[4] The village that is now Fredonia was most likely first occupied by early Mound Builders, then the Erie people (13th to 17th centuries), then the Iroquois (specifically, the Seneca).

In 1821,[6] William Hart dug the first well specifically to produce natural gas in the United States on the banks of Canadaway Creek in Fredonia.

It was 27 feet (8.2 m) deep, excavated with shovels by hand, and its gas pipeline was hollowed out logs sealed with tar and rags.

[7] It supplied enough natural gas for lights in two stores, two shops and a gristmill (currently the village's fire station) by 1825.

The name "Fredonia" was coined by Samuel Latham Mitchill, coupling the English word "freedom" with a Latin ending.

On August 8, 1867, the cornerstone of the Fredonia Normal School was laid on a site where the Old Main building stands today.

The Fredonia Normal School is now One Temple Square and Association, a 91-unit, NY HUD housing project for the disabled and the elderly that was started by Henry F. Sysol Jr. in the late 1970s.

The theater underwent a complete nine-year restoration in the 1980s by the Fredonia Preservation Society and a cadre of volunteers.

In 1930 under the director of the Normal School, Hermann Cooper, 58 acres (230,000 m2) of land west of Central Avenue were bought with the dream that one day it would become a campus.

The construction of a music building took place in 1939, and in 1942 the Feinberg Law converted the Normal School into a teachers college.

Subsequent the unification of the Kingdom of Italy many immigrants moved to the lush grape growing region to have a better life and seeking the ability to purchase land their ancestors were denied for centuries by the despotic Bourbon Kings of Sicily.

[10] On January 28, 2020, Fredonia was named the winner of the 2020 Small Business Revolution reality show, which aired on Hulu and Amazon Prime.

Fredonia is used as a model for the influence of pattern books, catalogs and journals on the style of houses in the whole United States.