Greetings, I am Jonathan Makeley, the Current town Historian
of Angelica, New York, and I figured that I would share some interesting bits
of historical information about the town.
#1: Angelica has founded in 1805 by Phillip Church and was named after his mother Angelica Schuyler Church. The Church family was rather prestigious at the time. Phillip’s father John Barker Church was a merchant who helped supply American forces in New York during the revolutionary war, his uncle Alexander Hamilton was the nation’s first secretary of the treasury and was a major figure in forming the early economic policies of the United States, and his maternal grandfather Phillip Schuyler was a general in the revolutionary war.
#2: The Church Family acquired the land that would become Angelica and several other towns in Allegany County, from Robbert Morris’s Morris Reserve. Robert Morris was one of the wealthiest of the nation’s founding fathers and the Morris reserve had initially been one of the three largest land holdings in Western New York. Though Robbert Morris’ tendency to gamble and engage in risky investments caused him to gather some significant debts. To help pay off some of the debts he had with the Church family, he signed over part of his land to them. Phillip Church was designated with the task of developing the land, and thus went on to found Angelica.
#3: The Hamilton-Burr Dueling Pistols were once held in the town of Angelica. The Pistols were originally owned by John Barker Church. He lent the pistols over to his brother in law Alexander Hamilton and his associate Aaron Burr for their famous duel in New Jersey. After this the pistols were kept in the Church family’s Belvidere Mansion. When later generations of the church family fell on hard times, they had to sell the Belvidere Mansion and the Hamilton Burr Dueling Pistols. Currently the pistols are held by J.P. Morgan Chase bank. During last year’s Allegany County History Week, the bank loaned replicas of the pistols for the history display in Howe Library.
#4: The town was surveyed and designed by Moses Van Campen and Evert Van Wickle. The town’s streets were modeled after the city of Paris, France. The park circle and geometric roads that were part of the town’s initial layout are largely remain largely in the town’s present-day layout.
#5: The town of Angelica was once home to the prominent abolitionist Rev. Calvin Fairbank. Fairbank helped 47 slaves escape to freedom and spent two terms in Kentucky prisons, totaling 17 years, for doing so. He was released from prison with aid of acting governor Richard Jacob and President Abraham Lincoln. After this he became friends with president Lincoln and it is believed may have been the last person to deliver a religious sermon to president Lincoln before his assassination. Calvin Fairbank spent his later years living in Angelica, during which he had wrote his biography, Rev. Calvin Fairbank During Slavery Times: How He "Fought the Good Fight" to Prepare "the Way", and was buried in the Until the Day Dawn Cemetery in Angelica. Recently, the Angelica Booster Citizens published a reprint of the book, which they are selling copies of.
#6: Our town has connections to some of the people on U.S. Currency. Alexander Hamilton, the guy on the $10 bill was Phillip Church’s uncle. The Church family knew George Washington (who is on the quarter and the $1 bill), Thomas Jefferson (who is on the $2 bill), and Benjamin Franklin (who is on the $100 bill). Calvin Fairbank knew Abraham Lincoln, who is on the penny and the $5 bill.
