USA > New York > Erie County > Centennial history of Erie County, New York : being its annals from the earliest recorded events to the hundredth year of American independence > Part 9
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Certainly sach men as Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother, who had visited the eastern cities and had seen the wealth of the whites, must have known that a third of a cent per acre was a very poor price to pay for land. True, we may suppose they were bought, (which would accord with Red Jacket's character.) but one would imagine that, in the democratic Iroquois system. the warriors of the tribe could easily have prevented a sale, and in view of their reiterated complaints over the Fort Stanwix treaty and the sale to Phelps and Gorham. it is strange they did no: do so. They must have wanted whisky very badly.
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95
THE HOLLAND COMPANY.
CHAPTER XIII.
PREPARING FOR SETTLEMENT.
The Holland Company .- Three Sets of Proprietors .- Their System of Surveys. - The State Reservation. - The Wes: Transi .- The Founder of Basslo .- The Firs: Road .- Indian Trails -New AAmsterdam .- Hotel at Clarence. -. 1 Young Stranger. - Ellicott made Agent .- Firs: Wheat.
Much has been written and more has been said about the "Holland Company." When people wished to be especially precise they called it the "Holland Land Company." It has been praised and denounced, blessed and cursed, besought for favors and assailed for refusal, almost as much as any institution in America. Not only in common speech, in newspapers and in books, but in formal legal documents it has been again and again described as the "Holland Company" or the "Holland Land Company." according to the fancy of the writer.
Vet there never was any such thing as the Holland Company or the Holland Land Company.
Certain merchants and others of the city of Amsterdam placed funds in the hands of friends who were citizens of Amer- ica, to purchase several tracts of land in the United States. which, being aliens, the Hollanders could not hold in their own name at that time. One of these tracts, comprising what was afterwards known as the Holland Purchase, was bought from Robert Morris as has before been mentioned. From their names, I should infer that most of those who made the purchase for the Hollanders were themselves of Holland birth, but had been naturalized in the United States.
In the forepart of 1798 the legislature of New York author- ized those aliens to hold land within the State, and in the latter part of that year the American trustees conveyed the Holland Purchase to the real owners. It was transferred, however, to two sets of proprietors, and one of these sets was soon divided into two, making three in all. Each set held its tract as "joint tenants." that is, the survivors took the whole : the shares could
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THREE SETS OF PROPRIETORS.
not be the subject of will nor sale, and did not pass by inher- itance, except in case of the last survivor.
But there was no incorporation and no legal company. All deeds were made in the name of the individual proprietors. The three sets of owners appointed the same general and local agents, who in their behalf carried out one system in dealing with the settlers, though apportioning the expenses among the three sets according to their respective interests, and paying to each the avails of their own lands.
At the first transfer by the trustees the whole tract, except 300,000 acres, was conveyed to Wilhem Willink, Nicholas Van Staphorst, Pieter Van Eeghen, Hendrick Vollenhoven, and Rut- ger Jan Schimmelpenninck. The 300,000 acres were conveyed to Wilhem Willink. Jan Willink, Wilhem Willink, Jr., and Jan Willink. 'Jr. Two years later the five proprietors of the main tract transferred the title of about a million acres so that it was vested in the original five and also in Wilhem Willink, Jr .. Jan Willink. Jr .. Jan Gabriel Van Staphorst, Roelif Van Staphorst. Jr., Cornelius Vollenhoven and Hendrick Seve. Pieter Stad- nitzki, was also made a partner, though in some unknown manner.
In the hands of these three sets of owners the titles remained during the most active period of settlement, only as men died their shares passed to the survivors, and their names were drop- ped out of the deeds. Some twenty years later new proprie- tors were brought in, but the three sets remained as before. It will be observed that Wilhem Willink was the head of each of the three sets, and as he outlived nearly all the rest his name was the first in every deed.
The same proprietors, or a portion of them, also held large bodies of land in Central New York and in Pennsylvania, all managed by the same general agent at Philadelphia.
For convenience, however, all these owners will be described throughout this work by the name to which every one in Erie county is accustomed, that of the " Holland Company," and their tract in Western New York will be considered as distinct- ively the " Holland Purchase," though there were other bodies of land equally well entitled to the name.
