WEST SENECA

town (township), Erie county, western New York, U.S. It lies immediately southeast of Buffalo, in the lee of Lake Erie. It was settled in 1842 by the Ebenezer Society Amana colonies, a German religious sect that purchased 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) of the Seneca Indian Reservation. The town, organized as Seneca in 1851, was renamed in 1852 to avoid confusion with another Seneca farther east. Between 1855 and 1862, the Ebenezers, concerned over the worldly influences of nearby Buffalo, sold their property and moved west to Iowa, but not before they established an agricultural economy that has since given way to more specialized nursery, greenhouse, and truck farming. Area 21 square miles (55 square km). Pop. (1990) 47,830; (1998 est.) 46,292.