Town History

Colden was founded by a man named Richard Buffum. He left Rhode Island with his children and some others to move west in order to find a new home. They carried everything in an ox cart, and a some of the possessions they took with them are still in existence today. They settled in what is present day Colden. Buffum purchased 2,000 acres of land from the Holland Purchase Company.

First Birth and First Death

The first birth in Colden was the daughter of Thomas Pope in 1811, and the first death was Nathaniel Bowen, a hired hand, in 1812. The first marriage was when James Sweet married Charlotte Buffum, Richard’s eldest daughter.

Buffum Mills

Buffum and James Bloomfield, a hired hand, built a grist mill, and the settlement there was then known as Buffum’s Mills. The mill was rebuilt twice and moved once. The first school was taught by Mary Eddy. Buffum and others then built houses farther away and built a road leading to them.

Town Organization

On April 2, 1828, the town was organized. It contained 22,704 acres and Silas Lewis was the first supervisor. The first post office was established in 1830 in Leander J. Robert’s house and was called Colden After Cadwalder D. Colden, who was a State Senator. Three years later, it was moved to Buffum’s Mills, and Buffum became postmaster. The post office kept the name Colden, and gradually, the settlement accepted the name.