Olean (New York)
| Olean | |||
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| Location in New York | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1804 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | new York | ||
| County : | Cattaraugus County | ||
| Coordinates : | 42 ° 5 ′ N , 78 ° 26 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) | ||
| Residents : | 14,220 (as of 2012) | ||
| Population density : | 923.4 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 16.0 km 2 (approx. 6 mi 2 ) of which 15.4 km 2 (approx. 6 mi 2 ) are land |
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| Height : | 446 m | ||
| Postal code : | 14760 | ||
| Area code : | +1 716,585 | ||
| FIPS : | 36-54716 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 979305 | ||
| Website : | Olean, NY | ||
| Mayor : | William Aiello | ||
Olean is a city in the US state of New York with around 14,000 inhabitants (2012). Olean is now only a fraction of the population of the 1950s when its boomtown era came to an end. Nevertheless, Olean is still the economic and cultural center of Cattaraugus County in the west of the state .
history
Founding period
"Olean Point" was the first permanent settlement within the present-day boundaries of Cattaraugus County. In 1802 Benjamin Van Campen was the first to travel to the region to survey land for the Holland Land Company . Thereupon the settlers Adam Hoops and David Heuston bought 20,000 acres of land in the area of today's Olean because of the abundance of wood and the simultaneous proximity to the Allegheny River .
In 1804, Hoop's brother Robert, a land plenipotentiary, came to the region and had a log cabin built on the river bank, which would become the first permanent building in the settlement. In the course of the settlement planning, today's Olean was first given the name "Hamilton" in honor of the popular statesman Alexander Hamilton . However, the use of the originally common name Olean Point was still widespread.
In 1823 the name "Olean" was first found on a map. From this time the point was also omitted from Olean Point . The name "Olean" is derived from the Latin word for "oil". According to other sources, the name Olean Shepard was honored as the first locally born white child.
The first landowner of Olean, Adam Hoops, originally speculated that Olean could become a "gateway to the west" over the Allegheny River in the future. Instead, his company had no economic success in the long term, so that in the end he could not pay off the acquired land and had to live the rest of his life in poverty. Olean's economic rise would not begin until much later and many years after Adam Hoops' death.
Beginning of the boom
Over the next few years, many settlers came to Olean, some of whom stayed in the area while others moved further west. Due to the available resources, the timber industry , agriculture and tannery in particular flourished in the region from the 1820s and 1830s .
Construction of the Genessee Valley Canal began in 1836, connecting cities in western New York State to the Allegheny River. In Olean, great hope was placed on this major project that ultimately Adam Hoop's dream of the “Gateway to the West” would become a reality. However, the canal soon proved to be a bad investment and was closed in 1878. However, in the course of the increasing expansion of the railway lines, Olean developed into an important traffic junction for rail traffic around the same time and thus still an important transit point in the American West: The railway lines "New York & Erie", "Buffalo, New York & Philadelphia ”,“ Pittsburgh, Shawmut & Northern ”and“ Olean, Bradford & Warren ”all led to Olean, so that the city developed into a large but at the same time diversified industrial location at that time.
Oil boom
Of all the local industries, the oil industry soon represented by far the most important economic pillar of Olean. In this regard, the first oil wells were discovered on North American soil as early as 1627, just 18 km north of the city. Between 1865 and 1930, the Olean oil fields produced most of the world's oil. In 1893, Olean was declared a city. With the rise of the automotive industry around the turn of the century, there was an enormous demand for gasoline, a refined product of the petroleum industry. The oil was then the world's first pipeline until after Beyonne in the state of New Jersey transported and some local entrepreneurs were very rich as a result of this boom. At that time, approximately one in four Olean residents were employed in the oil industry.
From about 1930 the oil production around Olean collapsed, which was mainly due to the discovery of large oil deposits in Oklahoma and Texas . Although the oil produced there was of a lower quality than the oil from Olean, it could be extracted with significantly less effort and thus much more cheaply, especially since it was located much closer to the earth's surface. Instead, around Olean you had to drill hundreds of meters deep through earth and rock to reach the oil. In 1954, the Socony Oil Company moved from Olean to Ferndale , which marked the ultimate end of oil production in Olean.
Olean at the time of prohibition
The period of Prohibition (1919–1933) had a devastating effect on the local economy, which was just about to be emerging. In addition, because of its "strategic" location between New York City and Chicago , Olean was frequented by famous bullies of the time. So visited z. B. Al Capone the place. Due to the illegal activities taking place in the city, Olean soon became nationally famous as "Little Chicago".
Economy and Infrastructure
In terms of its history, Olean has undergone a major structural change since the 1950s and in the course of this has transformed from an industrial location to a service center . Olean is now the economic and cultural center of Cattaraugus County and the neighboring counties in the state of New York and Pennsylvania . The geographic location of the city provides easy connections to larger cities in the USA such as Buffalo , Rochester , Binghamton , New York City and Boston as well as to Canada via a very well developed road network .
building
The following buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places : Beardsley-Oliver House, Conklin Mountain House, Oak Hill Park Historic District, Olean Armory, Olean Public Library, Olean School No. 10, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Complex, Temple B'Nai Israel, Union and State Streets Historic District, and the United States Post Office.
The Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary of Angels was given the title of a minor basilica by Pope Francis in 2017 .
Personalities
Sons and daughters
- Harry E. Bergold junior (1931-1995), diplomat
- George Harmon Coxe (1901-1984), crime writer
- Jeff Fahey (born 1952), actor
- James F. Hastings (1926-2014), politician
- Robert Lax (1915–2000), poet and publicist
- John Francis O'Hern (1874–1933), Bishop of Rochester
- Bernard U. Taylor (1897–1987), music teacher
- Louis Zamperini (1917–2014), Olympic participant and prisoner of war in World War II
Other personalities
- Frank W. Higgins (1856–1907), politician, governor of New York State from 1905 to 1907, lived in Olean and died there
- Frederick S. Martin (1794–1865), politician, died in Olean
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ City-Data.com: Olean, New York accessed October 17, 2014 (English)
- ↑ Citytowninfo.com: Olean, New York accessed October 17, 2014 (English)
- ↑ City of Olean: History accessed on October 17, 2014 (English)
- ↑ Oleanny.com: Greater Olean Area Guide accessed on October 17, 2014 (English)
- ^ Basilica of St. Mary of Angels at gcatholic.org