History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents, Part 14

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Publication date: 1880
Publisher: F.W. Beers & Co.
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Two days later . Robert Morris, the illustrious financier, whose services were of such vital importance to the nation during the Revolution, contracted with Massachusetts for the pre-emption right to all of New York west of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase. About this time he also bought 1,264,000 acres of Phelps and Gorham (paying £30,000 in New York currency), which he soon sold to three English gentlemen, Sir William Pultney, John Hornby and Patrick Colquhoun, for £35,000 sterling. It was only after much difficulty and delay that Mr. Morris completed his title to the tract of which he had purchased the pre-emption right from Massachusetts. It was necessary to buy out the inter- est of the Indians, and this was accomplished by a council at Geneseo in September, 1797, when he was enabled to purchase all of the State west of Phelps and Gorham's Pur- chase, except that the Indians retained eleven reservations, amounting to about three hundred and thirty-eight square miles; among them the Gardeau reservation, elsewhere spoken of, a part of which was included in the present town of Castile.

It was by his speeches in the councils affecting the title to the lands of western New York that the Seneca chief Red Jacket came into prominence. He figures in history as a crafty demagogue, vain, ambitious and dishonest; a cow- ard in war and a sot in peace; chiefly noted for his harangues against parting with the lands of the Seneca na-

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THE MORRIS RESERVE AND THE HOLLAND PURCHASE.

tion, and the bitterness he usually manifested against the power by whose grace alone the nation had any lands after the Revolution.

The conveyance from Massachusetts to Mr. Morris was made May 11th, 1791, by five deeds. The first covered the land between Phelps and Gorham's Purchase and a line be- ginning twelve miles west of theirs on the Pennsylvania border and running due north to Lake Ontario. The next three embraced as many sixteen-mile strips crossing the State north and south, and the fifth what remained to the westward of these.

The tract covered by the first mentioned deed was what has been called " Morris's Reserve," from the fact that he retained the disposition of this section in his own hands when he subsequently sold all west of it. It included in Wyoming county the eastern tier of towns. He sold the re- serve in large tracts, though small as compared with his purchase. Its western boundary, separating it from the Holland Purchase, was the " east transit " line, so called be- cause it was run with a transit instrument in connection with astronomical observations, the variation of the magnetic needle disqualifying the surveyor's compass for running a meridian line. It is called the "east " transit to distinguish it from a similarly surveyed meridian passing through Lock- port, which is called the "west " transit. The laying down of this line was a slow and laborious operation. It involved nothing less than felling a strip of timber three or four rods wide most of the way across the State, to give unobstructed range to the miniature telescope of the transit. This re- quired, beside three surveyors, a considerable force of axmen. On most of the line all hands camped where night overtook them in the unbroken wilderness. All of the summer and autumn of 1798 was consumed in running the first eighty miles of the transit meridian, there being about thirteen miles remaining undone on the 22nd of November.

The surveyor in charge of this work was Joseph Ellicott. He was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1756. In 1770 the family removed to Maryland and founded Ellicott's Mills on the Patapsco river. Joseph was taught surveying by his brother Andrew, who was afterward surveyor-general of the United States and professor of mathematics at West Point. He assisted the latter in laying out the city of Washington, and in 1791 surveyed the boundary line be- tween the State of Georgia' and the Creek Indian lands. The remaining years of his business career were chiefly spent in the service of the Holland Land Company, so called. His intimate connection, in this capacity, with the history of western New York is thus summed up by the historian of the Holland Purchase:

"No man has ever, perhaps, been so closely identified with the history of any region as he is with the history of the Holland Purchase. He was not only the land agent, superintending from the start surveys and settlement, exercising locally a one-man power and influence; but for a long period he was far more than this. In all the early years of settlement, especially in all things having reference to the organization of towns, counties, erection of public buildings, the laying out of roads, the establishment of post- offices-in all that related to the convenience and prosperity of the region over which his agency extended-he occupied a prominent position, a close identity, that few if any pa- trons of new settlements have ever attained."

CHAPTER VI.

THE HOLLAND PURCHASE AND PURCHASERS POLICY OF THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY.

