USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 56
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263
THE HOLLAND LAND PURCHASE
tain towns for that purpose. We find in the Batavia hooks the first credit for cattle in 1822 or 1823. Cattle were this received for a number of years. We have seen, in the Eastern part of the Purchase, a few credits for grain; hut the receiving of grain, it is presumed. was never general, at any considerahle distance from a good market. An additional stimulus was given bv a notice to those most in arrears, that in case of speedy payment a liberal deduction would be made from the sims due. This was the cause of some dissatisfaction to those who had been more prompt in their payments, who re- garded it as a premium to their slack neighbors for their want of punctuality.
"During these times it was that most was heard of the impolicy of the plan of the Company for the dis- posal and settlement of their lands. Probably with the view of inviting immigration, articles were given to settlers on the most easy terms-to some. on payment of a sum barely sufficient to nay for drawing the con- tract, which was about one dollar; and many. douht- less were attracted hither by this easy mode of oh- taining possession of land. The early settlers were generally poor, having expended nearly the last dollar in their removal, and could scarcely have purchased on less accommodating terms. Yet some of these, after a short residence and sundry discouragements, sold out their "improvements" and sought new homes in more favorable localities. Then. too. was so often expressed the opinion that the Company would have done better. and the country would have been more prosperous, had the low price and cash plan heen adopted, as it would have brought in a better as well as a more industrious and enterprising class of inhabitants. That some per- sons of the lower class were drawn hither by the easy terms offered by the Company is true. But the old in- habitants of Chautauqua county still living will agree in saying that its early settlers were generally honest. frugal, and industrious, and in point of moral worth, not inferior to the population of any other county in the State" .- (Young).
"A recurrence to facts will reveal the true cause of the slow progress of the settlers in discharging their obligations to the Company. Most of them were com- paratively young men from the East, and poor. Wages had been low; and they had laid up little more than enough to buy a team and to defray the expense of their removal. They had heavily timbered lands to clear. and for a time had no sons able to help. nor the means of hiring help. And for a little surplus of the products of their farms, there was for years no mar- ket beyond the demands of newcomers. War came; and many were obliged to leave their farms and join the army. Some of them served to the end of the war- between two and three years. Peace returned; labor was again thrown upon the land; and within a few years there was a large surplus which scarcely com- pensated for raising it. The price of wheat in Roches- ter. then the nearest and best cash market in the west- ern part of the state, was 2s. 6d. to 3s. per bushel, which would hardly pay for its transportation in that time of bad roads. Occasionally a load was taken to Albany by teamsters going after goods for the mer- chants. At home. a bushel was given for a pound of tobacco, or a yard of brown cotton cloth.
"In providing means for prosecuting the war, double duties were laid upon imports, which duties were to continue during the war, and for a year after its close. These duties checked importations and encouraged home manufacturers. Many manufactories sprang into being. The period of high duties expired in the win- ter of 1816. Commercial intercourse with Great Bri- tain was resumed, and the country was again flooded with British goods. Our manufacturers were pros- trated. The country was drained of its money to pay for foreign goods; specie payments were suspended; and bank bills depreciated to 70 or 80 per cent. below par, and in some states to almost nothing. No wonder that the books of the Land Company showed so few and so small credits to settlers, nor that so many children went barefoot until the first snows had fallen. "A large portion of the settlers. however, still felt the pressure of their land deht. They thought it but just that the Land Company, who had grown rich under the laws of the state removing their alien disabilities, and exempting them from taxation, should contribute some share toward the expenditures of the state gov- ernment. Application was made to the legislature in 1833, for a law to this effect, which was passed in that year. The act was advocated by its friends upon the
principle, that, if any of our own citizens hold the same security, as the contracts of these non-resident landholders, such securities would be liable to taxa- tion: that the present value and ultimate payment of the debt due the Holland Land Company were involved in the stability of our laws; and that the construction of the Frie canal, effected by the settlers on their lands in connection with other citizens of the state, had in- rreased the value of the Company's purchase several millions of dollars, a considerable portion of which had been and would be realized by the Company" .- (Young).
