History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 18

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422

USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 18

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178

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

into the wilderness against the savage tribes;" and we may well believe that the hearts of the colonists fully responded, and that they cordially united in the ceremonies of the day thus set apart.

Our whole army was greatly impressed with the beauty of this country and the fertility of its soil; and the attention of settlers was directed hitherward by the glowing descriptions brought home by the soldiers. That restlessness which follows all great wars was particu- larly notable after the Revolution, making the period a favorable one for emigration; and a decade had not passed away before a number of privates and officers who had formed a part of Sullivan's army and others, attracted by their accounts, removed hither or were preparing to make this region their future home. Thus did the Indian cam- paign of 1779 directly tend to the settlement of the Genesce country; while the bloody wrongs inflicted by its aboriginal lords resulted in their expulsion therefrom, and their speedy downfall as a separate nation.

In the spring of 1780 several Seneca families came back, and tem- porarily settled in the neighborhood of their former villages on the Genesee; but the greater portion of them never returned. The pre- caution had been taken by the natives, prior to Sullivan's arrival, to bury a quantity of corn, beans and other seeds, first placing them in mats of black ash bark then concealing them in a "cache," or trench dug in the earth, covering the whole with sand and litter. The army did not find this buried grain, and it was withdrawn by the Indians from its hiding places on their return and used by them for the spring's planting.1

1. See appendix for an account of the celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of Sullivan's Expedition into the Genesee country, held at Geneseo, September 16, 1879. Also Chapter 17, for an account of the various interments of the remains of Boyd and Parker and the other members of the scouting party who were killed in the Groveland ambuscade.

( 1.5,-

The posso Rivers

LAKE ONTARIO

cerà. Hills

ROSEVELTSPUR

By the Pres horas

Rumlgut Bhp

Osteção

LAKE ERIE

Kony quatre Lo.

Purchase

Seneca Inka

Caragaff I ake

Granted to sh ..

ChATOR

MORRIS'S

Imensan. drum

L'ropused Hund

YORK CHMUNG.

Pennsyl.

Map showing Phelps and Gorham Purchase.

En hit. Osi Ras

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

CHAPTER VIII.

T HE SOLDIERS of the Revolution were quite ready at the close of the great struggle to return to the pursuits of peaceful industry. The fertile region which stretches beyond Seneca lake and as far westward as the Genesee river, had especially attracted the attention alike of officers and men of Sullivan's army, and the valleys and hillsides so precipitately abandoned by the fugitive red men, were by another decade to count among their per- manent occupants some of those who had first seen them under con- ditions far less pacific.

Years, however, before the Continental army had penetrated to these remote homes of the Indians, the country along. the Genesee had been made familiar to the eyes of many a score of white prisoners, brought hither by that horde of dusky prowlers who, for nearly a quarter of a century, embracing that period of disquiet along the border which ended only with the Colonial war, lost no opportun- ity of harassing the frontier settlements, and whose predatory enter- prises lay so little under the restraints of regular warfare.

During the French war, as well as during that of the Revolution, prisoners taken by the Senecas and other tribes allied with them were brought to these Western fastnesses, whose remote situation afforded them immunity, to be detained in the capacity of artisans or laborers, or surrendered to their friends on the payment of fixed bounties. When permanent peace at length released all, those who were then remaining in captivity were prepared to impart useful in- formation respecting the country to the vanguard of the pioneers.

In 1765 there were twenty-four white prisoners "among the Chenesseo (Geneseo) Indians. "1 A year later Sarah Carter, a young white girl taken captive in Pennsylvania, reported that there were "forty Yankee prisoners among the Geneseo Indians, one of whom was a large, lusty negro" blacksmith then working at his trade for

See Mss. papers of Sir William Jobu-ou in the State Library. The Senecas are generally - mentioned in those valuable papers as the Chenesseo or Genesee Indians.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

the natives. He had already bought the time of a young Connecticut girl for five pounds currency and had otherwise befriended those who had fallen into the hands of the natives. Squash Cutter and Long Coat, two chiefs of the Delaware tribe who lived much among the Senecas at that period, employed themselves in bringing in captives to the towns on the Genesee and selling their time to the Indians, all of whom were exchanged or released before Mary Jemison, Captain Horatio Jones, Joseph Smith and other whites found enforced homes in this region.