The first general agent of the company was Theophilus Caze- nove, a Hollander sent out from Europe for the purpose. Pre-
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SURVEYING.
vious to the extinguishment of the Indian title to the Company's lands in New York, Cazenove had employed Joseph Ellicott to survey their tract in Pennsylvania. He was a younger brother of Andrew A. Ellicott, then surveyor-general of the United States, and had assisted him in laying out the city of Washington.
As soon as the treaty was made with the Indians, in the fall of 1797, Mr. Cazenove employed the same efficient person to survey the new tract. That same autumn he and Augustus Porter, the surveyor employed by Robert Morris, in order to as- certain the number of acres in the Purchase, took the necessary assistance, began at the northeast corner, traversed the northern bounds along Lake Ontario to the Niagara, thence up the river to Lake Erie, and thence along the lake shore to the western boundary of the State.
No sooner had the keen eye of Joseph Ellicott rested on the location at the mouth of Buffalo creek than he made up his mind that that was a most important position, and he ever after showed his belief by his acts.
The next spring. (1798.) the grand surveying campaign began, with Ellicott as general-in-chief. He himself ran the east line of the Purchase, usually called the East Transit. Eleven other surveyors, each with his corps of axemen, chainmen, etc., went to work at different points, running the lines of ranges, town- ships and reservations. All through the Purchase the deer were startled from their hiding-places, the wolves were driven growling from their lairs, by bands of men with compasses and theodolites, chains and flags, while the red occupants looked sullenly on at the rapid parceling out of their broad and fair domain.
The survey system adopted by the Holland Company was substantially the same as that previously followed on Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, and was not greatly different from that now in use by the United States all over the West. The tract was first divided into ranges six miles wide, running from Penn- sylvania to Lake Ontario, and numbered from east to west. These were subdivided into townships six miles square, num- bered from south to north.
The original intention was to divide every complete township into sixteen sections, each a mile and a half square; subdividing
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THE SURVEY SYSTEM.
these into lots, each three quarters of a mile long and one quar- ter wide, every one containing just a hundred and twenty acres. This plan, however, was soon abandoned as inconvenient and complicated, and the townships were divided into lots three fourths of a mile square, containing three hundred and sixty acres each. These were sold off in parcels to suit purchasers. It was a common but not invariable rule to divide them into "thirds" of a hundred and twenty acres each.
Twenty-four townships had already been surveyed when the first plan was abandoned, three of which were in Erie county, being the present town of Lancaster and the southern part of Newstead and Clarence.
Both systems differ from that of the United States, in that by the latter each township is divided into sections a mile square, and these into quarter-sections of a hundred and thirty acres each.
It will be understood that various causes, such as the exist- ence of lakes and rivers, the use of large streams as boundaries, the great fickleness of the magnetic needle, the interposition of reservation lines, etc., frequently caused a variation from the normal number of square miles in a township, or of acres in a lot.
The surveys went briskly forward. Ellicott, after running the east line of the Purchase, stayed at " Buffalo Creek" the greater part of the season, directing operations. By this name I refer to the cluster of cabins at the mouth of the creek, previously called " Lake Erie"; for on the opening of surveys that appel- lation was dropped, and the name "Buffalo Creek" was speedily transferred thither from the Seneca village to which it had be- fore pertained.
In the fall Seth Pease ran the line of the State reservation along the Niagara river, or the "streights of Niagara," as that stream was then frequently termed. There was some difficulty in determining its boundaries at the southern end, as the lake gradually narrowed so it was hard to tell where it ended and the river began. It was at length agreed between the State author- ities and the company that the river should be considered to commence where the water was a mile wide.
From the point on the eastern bank opposite this mile width
99
THE STATE RESERVATION.
of water, a boundary was drawn, consisting of numerous short lines, amounting substantially to the arc of a circle with a mile radius, giving to the State all the land within a mile of the river, whether cast from its eastern bank or south from its head. The boundary in question, since known as the " mile line," began at the foot of Genesee street, as afterwards laid out, crossed Church street a little west of Genesee, crossed Niagara street a few rods northwest of Mohawk, continued on the arc above described to the intersection of North and Pennsylvania streets, and thence ran northward, always keeping a mile from the river, to Lake Ontario.
