Settled in the early 1800s, Wellsville’s economy was first based on the lumber industry and the leather tanning industry.  Some vestiges of those industries remain in the form of the railroad right-of-way.  The right-of-way, the former Wellsville-Addison & Galeton, PA, is now a recreational trail extending south into Pennsylvania.

As the lumber industry waned, the oil industry boomed – – its legacy seen in the many beautiful public building and private residences that remain, as well as in the oil pumps that dot out some of the hillsides outside Wellsville.

Once one of the largest refineries in the Pennsylvania oil fields, the Sinclair Refinery operated in Wellsville until the 1950s.  Many of the buildings still stand and today are used by the School of Vocational Studies, Alfred State College.