New England and Pennsylvania did most toward peopling the Genesee country. The capitalists of Connecticut and Massachusetts were first to risk their means in the inviting lands which peace had thrown open to enterprise. But before any title could be given, an important question of jurisdiction involving a history of England's grants had to be settled.

From about 1680 to 1759 Western New York was claimed by France as a part of the province of New France or Canada. By virtue of the discovery of the Hudson River by Hendrick Hudson, Holland, under whose auspices he sailed, claimed the territory . immediately watered by the North River and an indefinite breadth to the east. west, and south, to which she gave the designation of New Nether- land. This vague claim embraced Western New York.

At the close of the Revolution, this part of the State was claimed by two Commonwealths. Before the Colonial struggle both Massa chusetts and New York, under color of their respective royal English grants, had contended for its ownership, and peace was no sooner re- stored than the contest between them for this tempting domain was revived.

In the Congressional Library at Washington are two venerable folios in manuscript, containing the transactions from day to day, as well as the chief speeches and debates, of the Virginia Company of London, from April, 1619, to June. 1624. These books have come down from Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, president and treasurer of the Company, whose name is conspicuous in English annals, through many a famous owner, and their origin, relating as it does to the first title of this region derived from the English crown, and connected as it is with the controversy between the two States, be- comes a matter of interest to us. The patent of that notable Com-

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

pany was sealed by James I on the 6th of April, 1606, on petition of Richard Hackluyt and other "firm and hearty lovers of colonization, " who had humbly asked the privilege of establishing "a colony of sundry persons of our people in that part of America commonly called Virginia, between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude," and stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The associates under the charter secured, Sir Thomas Gates and other "adventurers of the city of London," called the First Colony, were authorized to plant be- tween latitude 34 and 41; while Raleigh Gilbert and his associates of the English town of Plymouth, constituting the Second or Plymouth Colony, might plant between the 38th and 45th degrees, their grant covering the whole vast belt of territory extending "throughout the main land from sea to sea, " and including, of course. all of Western New York. 1 The Virginia Company did not prosper. In the hope of improving its condition, the directors secured a more specific charter with enlarged privileges. But the change proved a snare. James was at the time ambitious of a Spanish match for his son Charles, while Gondonar, the astute minister of Spain, feared that the great Virginia Company intended to take possession of the colonies and mines established by Spaniards in the New World. The latter, therefore, lent his powerful influence to those members of the court who sought the overthrow of the Company, and to conciliate the Spanish minister, as well as to gratify the Lord Treasurer, the Earl of Essex and his party. the King lent a willing ear to the movement to destroy the Company. A pretext was soon found, and in 1624 the Lord Chief Justice declared the charter null and void. This strange act of the most unkingly of kings was but one in that category of monstrous assumptions of the crown at this "period of vast contest and dispute," which hastened the decisive struggle of the seventeenth century between the sovereign and parliament. The rapacious oppon- ents of the Company had, with the sanction of James, no doubt, for some time been eagerly seeking to obtain its records. To prevent interpolation, should they in a contest so unequal fall into the un- friendly hands of Warwick and his partisans, as they did. the original

1. See manuscript charter in Virginia Records, 1621-25, Library of Congress: also History of the Virginia Company of London, by Edward D. Neill. The associates named of the First Colony were Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hackluyt, and Edward-Maria Wingfield and of the Second (or Plymouth) Colony, Thomas Hanham, Raleigh Gilbert William Packer and George Popham

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

records were secretly copied and carefully authenticated. The two manuscript volumes before referred to, written in the peculiar hand of the times "on a kind of elephant paper," which, after two hundred and fifty years, found a repository in our National archives and on soil so directly affected by the charter, constitute the duplicates produced under conditions so befitting the period in which they had their origin. They afford conclusive evidence of the upright conduct of the Company, and dispel all charges of false faith made by the Spanish party, as it was called, at the English court. As the originals were taken possession of by that arbitrary body, the celebrated "Star Chamber," and never restored, these are perhaps the only records now extant of the Company,