It is interesting to note that John J. Vander Kemp, de- scribing himself as the general agent of the Holland Land Company, and also of Wilhem and Jan Willink, in connection with Robert Troup, general agent of the Pul- teney Estate, sent a joint memorial to the "Senate and Assembly of the State of New-York" in which they "Re- spectfully sheweth: That the bill now before the Assem- bly, for the taxation of land contracts and securities for the purchase monies of land belonging to persons not resident within the State, appearing to your memorialists to be objectionable in principle, and very oppressive in its application to the estates which they represent: and ap- prehending, moreover, that if enacted into law. it will, in its operation, prove highly injurious to the great hody of settlers in the western counties, your memorialists most respectfully submit to the Legislature a brief statement of their views in relation to this new and important fea- ture in our system of taxation." That "The loans made by capitalists in Holland, to aid the United States during the war, being reimbursed soon after the organization of the Federal government under its present constitution, and in consequence of the troubles then commencing in Europe, the pursuits of commerce offering no encourage- ment for the employment of these funds the Dutch mer- chants, under the influence of their early attachment to this infant Republic, determined to invest them in American lands. The tract of country now called the Holland Purchase, was bought in 1792 and 1793, but the Indian title was not extinguished till the year 1707; soon after which the whole tract was explored and carefully surveyed into .small parcels. The settlement of it was commenced in 1800, upon the system of selling on long credits to actual settlers; a system which, whilst cal- culated to postpone for a long time the reimbursement of the capital employed in it, was supposed to be well adapted to the then circumstances of this country.
"The actual expenditures of the Holland Company upon their Genesee lands, including interest, amounted in the year 1800 to 4.392.000 dollars. * * ** Several years since, the Holland Land Company entered upon a general system of reduction in their land debts, by which the amounts were to he regulated by the fair price of the land at that period, without regard to the improvements. In carrying into effect this system. up- wards of eleven thousand contracts have been renewed and modified upon the same principle. The whole amount of reductions resulting from the operation of this system. exceed 700,000 dollars. * * * The very large sums gratuitously expended by each (The Hol- land Land Company and the Pulteney Estate) in the making of roads, in the erection of bridges, in the con- struction of court-houses and churches, and in pro- moting religious and academical instruction, attest the truth of their sincere and uniform regard to the necessities and best interests of the numerous and meritorious class of citizens who had purchased their lands. The whole amount of the expenditures of the Holland Company for these objects and taxes, and in agency charges, since the year 1800, exceeds the sum of 1,500,000 dollars. Their taxes alone, (augmented by valuations in some cases amounting to double the price which the agents would gladly accept for them), have excreded, upon an average of the last thirty years 15,000 dollars per annum, drawn from a property entirely unproductive, and which, in progressive ap- preciation. can furnish no sort of equivalent for this continued drain.
"In conclusion. your memorialists, invoking a calm and cautious deliberation on this most important sub-
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264
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
ject. confide the high and delicate interests involved in it, to the justice, the good faith, and the wisdom of the Legislature."
The fact that the Legislature passed the tax law in spite of the brief filed by the memorialists would indi- cate their belief in the large profits the Company was supposed to be carning from their investment.
"After the passage of this law, the Company, through their local agent, served notices on persons having contraets on which payments were due, though the contraets had not expired, requiring them to pay. 'or satisfactorily arrange' the balance due, or quit the premises within two months. A citizen commenting on this notice in a newspaper remarked, that 'if every species of personal property owned by the settlers could be sold. the money would not half meet the re- quirements of this summary mandate.' The issuing of this notice, so soon after the passage of the act. is of itself strong presumptive evidence that this sudden change of policy was designed as a retaliation to those who had been instrumental in procuring the passage of the law. This evidence finds confirmation in the innuendo or threat uttered by one in the interest of the Company, while the bill was pending in the Legis- lature. that, 'it might be worse for the settlers' " .- ( Young).
