Colonel Daniel Brodhead’s expedition against Seneca villages and crops. [11] A historical marker in Sunset Bay reads: "American Revolution Lieutenant John Docksteder (British) was stationed here. Sept. 1, 1779, he led Senecas down Allegany Road to battle the Americans under Col. Brodhead near the Allegheny River."
During the War of 1812, the creek's mouth was again of strategic value. Troops movements and Seneca warriors, who were then allied with the United States, passed through the area.
The Cattaraugus Reservation and the Thomas Indian School
In the early 19th century, the Cattaraugus Reservation was established through treaties as one of the remaining Seneca homelands, with the creek forming part of its southern boundary.
In 1855, New York State founded the Thomas Asylum of Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, later known as the Thomas Indian School, on the reservation just east of the hamlet of Irving. Founded by missionaries Asher Wright and his wife Laura Wright and funded initially by Rochester philanthropists Philip and Mary Thomas, the institution was created to house the orphaned and kidnapped Seneca children of the reservation under the federal policy of forced assimilation. The boarding school separated children from their families, forbade the use of the Seneca language and imposed European-American customs. Its original wooden buildings were replaced in 1900–1901 with a large Gothic Revival stone complex, which still stands today.
For over a century, the school shaped local life. Irving businesses supplied food and goods, and the hamlet served as a transit point for visitors and staff. However, the school is now remembered as a site of trauma, where generations of Seneca children endured harsh discipline, cultural suppression and family separation. At least 2,500 children from various tribes were separated from their families and forced to attend the school. It closed in 1957 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places[12][13].[14]
Early Commerce and Erie Railroad Decision
Irving's natural harbor supported a thriving lumber-shipping trade, particularly between the 1830s and 1840s, and local mills processed grain and timber for transport. Merchants, blacksmiths and other trades established themselves in the hamlet, while the surrounding farmland supported grain cultivation on the fertile Cattaraugus flats, with wheat, rye, and corn among the staples. Eventually the area became well known for its grape farming.[15]
In the 1840s, Irving was briefly considered as the western terminus of the New York & Erie Railroad. The mouth of Cattaraugus Creek was even dredged to try to make it a viable harbor. However, the marshy area and steep grades inland from Irving along with creek mouth's tendency to fill with silt and jam with ice in winter made the project costly and challenging. And when local proprietors demanded what railroad officials considered “ungodly” land prices, the company chose Dunkirk instead. This decision shifted shipping and industrial growth to Dunkirk, while local growth centered in nearby Silver Creek, leaving Irving as a smaller crossroads settlement.[16]
Irving retained some commercial life. The dredged harbor supported limited shipping and commercial fishing into the late 19th century, though it never developed into a full-fledged port and Irving never incorporated as a village.
Goodell's store and Post Office, 1912.
The 20th Century and Modern Irving
Irving, like surrounding communities, saw waves of Italian immigrants around the turn of the century. Irving had its own small schools into the 1930s. Over time, these were consolidated with the Silver Creek Central School District.
From about 1907 to 1933 Irving was on the Buffalo-to-Erie main line of the Buffalo & Erie Railway (successor to the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Company), an intercity electric trolley.[17]
Construction of Buffalo & Erie Trolley Bridge in about 1908.
The trolley made the sandy shorelines of Lake Erie more accessible, providing access to what would become Hanford Bay, Sunset Bay and Snyder Beach. By the 1920s, these areas in West Irving had become summer draws for families from Buffalo, Dunkirk and inland towns. Cottages, boarding houses and small businesses grew up around the beaches.
After World War II, Sunset Bay bloomed into a well-known seasonal beach community with taverns, dance halls, an amusement park and current establishments Cabana Sam’s, the Sunset Bay Beach Club (known before as Peterson's Pavilion, Sunset Bay Park and Mulligan's) and Sunset Bay Deli, making the area a leisure spot.
Snyder Beach, located on the reservation, is a community that allows non-Senecas to lease summer cottages, one of the few such locations on the Cattaraugus Reservation.[18][19]
When the New York State Thruway (I-90) was constructed in the early 1950s, an exit was built directly at Irving. On December 14, 1957, the last 29-mile link connecting Irving/Silver Creek to Erie, Pa., opened to traffic, creating an unbroken route of 496 miles from New York City to the Pennsylvania state line, which made the Thruway the longest toll highway in the world at the time. [20]The interchange brought steady traffic and cemented Irving’s identity as a gateway to both the reservation and the lake shore communities.
Lakeshore Hospital operated as a community medical center for decades, providing emergency, inpatient and outpatient services for the mostly rural population along the Lake Erie shoreline. Despite community reliance on its services, the hospital faced persistent financial difficulties, declining patient volumes and changing state healthcare policies. These pressures ultimately led to its closure in 2020, leaving the area without a full-service hospital.[21] Northeast Medical bought the facility to convert it into the New York Medical Center, a center for behavioral health, mental health services and addiction recovery, while an emergency room is being discussed for the future[22].[23][24]
Valvo's Candies, with its Dolly Dimples statue, was a roadside landmark for over 50 years before closing in 2022 (after operating for over a century, starting in Silver Creek),[25] while the Stagecoach West has sold riding gear and equine supplies and hosted horse shows since 1980.[26]
The most visible growth since the 1980s has come from businesses clustered along the Thruway interchange and on the Cattaraugus Reservation. The Seneca Nation and entrepreneurs have drawn customers from the wider region with gas stations, smoke shops, gaming facilities, cannabis dispensaries, athletic and recreational complexes and the Big Indian Drift Pit, a stunt-driving track depicted on HBO's "Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Buffalo Bills." The mix of reservation commerce at the highway intersection and the beach culture at Sunset Bay give Irving a distinctive identity: part gateway, part getaway.
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