That little band of God-fearing men, the Puritans or Pilgrims, were settled at Leyden in 1617. After much thought they decided to emi- grate to America and live as a distinct body under the government of Virginia, if permitted here to exercise the freedom of their religious opinions. A patent, whose privileges were as ample as the Virginia Company had authority to confer, was secured, and the Pilgrims set sail from Delft Haven on the 6th of September, 1620, in the Mayflower, intending to locate near the Hudson river. Accident, however, car- ried their little vessel to the barren headlands since well known as Plymouth Rock, far to the northward of the bounds of their charter,

which thus became "void and useless." In the following Spring a grant was secured from the Plymouth Company of the territory on which they had unintentionally settled. The colony grew, and in 1628 Charles I issued a charter for its government under the title of the province of Massachusetts Bay. 1 A half century later this patent was vacated, but renewed in 1691 by William and Mary, who express- ly recognized the western boundary, as had each of the other patents, as extending from ocean to ocean.

In 1663 Charles II conferred upon his brother, then Duke of York and Albany, afterward King James II, all land lying between the Delaware river and the Hudson and northwards to the bounds of Canada. This royal donation embraced the present State of New Jer- sey, which subsequently became the property of Berkley and Castaret.

1. In 1628, the Council of Plymouth (or Plymouth Company ) transferred to Sir Henry Roswell and his associates, constituting the Massachusetts Bay Company, a part of their immense grant, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

and also New York, which uniformly claimed, under the somewhat vague designation in the charter, the whole area of our present State and as far eastward as the Connecticut river. Massachusetts, on the other hand, claimed to the Hudson and likewise the western half of the territory of New York and westward to the Pacific, under the old charter of James I to the Council of Plymouth. The charters of these two leading provinces, covering in large part the same terri- tory, led to controversies as settlements expanded, both as to the right of property and the right of jurisdiction. And as each assumed to make grants to settlers in the debatable region, especially in that portion which lay between the Hudson and the Connecticut, and to some extent in that lying westward beyond the country of the Mo- hawks, angry dissensions and bloodshed followed upon the disorders occasioned by intrusions upon lands held under color of one or the other of the opposing interests. As early as 1767, Commissioners were appointed by the two provinces, who met at New Haven, and, after several days spent in discussion, "with grief found themselves obliged to return to their principals, leaving the controversy unsettled."1 The Revolution, whose common danger hushed all minor disputes, soon came, but on the return of peace the questions were reopened. The Legislature of this State regarded the claim on the part of Massa- chusetts an ungracious one. The two States had fought and acted side by side during the Revolutionary struggle; "and after all the severe calamities by which these States hath been distressed in the progress of vindictive war," said they, "we flattered ourselves that the period was at length arrived when we should have an opportunity to repair our misfortunes without envy or interruption." Agents. however, were appointed by the two States to settle their respective rights. They met, consulted and separated, after uniting in a request for the friendly interposition of Congress, under the terms of the old Articles of Confederation. Governor George Clinton called an extra session of the Legislature, which convened in October, 1784. Referring to the controversy he says: "Since the close of your last session the Legislature of Massachusetts have thought fit to set up a claim to land lying somewhere within the ancient jurisdiction of this State, the

1. See case of the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New York, respecting the boundary lines. Lieut. Gov. Hutchinson and two others appeared for Massachusetts, and Robert R. Living- ston and two others for New York. Al subsequent conventions between the two States, John Han- cock and other eminent men took part.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

precise location being left in obscurity. They have requested Con- gress to appoint a Federal court to inquire and determine such claims." It was not, however, until the joint commission of the two States had concluded its labors at Hartford, on the 16th of December, 1786, that a compact was formed for the permanent settlement of the questions so long in issue. By this Massachusetts ceded to New York all claim and title to the government, sovereignty and jurisdiction of the lands and territory in controversy, and New York released to the former State and to her grantees, the right of pre-emption of the soil from the native Indians, and all title and property, in that portion of this State lying west of the "pre-emption line," which commences at the southeast corner of Steuben county and extending northward through Seneca lake, terminates at Sodus Bay, embracing an area of about six millions of acres of the fairest portion of the State. 1