"It will readily he imagined, that the announce- ment of this new policy produced a stir among the set- tlers throughout the Purchase; and their feelings found vent, to a great extent. through the newspapers. They advised the making of no new contracts while existing contraets were in life, and when they did renew, to agree to the payment of no tax but the ordi- nary land tax which they now paid. It was suggested that meetings be held in the several towns to consult on measures to be adopted; that the Company he peti- tioned to reseind the decree, and if this were not done, to petition the legislature. They also questioned the power of the Company to enforce the forfeiture of a contract until all the stipulated payments were due.
"In the same year or the year following. the Com- pany commeneed selling out their remaining interests in portions of the Purchase to small companies or to individuals. * In November. 1835, the Holland Company made an agreement with Trumbull Cary and George W. Lay, of Batavia, to sell to them all their estate, personal and real, in this eounty (Chautauqua). This consisted in wild lands, converted lands, lands held under valid contraets, and a few bonds and mort- gages on lands sold and not conveyed. The purchase money was payable as follows: $50,000 in hand. and the residue in four equal installments in six, twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four months; the Company to retain the legal title to the property as security, to receive all the moneys collected, and to take in their own name and retain all securities hy bonds. mort- gages, and contracts, which should be taken on sale of the lands and the liquidation of debts. But the local agent of the Holland Company was, as far as should be consistent with its security, to be governed by the direction of the new (equitable) proprietors."-
(Young).
In 1810, in anticipation of the formation of Chautauqua county the Holland Land Company built a land office of logs in Mayville and placed William Peacock in charge as their agent : When the county seat was fixed at May- ville the Holland Land Company was required to erect county buildings at its own expense, and convey them with a parcel of land on which they were situated, in quantity not less than half an acre, for the use of the county.
"The sale, or agreement to sell to the new proprie- tors, having come to the knowledge of the settlers, Mr. Peacock was applied to for information as to the terms and policy adopted, or to he adopted by the new pro- prietors; hut the applicants received no definite answer. The fact was reported to a meeting of set- tlers. at which a committee was appointed, consisting of Elial T. Foote, Oliver Lee, Samuel Barrett, Leverett Barker, and George T. Camp, who were to visit the new proprietors at Batavia, for the information they failed to obtain at Mayville.
"The policy of the new proprietors was explained to the committee and a written copy of it was made by Judge Foote. It has since been known as the 'Gene-
see Land Tariff'." The following is Judge Foote's copy:
"In all cases of articles which have expired since the first of January, 1835, or which may hereafter expire, a new sale may be made, and new contracts may he issued, payahle in ten annual installments, with inter- est annually, on the following terms, one-eighth of the purchase money being paid down:
"1. In all cases where the amount due on the old contraet is less than three dollars on the acre, an ad- vance of one dollar on the acre to be charged
"2. Where the amount due is over three dollars per arre, and less than five dollars, an advance of one and one-half dollars per aere to be charged.
"3. Where the amount is over five dollars on the acre, and less than eight dollars, two dollars per acre to be added.
"4. Where there is due over cight dollars per acre, an advance of three dollars per acre to he charged.
"5. Contracts which have been forfeited in conse- gence of non-compliance with the notices, to be con- sidered as expired.
"6. Any setiler holding under an article expired since January last. may be permitted to pay up and take a deed on the payment of per aere.
"7. In all cases where the land is worth twice the amount of the purchase money, a deed may be given and a mortgage taken on the above terms.
"8. Any settler may surrender his article before it expires, and take a new contract on the above terms.
"9. These terms are for the benefit of actual settlers, and not to be extended to those who hold contraets pledged for the payment of dehts, or who have pur- chased them for speculation; hut all such persons will be required to pay the full value of the land.
"'10. In ease any settler whose article has expired since the first of January last, or shall hereafter ex- pire, shall negleet to take a new article on the above terms, for the space of six months, the said land to be resold for a sum not less than wild land.
"11. No advance to be charged upon lands held by widows and orphan children.
"12. No wild land, or other land not heretofore articled, or any of that class of expired articles pur- chased as wild lands, at 2 dollars per acre, or the lots in Batavia or Buffalo to be sold until the same have been apprized, and a price fixed by the proprietors.