DECEMBER 24th, 1792, Robert Morris deeded to Herman Leroy and John Linklaen one and a half million acres of his lands west of the east transit line. On the 27th of the following February, he gave a deed for a million of acres to these gentlemen and Gerrit Boon. July 20th, 1793, he conveyed to the same three parties eight hundred thousand acres; and on the same day to Herman Leroy, William Bayard and Matthew Clarkson, three hundred thou- sand acres. . These gentlemen purchased this vast tract as trustees for a number of rich merchants of Amsterdam, Holland, who have been commonly spoken of as the Hol- land Company, and the Holland' Land Company; though there was no corporation with either of those titles. The immense estate acquired by them, being all of New York west of the east transit line except the Indian reservations arid the State mile strip along the Niagara, constituted the Holland Purchase.

The purchasers bought through the above-named citizens of New York because they themselves, as foreigners, could not at the time legally hold real property in the State. The Legislature of 1798, however, changed this regulation, and the trustees thereupon turned over the property to the ac- tual owners; all but three hundred thousand acres being transferred to Wilhelm Willink, Nicholas Van Staphorst, Pieter Van Eighen, Hendrick Vallenhoven, and Rutger Jan Schimmelpennick. The remainder went to Wilhelm Wil- link, Jan Willink, Wilhelm Willink, jr., and Jan Willink, jr. Two years after, Jan Gabriel Van Staphorst, Roelif Van Staphorst, Roelif Van Staphorst, jr., Cornelius Vallenhoven and Hendrick Seye also acquired an interest in the tract.

When the Indian title to the Holland Purchase had been extinguished by Mr. Morris in 1797, measures were imme- diately taken for the survey of the tract, so that it might be put in market, sold and settled. Operations were directed from Philadelphia by Theophilus Cazenove, who was the first general agent of the Hollanders. He appointed Joseph Ellicott chief surveyor, and in the autumn of 1797 he and Augustus Porter, Mr. Morris's surveyor, as a step toward as- certaining the actual area of the purchase, made a tour of its lake and river front. The running of the east transit line in the next year by Mr. Ellicott, as already related, was another step in the survey of the Holland Purchase; and at the same time eleven other surveyors, each with his corps of axmen, chainmen, etc., went to work at different points running the lines of ranges, townships and reservations. "All through the purchase the deer were startled from their hiding places, and 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 division of the land began on the plan which had been followed in Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, namely, the laying off of six-mile strips, reaching from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, called ranges, and numbered from east to west, and dividing them by east and west lines into regular

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HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY, NEW YORK.

townships, numbered from south to north. Each township was to be subdivided into sixteen mile-and-a-half squares called sections; and each of these into twelve lots three- fourths of a mile by one-fourth, containing one hundred and twenty acres apiece. After twenty-four townships had been surveyed on this plan, the subdivision was judged un- necessarily minute, and was so much so as to be often ill adapted to the surface of the ground; and thereafter the mile-and-a-half squares composing a township were each divided into four three-quarter-mile squares of three hun- dred and sixty acres apiece, which were sold off in quanti- ties to suit purchasers; quite commonly going off in one- hundred-and-twenty-acre lots, as originally planned.

The price at first charged for the company's lands was $2.75 per acre, one-tenth to be paid down. The proprietors found it very difficult to obtain this ten per cent. advance payment. It was extremely desirable to secure settlers for the tract, for every pioneer who located made the country more attractive to those who might be contemplating a sim- ilar movement. Lands could be had very cheap in parts of the State nearer the centers of population and also in Ohio, while farms in Canada were offered by the British govern- ment at sixpence per acre. The competition among owners of large tracts was thus so strong that the proprietors of the Holland Purchase often waived all advance payment by actual settlers, and subsequently reduced the price to an average of $2 per acre. Even so their lands at first went off but slowly. The rate of sales, however, constantly in- creased. In 1801 there were 40 ; in 1802, 56; in 1803, 230; in 1804, 300; in 1805, 415; in 1806, 524; in 1807, 607; in 1808, 612; in :809, 1,160.