Beside the East Transit, another standard meridian was run as a base of operations in the western part of the Purchase, and called the West Transit. It was the line between the sixth and seventh ranges, and is now the boundary between Clarence, Lancaster, Elma, Aurora and Colden on the east, and Am- herst, Cheektowaga, West Seneca, East Hamburg and Boston on the west.
A portion of the 300,000 acres conveyed to the four Willinks, as before mentioned, lay in a strip nearly a mile and a half wide, (113 chains, 68 links,) just west of the West Transit, extending from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario. The rest of the land be- longing to that set of proprietors was in the southeast corner of the Purchase.
All that part of Erie county west of the West Transit (except the preëmption right to the reservations), was included in the conveyance of a million acres to the larger set of proprietors, while that part cast of the Transit was retained by the five orig- inal owners. The transit, however, was not the line between the two sets throughout the whole Purchase.
The city of Buffalo was founded by Joseph Ellicott. He not only selected the site and laid out the town, but it was only through his good judgment and special exertions that there was any town there.
All through the summer and fall of 1798, though only the su- perintendent of surveys, and in no way responsible for the future prosperity of the Purchase, he labored zealously to get room for a city at the foot of Lake Erie. He saw that the State reser- vation would come down within a short distance of the cluster
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100
THE FOUNDER OF BUFFALO.
of cabins which he meant should be the nucleus of a great com- mercial emporium. He saw, too, that if the Buffalo Creek res- ervation, (which by the treaty with Morris was to be seven miles wide, lying on both sides of the creek), should be surveyed with straight lines, it would run square against the State reservation, and cut off the Holland Company entirely from the foot of the lake.
The Indians were not particular about having the land at the mouth of the creek for themselves, but they had granted two square miles to their friend Johnston, and, though they could give no title, they could insist on the whole being included in their reserve, unless an arrangement should be made with him. They had also given him, substantially, a life-lease of a mill- seat and certain timbered lands on Scajaquada creek, six miles from the mouth of the Buffalo.
Ellicott made frequent attempts to arrange matters with John- ston, but thought him somewhat extravagant in his demands. In a letter to Cazenove, dated at Buffalo Creek, Sept. 28, 1798, Ellicott says : "I have always considered this place one of the keys to the company's lands." Three times in two pages he speaks of it as "the favorite spot."
At length he succeeded in making a compromise with John- ston, by which the latter agreed to use his influence to have the Indians leave the town-site out of the reservation, on condition that the company should deed to him the mill-site, a mile square of land adjoining it, and forty-five and a half acres in the town, including his improvements. Johnston's influence was sufficient. So, instead of the north boundary of the Buffalo Creek reser- vation being extended due west, along the line of William street, striking the State reservation near Fourth street, as would otherwise have been the case, it turned, just east of what is now known as " East Buffalo," and ran southwest to the creek, and thence to the lake. It is now for nearly two miles the boundary between the first and fifth wards.
About this time Sylvanus Maybee came to Buffalo as an In- dian trader, and Mr. John Palmer took the place of Skinner as innkeeper.
The previous winter the legislature had authorized the laying out of a State road from Conewagus (Avon) to Buffalo Creek, and
IOI
INDIAN TRAIL.
another to Lewiston. The Company subscribed five thousand dollars for cutting them out. The first wagon-track opened in Erie county was made under the direction of Mr. Ellicott, who, in the spring of 1798, employed men to improve the Indian trail from the East Transit to Buffalo.
This trail ran from the east, even from the valley of the Hud- son, crossing the Genesee at Avon, running through Batavia, and down the north side of Tonawanda creek, crossing into Erie county at the Tonawanda Indian village. Thence it ran over the site of Akron, through Clarence Hollow and Williams- ville, to Cold Spring, and thence following nearly the line of Main street to the creek.
A branch turned off, running not far from North street to Black Rock, where both Indians and whites were in the habit of crossing to Canada. Another branch diverged at Clarence, struck Cayuga creek near Lancaster, and ran down it to the Seneca village.
Another principal trail ran from Little Beard's Town, on the Genesee, entered Erie county near the southeast corner of the present town of Alden, struck the reservation at the southwest corner of that town, and ran thence westerly to the Seneca village.
