MORE BRADFORD: Bradford High history teacher in July of 1925 Luella Harris set about educating local residents about early settlers to the Tuna Valley in a letter to The Era.

While folks assumed people came by teams of oxen, she let them know that water was an important means of travel in the early years.

“One family at least, that of Nathaniel Edson, who came in the 30s, came from Olean by rafts, poling their way up the creek.

“It was late in the fall when they reached their destination, having come from Massachusetts by the Erie and Genesee Valley canals, A huge dry-goods box packed with clothing fell off the raft into the creek and was soaked with water, and forced to the bottom. One of the earlier recollections of my mother was seeing that box standing before the fireplace and the clothing being peeled off, layer by layer, as it thawed,” she wrote.

The Era supplemented her comments. “The raft method of transportation was doubtless used by many coming to Bradford in the early days. Many of the early settlers of the Allegany and Ohio valleys used this means of cheap transportation. They came across country by Conestoga wagons and later by the canals to Olean. There rafts were built and whole families, with their household goods and sometimes cattle, floated down the stream to their new homes. Many proceeded to the far west. The part played by the Allegany river from Olean down in the settlement of the country is one that has been sadly neglected by historians in the past.

A few thousand that came this way must have been impressed by the fertility of the Tuna valley as they neared it and decided that their journey should end here.”