The area that would become Ischua was first visited around 1808 by Seymore Buton and also visited around 1812 by Abram Farwell, who would return with his wife Lydia Farwell and their family. Lydia Jackson Farwell was the daughter of Revolutionary war soldier Thaddeus Jackson, builder of the Thaddeus Jackson House, the historic 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house known as one of the oldest surviving homes in Brookline, Massachusetts, where Lydia was from. In 1814, Lydia Farwell inherited money through her father's family and bought the first tract of land in what is now the town of Ischua to build the Farwell sawmill on. The community of Ischua has had continuous settlement ever since that date, and the founding mother Lydia Farwell's family have been a part of the history of Ischua for generations since.
Passages that mention Ischua, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical and biographical history of the township of Dayton, Cattaraugus County, New York1901 · page 16Read the page →
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town to be called Olean. For a few years its limits remained undisturbed and Olean remained the only Town in the County. By an act of the Legislature passed June IG, 1812, the town was divided, and a new town erected which " was called Ischua. Another town was formed of the western portions of Ischua and Olean by an act passed April 18, 1814, and that town was called Perry. The location and extent of these three towns was as follows : The town of Olean included in addition to its present territory all that of the towns of Portville, Allegany, Hinsdale, Ischua,
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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Ischua, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2013
