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Settlement and Incorporation

The Village of Wellsburg was officially incorporated on August 28, 1872, but people had been living in the area for much longer. Abner Wells and his sons built a log cabin there in 1787. They opened a store near the river five years later to trade with other early settlers. Bentley Creek, which flows through Wellsburg and connects to the Chemung River just north of the village, provided water power to early mills. In the 1830s, David Brewer and Salomon L. Smith both established sawmills along the creek. By 1848, the settlement’s streets and building lots had been systematically laid out to make a well-organized and ordered village. 

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