[3][4] Post-Revolutionary War white settlement at Tonawanda began with Henry Anguish, who built a log home in 1808.

He added to the hamlet in 1811 with a tavern, both on the south side of Tonawanda Creek where it empties into the Niagara River.

By the end of the 19th century, both sides of the canal were devoted to businesses as part of a leading lumber processing center.

After crossing over the river from Grand Island, the tornado damaged the old Murray School as well as several homes along Franklin and Kohler streets.

Goose Island was known as a bad section of Tonawanda, with drunkenness, brawling, and bawdy displays being commonplace.

The establishments in the Goose Island section of Tonawanda came under community pressure in the 1920s and 1930s and were closed, with more of the land there being given over to the boxboard mill.

The company was founded in 1873 with a leatherboard mill by Jonas Spaulding and his brother Waldo in Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts.

After Jonas Spaulding's death in 1900, his sons (by then living in New Hampshire, where they had corporate headquarters at Rochester) continued to operate these mills successfully.

With continued success, the three Spaulding brothers added a vulcanized fibre operation in Tonawanda, New York in 1911.

In the 1930s, they added a second product at the Tonawanda plant: Spauldite, a "me too" phenol formaldehyde resin material made to compete with Bakelite.

[7] The company in Tonawanda flourished under foremen, superintendents and workers from the local blue collar workforce.

In addition, after the death of Huntley Spaulding, corporate offices relocated to Wheeler Street from Rochester, New Hampshire.

The Wheeler Street Plant reportedly covered 610,000 square feet (57,000 m2), employed 1,500 workers, and had an annual payroll of $9,000,000.

The Tonawanda plant began a slow decline during a period of industrial restructuring and product and manufacturing changes.

[9] It fell into disrepair and, because of the wastes of the industrial processes, was classified as a brown field site under environmental regulations.

For one week, members of both communities celebrate Tonawanda's historic location on the western end of the Erie Canal in the largest festival of its kind.

The Historical Society of the Tonawandas operates a museum in the former New York Central & Hudson Valley Railroad station, which has exhibits depicting the area's lumber industry and Erie Canal history.

The Long Homestead is a restored Pennsylvania German-style house built in 1829 and containing period furniture from the early 19th century (the Historical Society of the Tonawandas provides guided tours).

Isle View Park, on the Niagara River overlooking Grand Island, is available for biking, hiking, rollerblading, fishing and launching boats.

[16] Tonawanda is the home of inventor Phillip Louis (Phil) Perew, who is fictionalized in the alternate history world created by artist and author couple Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett.

In the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, Easy Company soldier Warren "Skip" Muck states he is from Tonawanda and he swam across the Niagara River.

Muck died in the Battle of Bastogne and is on the City of Tonawanda memorial to soldiers killed in World War II.

Edward Niland (a third brother) was listed as killed in action in the Pacific, but was found in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp at the end of the war.

[citation needed] In Mark Twain's Diaries of Adam and Eve, first published in 1906, and popularized by the musical The Apple Tree, Tonawanda is identified as the site Adam and Eve move to after they are removed from the Garden of Eden (which is identified as "Niagara Falls Park").