No detailed account will be given here of the settlement of this part of the State. The pioneer. experiences of the settlers of different towns belong to the annals of those towns; but a few remarks will give such a glimpse of the progress of settlement as may properly be taken at this point. A tourist who visited western New York in 1792 gives the following:

"Many times did I break out in an enthusiastic frenzy, anticipating the probable situation of this wilderness twenty years hence. All that reason can ask may be obtained by the industrious hand; the only danger to be feared is that luxuries will flow too cheap. After I had reached the Genesee river curiosity led me on to Niagara, ninety miles -not one house or white man the whole way. The only direction I had was an Indian path, which sometimes was doubtful. The first day I rode fifty miles through swarms of mosquitoes, gnats, etc., beyond all description. At eight o'clock in the evening I reached an Indian town called Tonnoraunto, it contains many hundreds of savages, who live in very tolerable houses, which they make of timber and cover with bark. By signs I made them understand me, and for a little money they cut me limbs and bushes suffi- cient to erect a booth, under which I slept very quietly on the grass. The next day I pursued my journey, nine miles of which lay through a very deep swamp. With some diffi- culty I got through, and about sundown arrived at the fort of Niagara."

An interesting exhibit of the state of business in western New York in 1804 is afforded in " a description of the Gen- esee country," by Robert Monroe. From it the following is extracted:

"Trade is yet in its infancy, and has much increased within a few years. Grain is sent in considerable quantities from Seneca lake and the Conhocton, Canisteo, Cowanesque and Tioga rivers to markets on Susquehanna river, and flour, potash and other produce to Albany; and a consider- able quantity of grain has for some years past been exported by sleighs in winter to the west of Albany. Whiskey is distilled in considerable quantities, and mostly consumed in the country, and is also exported to Canada and to Susque- hanna. The produce of the country is received by store- keepers in payment for goods, and, with horses and cattle, is paid for land. Several thousand bushels of grain have been purchased in the winter beginning this year, 1804, for money at Newtown [Elmira], and at the mills near Cayuga lake. Hemp is raised on Genesee river and carried to Albany. Droves of cattle and horses are sent to different markets, and a considerable number of cattle and other provisions are used at the markets of Canadarqua [Canandaigua] and Ge- neva, at Niagara, and by settlers emigrating into the country. Cattle commonly sell for money at a good price, and as this country is very favorable for raising them they will probably become the principal article for market; many being of opinion that the raising of stock is more profitable as well as easier than any mode of farming. The following is a list of prices of articles and the rate of wages since January, 1801:

" Wheat, from 62 cents to $1 a bushel; corn, from 37 to 50 cents a bushel; rye, from 50 cents to 62 cents a bushel; hay, from $6 to $12 a ton; butter and cheese, from 10 to 16 cents a pound; a yoke of oxen, $50 to $80; milk cows, from $16 to $25; cattle for driving, $3 to $4 a hundred pounds; a pair of good working horses, $100 to $125; sheep, from $2 to $4; pork, fresh killed, in winter, $4 to $6 a hundred, and salted, in spring, $8 to $10; whiskey, from 50 to 75 cents a gallon; salt, $1 a bushel, weighing 56 pounds; field ashes 4 to 9 cents a bushel ;- 600 bushels may be manufactured into a ton of pot or pearl ash, which has been sold at mar- ket at $125 to $150, and some persons, by saving their ashes or by manufacturing them, have nearly cleared the cost of improving land; the wages of a laborer, Sio to $15 a month and board; a suit of clothes made at $4 to $5; a pair of shoes, $1.75 to $2.50. Store goods are sold at very moderate prices, the expense of carriage from Albany to New York being about $2 a hundred weight."

The Holland Land Company's policy in selling their lands at a high price and giving long credits has often been criti- cised, both in its bearing on the company's interests and those of the settlers on these lands.

It has been insisted that a lower cash price would have brought to this region a different class of settlers, having money with which to pay for their lands, and that the rela- tions between the company and the settlers would have ter- minated sooner, and that the difficulties which arose between them would have been averted. It has been held that this policy caused western New York to be settled by a poorer class of emigrants, and that the development of its resources was thus many years retarded; that easy terms of payment tended to encourage laxity and indolence among the settlers, and that more active and energetic pioneers went beyond the Holland Purchase, where lands could be purchased much cheaper for ready cash or shorter credits.

