I will be posting some excerpts from a history book about Elba written by Scott Benz commemorating the 175th Anniversary of the town in 1995.   The following is the first of many…

Elba was divided from the Town of Batavia, March 14, 1820, and at that time included the present Town of Oakfield, covering an area of some 38,000 acres.  It was not until April 11, 1842 that Oakfield was separated from Elba, leaving it to its present size of 22,631 acres.

The first town meeting was held on April 14, 1820 at the tavern of Nehemiah Ingersoll, on Oak Orchard Road.  Lemuel Foster was elected supervisor; Mason Turner, town clerk; George Mills, John Underhill, and Charles Woodworth, assessors; Mason Turner, collector; Isaac Benedict and Erastus Wolcott, overseers of the poor; Dudley Sawyer, Mark Turner and Jeremiah Wilford, commissioners of highways; Lemuel Foster, Isaac Higley and Jeremiah Wilford, commissioners of schools; Eleazur D. Davis, Samuel White and  Martin Wilson, school inspectors; Nehemiah Ingersoll, poundmaster and Eleazur D. Davis, Ichabod Hinckley and Jessemin Drake, constables.