On the first of April, 1788 Massachusetts accepted the proposals of an association of gentlemen of capital, represented by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, for the purchase of its pre-emptive right to the whole section, for three hundred thousand pounds in the consoli- dated securities of that State, worth then about four shillings in the pound. These funds later advanced in value, and Phelps and Gor- ham were unable to meet their engagements. In February, 1790, they offered to surrender all but that one-third of their great purchase lying between Seneca lake and the Genesee river, and a small portion west of the river, to which, on July 8th, 1788, they had secured by treaty at Buffalo Creek a release of the Indian claims, for the consid- eration of two thousand one hundred pounds, New York currency, and an annuity of $500.2 This offer was formally acceded to by Massa- chusetts in June of the same year, and the consideration therefor was reduced to thirty-one thousand pounds. The portion retained by them constituted what is now known as Phelps and Gorham's Pur- chase, 3 and embraced all lands lying between the pre-emption line and a line drawn from a point on the Pennsylvania boundary dne south of

1. The release to Massachusetts also embraced 230,400 acres between the river- Owego and Chenango, known as the Massachusetts Ten Townships, in Chenango county.

2. There was subsequently much complaint as to the terms of this treaty. See appendix No. " for speeches of Red Jacket, Cornplanter and other chiefs and President Washington respecting the subject.

Also known as the Genesee tract.

Aller Craft

Non

SIX HOW

Hapfor

Nº 10

Canera

Nº 9

Geneseo

Withamsburg

Nº 8

Herroch Lake

LONG L

From Augustus Porter's survey of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase-1792.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

the confluence of Canaseraga creek with the waters of the Genesec river thence north to such confluence; thence northwardly along the river to a point two miles north of the Canawaugus Indian village: thence due west twelve miles; thence northwardly, twelve miles dis- tant from the bounds of the river, to Lake Ontario. 1 The east line measured about eighty-five miles, the south line about forty-five miles, and within the boundaries are the counties of Ontario, Steuben and Yates, and portions of the counties of Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Allegany and Schuyler. On the 21st of November, 1790 this tract was confirmed to Phelps and Gorham by an act of the Legislature of Massachusetts. A survey of the tract. afterwards made showed that it exceeded both in quantity and value, one-third of the whole territory. For this difference the purchasers duly accounted.

In 1789 Mr. Phelps opened at Canandaigua the first regular land office for the sale of unoccupied lands to settlers ever established in America. The system he adopted for the survey of his lands by town. ships and ranges, was, with slight modifications, adopted by the Gov- ernment for the survey of all the new lands in the United States. " These ranges were six miles in width, running north and south through the whole purchase, and numbered from east to west. The

1. The Indian deed signed at this treaty contains the following description of the tract . "Beginning in the northern houndary line of the State of Pennsylvania, in the parallel of the 420 degree north, at a point distant 82 miles from the northeast corner of Pennsylvania or Delaware River, thence running west upon said line to a meridian passing through the point of land made the confluence of the Shanahasgreaikonreche ( Canaseragar creek with the waters of the Genesee by river, thence north along said meridian to the point last mentioned, thence northwardly along the waters of the Genesee river to a point two miles north of Shanawageras ( Canawangusi village, thence due west 12 miles, then in a direction northwardly so as to be 12 miles distant from the most westward bend of the Genesee river to Lake Ontario, thence eastwardly along the said lake to a meridian which will pass through the place of beginning and thence south along the said meridian to the place of beginning." The deed was witnessed by the Rev. Samuel Kirkland and others, and was approved by him under authority of a resolution of the Legislature of Massa- chusetts appointing him to superintend and approve the purchase.

2. The portions of the purchase within the limit- of the present county of Livingston are townships 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in range 7, corresponding with the towns of Ossian, West Sparta, Grove. land, Geneseo and Avon respectively; townships 7. 5, 9, to and the northwest quarter of 6 in range 6, corresponding with Sparta, in part, Conesus, Livonia, Lima and North Dansville respectively, and township 7 and the western part of 10 in range 5, corresponding with the eastern parts of Springwater and Lima respectively. The western part of Lima i - in township zof range ;; the west. ern part of Springwater, including somewhat more than a third of that town, is in township - of range 6, and that portion of Lima lying between Honeoye outlet and the east line of Livonia con- tinued northerly is in township to of range 5. The survey was originally made by Colonel Hugh Maxwell in 1758. A re-survey was made in 1791 and 1;q?, under the direct on of Major Hoops : - appears in the appendix.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

ranges, in turn, were subdivided by parallel lines, six miles apart, running east and west, denominated townships, which were num- bered from south to north. The ranges were seven in number, each embracing fourteen townships. The latter were mostly subdivided into lots of 160 acres each for the accommodation of actual settlers.