To this it has been replied that though the settlers in

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SETTLERS IN THE HOLLAND PURCHASE.

western New York were in many cases poor young men, a larger proportion of them possessed that energy and self- reliance which fitted them for successfully grappling with and surmounting the difficulties and obstacles which they encountered in the untamed wilderness where they sought to make their homes, than of those who had been reared in the midst of comforts and luxuries which they did not create, who were not inured to hardships and privations, and whose energies stern necessity had never called forth.

It has also been stated that though the company gave longer credits, thus enabling a poorer class of immigrants to procure homes and lay the foundations of future independ- ence, it is not true that the average price at which the lands were sold was greater than that charged by the government. It is unknown to many that the price of government lands in the States west of New York was at that time $2 per acre. No one could purchase less than a quarter section (160 acres). An immediate payment of $80 was required, and an annual payment of $80 thereafter, and the land was forfeited if the whole were not paid within five years .. In the depression which succeeded the war of 1812 the lands of many settlers were forfeited, and though Congress passed acts for the relief of such, many lost their lands.

According to the books of the company the settlers were very dilatory in making their payments, and many without doubt forfeited their claims. Many others, after remaining some time on the lands which they had purchased, sold their "betterments " and went elsewhere. The process of " natural selection " was not in the end detrimental to the country.

It must be remembered that many of the settlers upon the Holland Land Company's land were poor young men, who, from their scanty wages, had saved a sum barely sufficient to purchase teams, defray the expenses of their journey hither, and make small payments on their purchases. They had then to encounter the stern realities of pioneer life. The heavy timber which grew on their lands was to be cut and cleared away, with little help beyond that of their brave and hopeful young wives. When their farms came to pro- duce a small surplus beyond their domestic wants, this found no market except among new settlers.

In an address delivered by him, Hon. Augustus Frank said: "From 1810 to 1820 the population increased very rapidly, particularly after the war with Great Britain had closed. The year war was declared, 1812, was 'a complete damper to all sales of new land,' and it was said that 'more settlers went out than came into the Genesee county.' The call for volunteers was promptly responded to in all this re- gion of western New York. Companies of infantry and cavalry were raised and went forward. Many took active part in the war, and the loss of life by sickness and in bat- tle was large. In 1812 the country about us was compara- tively sparsely settled. The male inhabitants were mostly farmers, who had but a little time before 'taken ' up their lands. Few had paid for them. They had to leave their families and their farms, not only to vindicate their country's honor, but to defend their own firesides. The war was just along their own borders. It was a severe trial, but the pio- neers of this region were made of stern stuff, and battled for their country as they battled but a few years previous to clear the forests, and make homes for themselves and their famil- ies. But few of the soldiers of 1812 are left to tell us of their trials during the war of that and the succeeding years.

Even those at home, and the families of those in service, had their severe troubles. Many of you have heard of the fright at times occasioned by the rumor of 'the coming of the British and Indians.' After the burning of Buffalo, partic- ularly, this whole section was terrified. Turner says: 'The citizens commenced their flight soon after the repulse of our troops at Black Rock; but few lingered until after daylight. After putting in requisition all the available means of con- veyance, even to the last yoke of oxen and sled, many of the women and children were under.the necessity of fleeing on foot, wading in the snow. From the start upon the frontier the first and second day, the throngs were constantly increas- ing by addition of families along the roads, that would has- tily pile a few of their household goods upon sleighs, horse and hand sleds, and join in the flight. Entire backwoods neighborhoods were deserted, hundreds of log cabins were desolate, and the signs and sounds of life were mostly the deserted cattle and sheep, lowing and bleating, famishing for the lack of fodder there were none left to deal out to them.'

"Many of you remember hearing these incidents and some of you, perhaps, remember the facts, The war ended in 1815, and the tide of emigration again set in for the Gen- esee country, and from that date until 1820 the increase of population was large, coming particularly from the New England States."