"Dated November. 1835.
"Incensed by what the settlers deemed an unreason- able advance on the prices of their lands, arrange- ments were soon made for a raid upon the land office in Mayville, with a view to the destruction of the books and papers belonging to the office" .- (Young).
The following is a description, given in the "Centen- nial History," of the circumstances that led up to and culminated in the destruction of the Holland Land Com- pany's office in Mayville :
"In 1835 the Holland Company contracted their un- sold lands, and lands of which there were outstanding and unexpired contraets, to Trumbell Cary and George W. Lay. It was understood that such of the settlers as could not pay for their farms would be compelled to renew their contracts, and pay a certain sum per aere in addition to the original price, and such inter- est as had accumulated thereon. This proposed ex- action was called the "Genesee Tariff". As soon as this fact became known to the inhabitants of the county, it produced great excitement. A large public meeting was held in Jamestown at which a committee was appointed, consisting of Elial T. Foote, Oliver Lee, Samuel Barrett, Leverett Barker and George T. Camp to confer with the proprietors at Batavia, and aseer- tain definitely their intention towards the settlers. The committee were unable, however, to obtain satis- factory information as to the matter. A second public meeting was held at Mayville, January 8th, 1836. The people were now greatly aroused, and this meeting was even more numerously attended than the former one. Leverett Barker was chosen president, and John M. Edson, secretary. James Mullett addressed the peo- ple in an impressive speech. Speeches were also made by Judge Foote and others; a committee of seven was appointed by the chairman, to which was added the chairman and secretary of this meeting, to confer with William Peacock, the agent of the company for Chau- tauqua County. Mr. Peacock received the committee coldly, and the little information he gave them was very unsatisfactory. The result of this conference produced great excitement, and the excesses which fol- lowed the proposed exactions were such as might have been expected.
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26
THE HOLLAND LAND PURCHASE
"The early settlers had braved a wilderness and wrought for themselves homes such as extreme toil. privation and hardship could accomplish. They had rallied at the call of danger. shed their blood and periled their lives in defense of the soil. The owners had grown wealthy by the industry of the settlers. and their agents rolled in fatness; to impose such terms at a time and under such circumstances as, in a ma- jority of instances, would deprive the settlers of their farms and compel them to ahandon their possessions, while a course of fair dealing and equitable require- ments on the part of the owners would enable them. after a few more years of toil, to call the soil on which the fire and vigor of their manhood had been expended. their own, was more than they would submit to or endure.
"There were small gatherings of the people in Gerry, Ellicott and Ellery, in which the subject was discussed. The more it was talked over, the more were the people incensed and inclined to resort to harsh measures. As the result of these gatherings a meeting was called at Hartfield, which was not well attended. This was adjourned by common consent to the 6th of February, and it was understood, without a formal declaration to that effect, that the purpose would be the tearing down the land office. Notice of this meeting was circulated through the interior towns of the county. On the 6th of February, from three hundred to five hundred people assembled at Barn- hart's Inn at Hartfield. They were principally from Gerry, Ellerv. Charlotte, Stockton, Poland, Ellicott. Busti and Harmony. Roland Cohb of Gerry was chosen chairman. Gen. George T. Camp was solicited by several to become their leader in the contemplated enterprise, but he declined, and in an earnest speech endeavored to induce them to abandon their violent intentions. The chairman also said that the Land Comnany might yet be willing to make terms, should another conference he had with them. Nathan Cheney, an intelligent and resoInte old settler, who stood lean- ing unon a sled stake while the speeches were being made. now abruptly and effectively addressed the meeting in these words, 'Those who are going to May- ville with me. fall into line.' The whole assemblage at once obeyed the order. chose Cheney their leader. George Van Pelt from Charlotte for lieutenant. formed into line and marched a short distance west of Parnes' store in Hartfield and halted. Cheney then called for twenty-five of the strongest men to do the work of dem lishing the Land Office. The number called for promptly stepped forward. Among them were Harri- son Persons, the Allegheny pilot before mentioned. 