Besides, there were trails up the Cazenove and Eighteen-Mile creeks, and between the Buffalo and Cataraugus villages.
In 1799 little was done except to push forward the surveys. It was determined that the city to be built on the ground se- cured by Mr. Ellicott should be called "New Amsterdam," and he began to date his letters at that address. In that year the company offered several lots, about ten miles apart, on the road from the East Transit to Buffalo, to any proper men who would build and keep open taverns upon them. The lots were not donated, but were to be sold at the company's lowest price, on long time and without interest.
In Erie county this offer was accepted by Asa Ransom, the Buffalo silversmith, who located himself at what is now Clar- ence Hollow. This was the first settlement in Erie county made white-man fashion, that is, with a white man's view of obtaining legal title to the land. All previous settlement had been mere- ly on sufferance of the Indians.
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THE YOUNG STRANGER.
One of the first strangers who applied for entertainment at the new hotel was a young gentleman afterwards known as Colonel Harry B. Ransom. He arrived in November, 1799, and was in all probability the first white male child born in Erie county.
In this year a contract was granted evidently by special favor, to Benjamin Ellicott (brother of Joseph) and John Thomson, two of the surveyors, for three hundred acres in township 12, range 7, (Amherst,) which was not yet subdivided into lots. There is some discrepancy in the description as recorded, but I am satisfied that the contract covered the site of Williamsville, and the water-power there. The price was two dollars per acre.
The same year Timothy S. Hopkins, afterwards well known as Gen. Hopkins, came into the county and took charge of Johnston's saw-mill, the only one in the county, where he worked during the season. Notwithstanding the absence of regular set- tlers, the numerous camps of surveyors made "brisk times," and any one who was willing to work could get good wages and prompt pay.
Theophilus Cazenove, the general agent of the company, re- turned to Europe in 1799. His name, given by Mr. Ellicott to one of the largest streams in Erie county, remains as a perpetual reminiscence of his connection with the Holland Purchase. His place as agent was supplied by Paul Busti, a native of Italy, who until his death, twenty-four years later, faithfully discharged the duties of that position.
The next year the laying off of the Purchase into townships was completed, and a number of townships were subdivided into lots. Mr. Ellicott was appointed local agent for the sale of the land. While in the East, this season, he issued handbills headed "Holland Company West Geneseo lands," apprising the public that they would soon be for sale, and stating that they were situated adjacent to "Lakes Erie and Ontario and the streights of Niagara."
Mr. Ransom raised some crops this year, and T. S. Hop- kins and Otis Ingalls cleared a piece of land two miles east, (in the edge of Newstead,) and raised wheat upon it; the first on the Holland Purchase. When it was ready for grinding, Mr.
IO3
THE FIRST WHEAT.
H. was obliged to take it to Street's mill at Chippewa, forty miles. He went with three yoke of cattle by way of Black Rock, the whole population of which then consisted of an Irish- man named O'Niel, who kept the ferry. The ferriage each way was two dollars and a half, and the trip must have taken at least four days.
104
PINE GROVE.
CHAPTER XIV.
BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT.
The Office at Pine Grove .- A Hard Problem .- The First Purchase. - Dubious Records .- An Aboriginal Engineer .- A Growing Family .- A Proposed School House .- A Venerable Mansion .- Chapin's Project. The First Magistrate.
At length all was ready. In January, 1801, Mr. Ellicott re- turned from the East, staid a few days at "New Amsterdam," and then located his office at "Ransomville," or "Pine Grove." Sometimes he used one appellation in dating his letters, some- times the other, apparently in doubt as to which was the more euphonious. He could hardly have anticipated that both these well-rounded names would finally be exchanged for "Clarence Hollow." Several townships were ready for sale on the Pur- chase, at least one of which was in Erie county. This was township twelve, range six, comprising the south part of the present town of Clarence. Though township twelve, range five, (Newstead,) lay directly east, no sales are recorded as made in it till the latter part of the year.
Very slowly, at first, the settlement went forward. The land was offered at $2.75 per acre, ten per cent. down. But precisely there-on the ten per cent .- was the sticking-point. Men with even a small amount of money were unwilling to undertake the task of clearing up the forests, or even the "oak openings," of the Holland Purchase. Those who wished to buy had no money.
