Griffins Mills Presbyterian Church

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Griffins Mills Presbyterian Church sits in Griffins Mills, a small area of the town of Aurora, at 1807 Mill Road, West Falls, New York 14170. It is part of the Presbytery of Western New York and the Synod of the Northeast of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The church is one of Erie County’s oldest active churches.

The church’s story began with Rev. John Spencer, a traveling preacher and Revolutionary War veteran who helped start many churches in western New York. Around 1804 he moved west with his family to Sheridan in Chautauqua County and held the first religious meeting there in 1807. Spencer helped organize the West Aurora Congregational Church in Griffins Mills on August 18, 1810, with nine charter members: Benjamin Enos, Laurinda Enos, Seth McKay, Clement King, Mary King, Samuel Henshaw, Betsy Henshaw, Elizabeth Henshaw, and Joshua Henshaw.

In 1831 the church was incorporated as the West Aurora Congregational Society. The building was likely erected around 1812, and a dedication was planned for August 23, 1832. In 1844 the trustees approved buying a bell for the meeting house, which still hangs in the steeple today.

In the 1840s the church expanded its facilities: land was bought to build a Session Room and horse sheds, and a separate lecture room was later added. The exterior has changed little over time, while the interior was updated in the 1940s. The original windows, plank floors, and wall boards remain.

Griffins Mills was active in the anti-slavery movement. The first anti-slavery meetings in the area took place in 1834, and the Anti-Slavery Society of West Aurora was organized in 1835. Notable figures, including Isaac Phelps, helped lead the effort, and the abolitionist Sojourner Truth lectured at Griffins Mills during her western New York tour in the 1840s and again in 1868.

The church maintained ongoing ties to the Presbytery from the 1830s onward. On May 1, 1907, it was re-incorporated as Griffins Mills Presbyterian Church.