Settlements did not immediately follow the purchase by Phelps and Gorham. Indeed, it was not until 1792, when, by the opening of roads eastward and southward, access was facilitated to the new land of promise, that the tide of emigration thitherward began.

In the disposition of their lands Phelps and Gorham accommodated their terms to the circumstances of purchasers. Several of their con- tracts drawn in January, 1789, contained the provision, "We engage to receive the one-half of each obligation in good merchantable ox or cow beef at the market cash price, or in West India goods at cash rates, provided, however, that so far as we receive in those articles ten per centum is to be added to the debt due to us."

With the exception of the parts that had already been sold and two townships reserved by them, Phelps and Gorham sold the whole of this one third part of the original purchase to Robert Morris, the eminent financier of the Revolution, the friend of Washington and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and conveyed the same to him by deed bearing date the 18th of November, 1790.1 The quantity of land conveyed was supposed to be about one million one hundred thou- sand acres, but it transpired later that the actual quantity was one hundred and sixty-seven thousand acres more; the price paid by Mr. Morris was thirty thousand pounds, New York currency. He also sub- sequently paid the sum of nine thousand four hundred and seventy-six pounds for the quantity of land conveyed in excess of one million acres, in conformity with an agreement made at the time of the conveyance. 2

The lands acquired by this purchase soon passed out of the hands of Mr. Morris. Agencies had been established by him at the principal capitals of Europe for the sale of these lands, the value of which the owner himself, though holding them in high estimation, had essentially

1. The whole transaction in relation to the Phelps and Gorham purchase was finally settled by an indenture entered into between them and Massachusetts, bearing date March 10, 1791, in pursuance of which the balance due from Phelps and Gorham, in respect to their retained portion of the entire territory, was paid on the 6th of April, 1813.

2. This was at the rate of eight pence half penny Massachusetts money. See appendix No. g for account of survey made by Major Hoops of the Morris purchase.

Robert Morris.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

underrated. Just as he became fully aware of their great importance and before he could communicate with his foreign correspondents on the subject, William Temple Franklin, a grandson of Dr. Franklin, had sold them in England for thirty-five thousand pounds sterling to an association composed of Sir William Pulteney, ' an eminent British statesman who, it would appear, was able to devote little personal at- tention to the affairs of the company; John Hornby, once Governor of Bombay, India, a retired capitalist of London, and Patrick Colquhoun, a philanthropic Scotchman of large means, and at the time High Sher- iff of Westminster, England, upon whom the details of settling the purchase and disposing of the land principally devolved, a duty he performed with so much acceptance to his associates and with such enlightened liberality as to gain the respect of the settlers.

The associates now required an agent who should proceed at once to the new purchase and personally superintend their interests. At this time Charles Williamson, a Scotch gentleman who had spent several years in America, had come to London, where he was honored with the friendship of William Pitt and other leading men of the English capital. lle had held a captain's commission in the British service, and being ordered to this country with his regiment during the Revo- lution, the vessel which bore him was captured by a French privateer. Williamson was brought to Boston and there held a prisoner of war until the close of the struggle. Opportunity had been afforded him to become acquainted with the quality of our new lands of which he read- ily availed himself, and as he was quite willing to accept the offer of the associates to manage their estates, he was engaged for the term of seven years. He possessed qualities which, in many directions, pecu. liarly fitted him for the position, and the appointment proved a fortu- nate one for the settlers if not for his employers. He enjoyed the con- fidence of his principals, their material resources were ample, and if his discretion was not at all times judiciously exercised, his zeal could not be questioned. On reaching Philadelphia he made the acquaintance of Robert Morris. After securing all the informa- tion about the Genesee country within reach, he made up his mind that a road must be opened to the purchase. He was told that this

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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 18

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen Number of Pages: 1422

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422