In a letter to Mr. Busti, dated Feb. 17, 1801, Mr. Ellicott says: "If some mode could be devised to grant land to actual settlers, who cannot pay in advance, and at the same time not destroy that part of the plan which requires some advance, I am convinced the most salutary results would follow." A rather difficult task, to dispense with the advance and yet retain the plan which required an advance. Mr. Ellicott does not solve the problem, but he seems to have been authorized to set aside the
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FIRST PURCHASE.
plan, for the time, for we soon find him selling without receiving the ten per cent. in advance.
It may be doubted whether it would not have been better, both for the company and the settlers, if the general agent had insisted on the original system. Settlement would have been slower at first, but it must have come ere long and it would have had a firmer foundation. If a man cannot raise thirty or forty dollars to make a first payment on a farm, it is very doubtful whether he will make the whole amount off from the land. Many did, but many failed.
There was, however, competition in every direction. There were large tracts yet unsold in the eastern and central parts of the State. "New Connecticut," now known as the Western Re- serve, in Ohio, was in market at low rates, the same was the case with Presque Isle, (Erie,) and in Canada the British govern- ment was granting lands at sixpence per acre.
The Ohio lands appear to have been a favorite with many. On the 26th of February, Mr. Ellicott notes in his diary that over forty people-men, women and children-lodged at Ran- som's the night before, moving principally to New Connecticut and Presque Isle.
Still sales went forward, especially in the present county of Genesee, next to the older settlements on Phelps and Gor- ham's Purchase. Some emigrants had previously come to this section for the purpose of settling on the Holland Purchase, but finding the land not in market had temporarily located in Can- ada, while awaiting the completion of the surveys. Some of these now returned and others came in from the East.
The first record of any person's purchasing a piece of land in Erie county in the regular course of settlement, and aside from the special grants before mentioned, is that of Christopher Sad- dler, who took a contract, or "article," on the 12th of March, 1801, for 234 acres on lots I and 2, section 6, town 12, range 6 ; being about a mile east of Clarence Hollow.
And here I may say that there is no certain record of the coming of the first settlers to the various towns. The books of the Holland Company only show when men agreed to pur- chase land, not when they actually settled.
After a short time an arrangement was made by which land
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106
AAN ABORIGINAL ENGINEER.
was " booked " to men who appeared to be reliable, for a dollar payment on each piece, when it would be kept for them a year before they were required to make their first payment and take an article. It soon became common for speculative persons to invest a little money in that way, in the hope of selling at a profit. Sometimes, too, men came from the East, looked up fand and purchased in good faith, but did not occupy it for a year or two later. Once in a while, too, though this was more rare, a man located in the county without buying land.
Consequently the records of the Holland Company are very unreliable as to dates in regard to individuals. Moreover, I have obtained my information from certified copies of the com- pany's books on file in Erie county clerk's office. These differ widely from the list of purchasers given in "Turner's Holland Purchase," also purporting to be copied from the company's books. Still, by comparing the two, and by eking them out with the recollections of old residents, I think I can give a tolerably clear idea of the general progress of settlement.
Besides Mr. Saddler, among those who took lands in Clarence in ISoI were John Haines, Levi Felton and Timothy S. Hop- kins. Of these Mr. Hopkins was, as before stated, already a resident, and Mr. Felton probably became one that year.
The road along the old Indian trail, from Batavia to Buffalo, was not satisfactory to Mr. Ellicott. So in March he made an arrangement with an Indian whom he called " White Seneca," but whom that Indian's son called " White Chief," to lay out and mark with his hatchet a new one on dryer land. He agreed to give ten dollars, and eight dollars for locating a road in a similar manner from Eleven-Mile creek, (Williamsville,) via the " mouth of the Tonnawanta " to "Old Fort Slosher."
White Chief began on the 21st day of March, and on the 26th reported the completion of the survey of the first road. On the 28th Mr. Ellicott inspected a part of it, and appears to have been well pleased with the way in which the aboriginal engineer had followed the ridges and avoided the wet land.
In June another youthful stranger came to the Ransom hotel, in the person of Asa Ransom, Jr., the second white male born in the county, who still survives, an opulent and well-known resident of Grand Island. Mr. Ransom, senior, announced the
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