'Zeke' Powers (noted for his strength, afterwards a soldier of the Mexican war where he lost his life), 'Coon' and Jim Decker, 'Bill' Pickard. Peter Strong and Joe Coe (from Picard Street in Ellery) and other strong and resolute people. The people then resumed their march in double file for Mayville. the sappers and miners with Persons and Powers as leaders in advance. The only arms they carried were axes and crowbars and some hoop poles taken from a cooper's shop on their march. Two kegs of powder were taken along, although no use was made of them. When the party arrived at the Land Office (which was about 8 o'clock in the evening) Cheney posted the sappers and miners upon three of its sides and paraded the rest of the party around these workmen to guard them from outside interference. As a light was hurning in the building when they arrived, admittance was first de- manded to which no response was given Cheney in a strong voice then gave the order to strike. which was obeyed and all the windows came out with a crash. The door was broken down. and an entrance to the building affected. A costly clock was disposed of by the blow of an ax. A valuable map of the county, upon which every farm was delineated, was destroyed. The axemen made light work of the furniture and woodwork. They cut the posts and canted the build- ing over. They found some difficulty in opening the vault that contained the safe, which was made of solid mason work of cut stone. Van Pelt pried out the key- stone with an iron bar; others took one of the pillars of the building and used it as a battering ram, and strong arms soon battered down the door of the vault The iron safe enclosed was pried open, and half a cord of hooks and papers of the company were taken out. placed on a sleigh and carried to Hartfield, where a bonfire was made, and they were burned. Some of them, however, were carried away by the people and have been preserved. The party dispersed and went to their homes about midnight.
"The most of those engaged in this affair held con- tracts for the purchase of land. and, in many instances. would have suffered ruinous consequences from the
company's exactions. The proceedings were conducted in an orderly manner, and those engaged were gen- erally sober men. No liquor was used. except while the work of demolishing the building and opening the vault was going on. While the people were on the way from Hartfield to Mayville, Peacock was notified of their coming and left his office and took refuge at the house of Donald Mckenzie, and after remaining a short time in Mayville he went to Erie No further communication was had between the Holland Land Company or their agents, and the settlers until 1836. when a sale was made of the company's land to Duer, Robinson and Seward (Gov William H Seward), who opened an office in Westfield, where the business was conducted without disturbance or dissatisfaction".
The following letter will be of interest to show the intense feeling of the settlers and their continued efforts to pursuade Mr. Cary to formulate a more lenient policy towards the poorer settlers who had not been able to meet the payments on their lands when they fell due :
Fredonia. Feby. 18. 1836.
Hon. T Cary Sir. You have probably learned from the published pro- ceedings of a convention, held at Mayville in this County, on the Sth of January last to take into con- sideration the terms proposed by the recent purchasers of the lands in this County to the settlers, that we were appointed a committee to correspond with vou and others on that subject: and we assure you that we accented the appointment in the hope that we might be able to act as mediators, between the inhabitants and the owners of the land, and in that capacity allay rather than increase the dissatisfaction which existed among the people, by inducing you to remove all real causes of complaint.
We did not anticipate, and do most sincerely regret the violent measures which have since been adopted. and we also regret that any real cause of dissatisfaction should have existed to afford a plausible palliation of a transaction, which no one can justify in the abstract. The relation which exists between the present owners of the lands in this County and the settlers, is not a new and original one, but the present owners are con- sidered by the people as the representatives of the Company under whom they took their contracts. and morally bound by the understanding which existed between them at the time. We do not deny to vou, or any other men, the legal right to prescribe and fix. at pleasure, the terms and conditions, upon which you will dispose of your property; it is a right we all claim, and are willing to concede: but we do doubt the moral right of a creditor, suddenly and unexpectedly to change his policy towards his dehtor in such a man- ner as to embarrass him and increase the burden of his debt, or compel a sacrifice of his property. The policy pursued by the Holland Company for 20 years past, has heen one of lenity and indulgence towards the settlers.
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