Postcard from North Evans: Eighteen Mile Creek

The fourth in a series about discoveries made during my trip to western New York and Ontario, where I researched my Becker/Baker, Cassidy, Sheridan, Cailteux, and Schiltz families. 

 

Dear Family,

One of my goals when traveling to Western New York and Ontario recently was to see the places my ancestors lived. I had especially great luck finding North Evans in Erie County. This was the home of my third great-grandmother Mary Jane Sheridan after her family left Buffalo's Hydraulics neighborhood in about 1851. Her father, Henry Sheridan, was employed as a shoemaker in North Evans as he was for years before in Buffalo. 

Comparing an historical map of North Evans from 1866 against a modern street view map surprised me. Virtually nothing has changed in terms of the street layout. Eighteen Mile Creek, which ran to the north and east of town, had an identical path now to when the old map was created. On the current-day map, I noted a fishing pier called Hobuck Flats along the creek and made that my destination.¹

Modern map of North Evans, New York.

 

1866 map of North Evans, New York. Arrows indicate one shoe shop and the Catholic church.

I drove to North Evans early one morning and made the turn down a steep winding road towards the pier. Though the street had no name on the 1866 map, today it is known as Versailles Road and appeared to be the very same street where the hamlet's two shoe shops were located. Parking the car in the pier’s small lot, I made my way down the path towards Eighteen Mile Creek, noticing the surrounding forest density similar to what I saw in Sheldon earlier in my trip. 

Dense woods surround Eighteen Mile Creek.

The creek is spanned by a metal bridge today and the water level was low. As I stood on the bridge and looked over the clear water, I wondered if Mary Jane and her family ever made their way down to this creek to draw water, gather berries, fish, or to simply to enjoy the view. Maybe Mary Jane and her siblings dangled their toes in the creek from whatever footbridge existed in her day.

Bridge spanning Eighteen Mile Creek in N. Evans.

Though the water level was low this lazy summer day, a passing young fisherman told me it could rise to the bottom of the tree line at its highest. I tried to picture the water quieted in icy stillness on a frigid winter morning or the rushing snow-fed runoff as it splashed by in the spring. 

 

Back in Mary Jane’s time here there was a tannery, a grist mill, and a sawmill located down by Eighteen Mile Creek to better harness the water power to run their operations. I imagine as a shoemaker, Henry had occasion to walk down this very same hill to collect leather from the tannery there or to bring grain to the grist mill to be processed.

At the other end of the bridge, the path was nearly overgrown with vegetation. Tall trees, shrubby undergrowth, and flowering plants lined it. I was treated to birdsong and the trickle of water as it flowed by. Bright magenta perennial sweet pea, yellow roadside agrimonia, and soft purple wild bergamot grew abundantly along the shore, delighting bees and butterflies. Deep in these woods sound is muffled and the world outside fades away. Though they were not evident at that time of day, I could well imagine all sorts of woodland creatures making this their home, perhaps deer, squirrel, chipmunks, and all manner of birds. Did Henry or Mary Jane’s brothers hunt in these woods for small game?

Perennial Sweet Pea.

 

A Silver-Spotted Skipper enjoys a Sweet Pea treat.

Wild Bergamot.

Roadside Agrimonia.

Making my way back up the road I slowed my car to look at the house that currently occupies the space just off the intersection of Versailles and South Creek Road, where the 1866 map shows one of North Evans' shoe shops in Henry's time. The placement of the houses on the corner is the same, though I would guess that the buildings themselves have transformed many time since Henry worked there and the Sheridans called this community home.² 

The possible site of one of the shoe shops where Henry Sheridan worked in the 1850, now a home.

Like Sheldon that I visited earlier, the hamlet of North Evans does not have a central square but in the 1850s this intersection was home to everything that locals could need: a school, Catholic, Congregational, and Methodist churches, a carpenter shop, wagon shop, and stores, in addition to homes. Today, many homes remain on these same streets along with a fire station and post office. Just down the road a Wesleyan Methodist church occupies the approximate location where the local Catholic church once stood.

It’s hard to judge whether North Evans was as sleepy in Mary Jane’s day as it was the morning I visited. Except for an infrequent passing car, there was little activity. But it was easy to see that if it was as beautiful and peaceful there in the Sheridan’s time as it was that Sunday morning, it would have been enough to convince me to move away from Buffalo’s bustling Hydraulics neighborhood and towards a more rural life.


 

Next week, I'll take you inside the Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria in St. Catharines, Ontario, where members of my Becker, Cassidy, Sheridan, and Cailteux families worshipped. 

Nancy

Until next time...

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2025. All rights reserved. 

NOTES

All photos and video by author unless otherwise noted.

¹ Google Maps, (https://www.google.com/maps : accessed 5 August 2025), North Evans, New York. Also, New Topographical Atlas of Erie Co., New York (Philadelphia: Stone & Stewart, Publishers, 1866), 51, N. Evans; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/997435/ : accessed 25 Feb. 2025); citing Central Library, Rochester and Monroe Counties, New York.

² Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps : accessed 5 August 2025), 6962 Versaille Road, North Evans, New York. Sadly, neither of the two photos I took showed the house well, so Google Street View to the rescue!