Our Community

Founding & Early Settlement

Grove lies on the north border of Allegany County, east of center. The territory was originally incorporated as Church Tract on March 8, 1827, carved from the town of Nunda. It assumed the name Grove in 1828 and included the territory of Granger until April 18, 1838. The town is bounded north and east by Livingston County, east by the town of Burns, south by Birdsall, and west by Granger.

Grove contains 21,070 acres of land. The terrain is rough and hilly, with several valleys and ridges — gravelly loam in the valleys, clay loam with hardpan subsoil on the hills. Early on, it was a purely agricultural town. Dairy shipment was greatly facilitated by both the Erie Railroad and the Central New York and Western Railroad, each having about five miles of track through the town. Population peaked at 1,154 in 1850 and stood at 954 by 1890.

The first settler on the Nunda Church Tract was John White, who cut his way through the wilderness from Nunda and built the first log home in May of 1818. The first annual town meeting was held April 3, 1827, at the home of John Dillars. By 1825, settlers Thayer and Smith had opened the town’s first store, and Henry Andrews opened an inn in 1828. Through the late 1820s to 1870s, the town flourished with taverns, sawmills, a cheese factory, churches, and schoolhouses.

The Hamlet of Swain

The Hamlet evolved as the main business center of Grove. In 1852, it was named Swainsville after one of the earliest settlers, Samuel Swain, who arrived and started a lumber business shortly after the town’s founding. Many pioneers followed, and the hamlet grew into a working center with sawmills, feedmills, a general store, hotels, and small factories.

Among the notable businesses were the Old Headache Tavern, the Geibel Hotel, a broom handle factory, and a cradle finger factory. Mr. Adison Seager operated a sawmill east of the Shawmut railroad culvert and was prominent in local political affairs. A second sawmill, owned by Harry Shaw, stood on the bank of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad.

The Shawmut Railroad

The Allegany Central Railroad began service in May 1881 and earned the nickname “the Shawmut,” which became the Shawmut Line in November 1881. The line ran from Swain to Angelica, passing between Perkinsville and Belfast. A large depot and dwelling house were built where every train stopped to take on wood.

The Shawmut fell into hard times in 1936 and was formally discontinued in March 1947. Parts of the historic “Horseshoe Bend” can still be seen in Swain today.

Fredrick Decker — “The Ossian Giant”

For many years, Grove was well known as the home of Fredrick Decker, dubbed “the Ossian Giant.” Born in Geneseo, NY on May 9, 1836, Decker grew to a height of 6 feet, 11¾ inches and a weight of 300 to 350 pounds — a remarkable figure from a family of otherwise ordinary stature.

By trade a lumberman, Decker traveled with the P.T. Barnum shows for several years as a featured attraction. He made his home in Grove in 1877 and died on March 21, 1886.

Swain Ski Slopes

The Swain ski area has its roots in the 1940s, when local enthusiasm for winter recreation first brought skiers to the hills above the Hamlet. Over the decades it grew into one of the premier ski and snowboard destinations in Western New York, drawing visitors from across the region every winter season.

Today, Swain Resort remains a cornerstone of the local economy and one of the most recognizable names in the Town of Grove.