EDEN - was formed from "Willink,", (now Aurora,) March 20, 1812. Boston was taken off in 1817, and Evans in 1821. It is an interior town, lying S.W. of the center of the co. Its surface is hilly and broken in the E. and level in the W. A ridge about 500 ft. above the lake extends along the E. border. The principal streams are Eighteen Mile Creek and its branches. The soil is a gravelly loam intermixed with clay. Eden, (p.v.,) situated near the center of the town, contains 3 churches, a sawmill, a stave and shingle mill, a tannery, and 63 houses; Eden Valley, (p.v.,) on Eighteen Mile Creek, contains a gristmill, a sawmill, and 20 houses. Clarksburgh (p.o.) and East Eden (p.o.) are hamlets. The first settlement was made in 1808 by Benj., Joseph, and Samuel Tubbs.(1) The first religious services were conducted by Rev. Wm. Hill, in 1812. There are 8 churches in town.(2)
(1)Among the first settlers were John Marsh, Silas Este, and Calvin Thompson, who came in 1809, and Daniel and Edward Webster, in 1810. The first birth was that of Hannah Tubbs, in1809; the first marriage, that of David Doan and Anna Hill, in 1815; and the first death, that of Jas. Welch, in 1812. Elisha Welch built the first sawmill, in 1811, and the first grist mill, in 1812. Wm. Hill kept the first inn, in 1814, and Fillmore & Johnson the first store, in 1820. The first school was taught by Rowena Plack, in 1812.
(2)Ref. Prot. D., Bap., Evang. Luth., M.E., Presb., and R.C.
J.H. French, Gazetteer of the State of New York (Syracuse, New York: R. Pearsall Smith, 1860), p. 281 - 282.