On the return of peace a surplus of labor, which the cur- rent prices of produce would not remunerate, flooded the land. The heavy duties which had been imposed on imports for the support of the war had stimulated domestic manu- factures. On the removal of these imports the country was flooded with foreign goods. Manufacturing industries be- came stagnant, the country was depleted of specie, and the currency greatly depreciated. Under such circumstances it was not wonderful that the company's clerks were not.fa- tigued by entering credit in the books, or that the early snows of winter showed the tracks of many naked little feet.

The families of these settlers were clad in cloth which the industry of their wives produced; for the wheel and the loom constituted a part of the furniture of nearly every house, and " black salts," extracted from the ashes into which the forests were burned, were almost their only resource for money with which to pay taxes and purchase a few indis- pensable supplies. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 ameliorated to some extent the condition of these set- tlers, but still the land debts of many weighed heavily on them.

CHAPTER VII.

RELATIONS BETWEEN THE HOLLAND COMPANY AND THE SETTLERS-LAND OFFICE WARS.

N their dealings with the early settlers the agents of the Holland Land Company often displayed great kindness and generosity. An instance of this was seen in a neighboring county, where an area of a few hundred acres was covered with ex- cellent pine timber. This land they refused, during many years, to sell. Applicants were uniformly told

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HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY, NEW YORK.

that it was not in market; and when the agents were in- formed that the settlers were stealing the timber they re- plied, "They ought not to do that," or "We must see to them." One applicant, on being refused, said to the agent, "If you won't sell me any of this land I shall be compelled to steal timber there." "I hope you will steal no more than you want," replied the agent, laughingly. It was after- wards learned that this land had been withheld from market that settlers might procure from it timber for their buildings, and the only prosecution for trespass on this land which was ever instituted was in the case of a man who attempted to cut and carry away timber for sale.

Another instance of liberality was the donation of land to religious societies. In a note in his History of the Holland Purchase, Mr. Turner says: "In the fall of 1820 Mr. Busti was visiting the land office in Batavia; the Rev. Mr. R. [Rawson, of Barre, Orleans county] of the Presbyterian sect called on Mr. Busti and insisted on a donation of land for each society of his persuasion then formed on the Holland Purchase. Mr. Busti treated the reverend gentleman with due courtesy, but showed no disposition to grant his re- quest. Mr. R., encouraged by Mr. Busti's politeness, perse- vered in his solicitations day after day, until Mr. Busti's patience was almost exhausted, and what finally brought that subject to a crisis was Mr. R.'s following Mr. Busti out of the land office when he was going to take tea at Mr. Elli- cott's, and making a fresh attack on him in the piazza. Mr. Busti was evidently vexed, and in reply said: 'Yes, Mr. R., I will give a tract of one hundred acres to a religious soci- ety in every town on the Purchase, and this is finis.' 'But,' said Mr. R, 'you will give it all to the Presbyterians, will you not? If you do not expressly so decide the sectarians will be claiming it, and we shall receive very little benefit from it.' 'Sectarians, no !' was Mr. Busti's hasty reply. 'I abhor sectarians; they ought not to have any of it; and to save contention I will give it to the first religious society in every town.' Mr. Busti hastened to his tea, and Mr. R. home (about sixteen miles distant) to start runners during. the night, or the next morning, to rally the Presbyterians in the several towns in his vicinity to apply first and thereby secure the land to themselves.

"The land office was soon flooded with petitions for land from societies organized according to law, and empowered to hold real estate, and those who were not; one of which was presented to Mr. Busti, before he left, directed to 'General Poll Busti;' on which he insisted it could not be from a re- ligious society, for all religious societies read their Bibles, and know that p o double / does not spell Paul. Amidst this chaos of applications it was thought not best to be precipi- tant in granting those donations, the whole responsibility now resting upon Mr. Ellicott to comply with this vague promise of Mr. Busti; therefore conveyances of the 'gospel land" were not executed for some space of time, notwithstanding the clamor of petitioners for deeds of our land; during which time the matter was taken into consideration and systematized, so far as such an operation could be. Pains was taken to ascertain the merits of each application, and finally a tract or tracts of land, not exceeding one hundred acres in all, was granted, free of expense, to one or more religious societies regularly organized according to law in each town on the purchase where the company had land undisposed of, which embraced every town then organized on the purchase,

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History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents, Part 14

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: F.W. Beers & Co. Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: F.W. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: