as researched by Dick Garfield
6019 N.E.CO.RD. 340     
High Springs, FL 32643
386/454-7686
Email Jim at

Email Dick at
THE GARFIELDS OF
FRENCH CREEK,
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY,
NEW YORK
This Site is Researched & Maintained by:  Dick Garfield & Jim Fagerburg
Email Jim at

Email Dick at

This page was last updated on: October 26, 2003

To whoever happens upon these pages, Welcome my Friend.


         On  these few pages I have tried to take over 400 pages of family 
         history  and  show the Garfield Family Line in the Town of French
         Creek,  County  of  Chautauqua, State of New York. I have started 
         with,  Edward  Garfield,  the  first  to come to the New World in     
         1630.  Keeping  with tradition, in most cases I have only carried
         down the male family line.


         Edward  Garfield,  one  of  the founding fathers of Watertown, MA
         and  many  of  his  descendants  stayed in the Watertown area for
         quite some time. Then they gradually started moving into Vermont,
         Northeasten  New  york  and  finally  into Chautauqua County. Also
         many  others  traveled  further  west  into Ohio (President James
         A. Garfield) and beyond.


         The first recorded Garfield in Chautauqua County was, Dea. Samuel
         Garfield,  who  with  his  wife, Lydia Hayward, and maybe some of
         their  younger  children  moved  to  Busti, N.Y. in 1814. Samuel,
         was  elected  as  one  of  the  first of three property assessors
         of  the Town of Busti, N.Y. when it was formed on April 16, 1823.
         The  Garfields  then and later were known as breeders of purebred
         cattle and horse traders. They were prosperous and well-to-do.


         The  late  1800  and  early 1900 the Garfield families flourished
         in  the  French  Creek,  N.Y. area (at that time French Creek had
         its    own   Post  Office)  with  large  property  holdings,  and
         prosperous  farms.  They  also built a gristmill  on French Creek
         at  Durkeyville,  also  known  as  Marvin, a settlement which  at
         that  time  had  it's  own Post Office, dry goods store and a hotel
         that  was  used  as  a  overnight  stop  for  stagecoachs. As the
         families  spread  out  and  left  the area, the property was sold
         and  the  farms  deteriorated  until  now  there  are no Garfield
         properties or family members living in the Town of French Creek.


as researched by Dick Garfield
6019 N.E.CO.RD. 340     
High Springs, FL 32643
386/454-7686
Since November 9, 2001