In 1811, Ahaz Allen built a grist mill, the first in the territory of Lancaster, on the site of Lancaster Village . . . The first recorded purchase of land in the Lancaster area was made in November, 1803 by Alanson Eggleston, the price being two dollars per acre . . . In 1874, Lancaster's first fire department, the Rescue Hook and Ladder Company No. I, was born. . . . One of the earliest settlers in Depew was Appolos Hitchcock, he came in 1808 to settle south of Broadway along Cayuga Creek, west of Bordon Road...Population as of 2000:16,629.... The earliest settlers in the area cut trees in the vast forests and sold the wood in Buffalo and to ships in the port....Depew is named after Chauncey Mitchell Depew, who was president of the Hudson River and Harlem railroad.