[citation needed] The earliest settlers were Nathaniel Titus and Dr. Ruth Belden in 1804, and the first landowner in the area was John Cummings, who built the first grist mill in 1806.

One of the early noted activities of the town board that year was to place a $5 bounty on wolf hides, due to the complaints of the local settlers who were being bothered by them.

Starting in 1890 and to support the growing regional steel industry, Polish and Italians began to arrive in the area.

The Kleis Site, containing the remnants of a 17th-century Iroquoian village and burial ground, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

[10] Hamburg experiences a continental climate (Köppen Dfb), heavily influenced by lake-effect snow from Lake Erie.

The economy in the town is supported by a wide variety of sectors, including logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, commerce and education.

In Blasdell, the Ford Motor Company operates a stamping plant with over one thousand employees.

This site includes the primary FedEx Ground warehouse for the Buffalo metropolitan area, employing 300 people,[15] and an Amazon, Inc. distribution center.

The fair is produced by the Erie County Agricultural Society, and runs for twelve days in August.

According to the legend, Frank and Charles Menches were food vendors at the 1885 Erie County Fair, and created a sandwich of use of ground beef, coffee, brown sugar and other ingredients, and sold with ketchup and sliced onions.

Hilbert has numerous NCAA division three sports teams including but not limited to basketball, football, women's hockey, soccer and lacrosse.

The Seaway Trail, a National Scenic Byway, travels through Hamburg on New York Route 5, along the Lake Erie shoreline.

The district serves students living outside of the village of Hamburg along the lake shore of the town, and is an independent public entity.

Frontier was created in the 1950s, combining the Amsdell, Athol Springs, Big Tree, Blasdell, Lake View (Pinehurst), Shaleton, Wanakah (Cloverbank), and Woodlawn school districts dating to the 19th century.

In 2020, Buffalo Business First ranked Frontier as the fifteenth-best performing school district in the Western New York region.

Both Frontier and Hamburg Central are members of the Erie 1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services system.

The Hamburg, West Seneca and Orchard Park central school districts serve the village and small portions of the town.

Five bus lines operated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA)[26] serve the town.