When it was chartered by New York State, the New York and Erie Railroad was prohibited from running through other states or connecting to railroad in other states and was required to have its western terminus on Lake Erie. The railroad recognized that it would eventually need to expand westward and this 1852 article discusses potential routes from the New York and Erie’s existing route through Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties to Pennsylvania and Ohio. One of the routes discussed in this article, through Jamestown and Ashville, NY, was surveyed by the Erie and New York City Railroad and built by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. The area described as the “mouth of Little Valley Creek” is now the city of Salamanca, NY.
The Journal, Jamestown, NY, 17 December 1852, NYS Historic Newspapers.