USA > New York > Yates County > History of Yates County, N.Y. : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 6
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CHAPTER VI.
The land Titles - The Phelps and Gorham Purchase - Its extent and Boundar- ies - Troubles created by the Lessee Companies - How Settled - Consolidation of Interests -- Extinguishment of Indian Titles - The old Pre-emption Line - Fraud Practiced - Town Surveys - Sale to Robert Morris - The latter sells to English cap- italists - Surveying the new Pre-emption Line - The' fraud Discovered - New com- plications Arise - How Settled - Occupants of the "Gore "- How Compensated - Settlement with Charles Williamson, agent of the Pultney Association.
W ITH the exception of certain specially reserved tracts of land the Hartford convention of commissioners awarded to the State of Massachusetts, in settlement of her conflicting claims with New York, the greater portion of the territory of the last named State which lay west of Seneca Lake. New York, however, retained and held the right of jurisdiction and sovereignty over this vast area, while the fee in the
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THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE.
territory vested in Massachusetts, subject only to the Indian title which the latter State or her grantees must purchase and extinguish.
These lands being quite remote from the State which owned then the authorities thereof deemed it expedient that they be sold and the proceeds used to replenish the depleted exchequer of the Common- wealth. There was no lack of eager purchasers, prominent among whom were Oliver Phelps and Nathanial Gorham. The former of these persons determined to become interested in the purchase of 1,000,000 acres of the tract, while the latter also had the same end in view, each at first acting independently. Later an association of purchasers was formed and a proposition duly made to the State for the sale of the pre-emption tract, or at least of 1,000,000 acres of it, at the price of- fered by Mr. Gorham ; that is at " one and sixpence currency per acre," payable in the " public paper of the Commonwealth." The Massachu- setts House of Representatives agreed to the sale on these terms, but the Senate failed to concur, whereupon no action was taken until the month of April, 1788.
While the question relative to the sale of the land was pending, and prior to the April meeting of the legislature, other competitors came into the field for the purpose of making purchases on the pre-emption tract ; but that there should not be any clash of interests or strife over the matter of purchase all the parties united with the Phelps and Gor- ham association. The result was that in April, 1788, the constituted representatives of the association, Phelps and Gorham, made a proposal to the legislature to take all the land ceded by New York to Massachu- setts, at the agreed price of $100,000, payable in Massachusetts paper currency, which, by the way, was at that time greatly depreciated in value. The preliminaries being settled and the proposition accepted the contract of sale was made complete.
The first duty devolving upon the new owners after having purchased the pre-emption right was to make perfect title by the extinguishment title. This task fell upon Mr. Phelps, while to Mr. Gorham was en- trusted the duty of conferring with the New York authorities relative to running the boundary or pre-emption line. Gen. Israel Chapin was at the same time directed to explore the new region of country and re- port its character to the associate proprietors.
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68
HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
Oliver Phelps found himself charged with a more difficult and doubt- ful undertaking than he at first anticipated. He found the lessees un- der the long lease in constructive if not in actual possession ; and he found, too, that all his endeavors at negotiations with the Indians must prove fruitless, as the lessee company exercised a controlling influence over the natives and over the traders, interpreters, and others upon whose assistance he had relied in carrying out his own plans for the ac - quirement of the title. At last, realizing that a compromise of some sort would be the most satisfactory way out of existing difficulties, Mr. Phelps visited the principal lessees at Hudson, and there such negotia- tions were had that the lessees agreed to call a council of the Indians at Kanandesaga, make a surrender of their lease, and take a deed of cession from the sachems and authorized agents of the tribes, the grant. ees in the deed to be Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham for them- selves and their associates.
Although there appears to be no record showing the actual consid- eration that moved the lessee company to consent to this arrangement it at the same time appeared to be pretty well understood among the holders of the long lease that theirs was an exceedingly doubtful title and one which would not be acquiesced in by the parties who executed it. More than that Massachusetts and New York both refused to con- firm the lease-hold, in the face of which opposition, together with the feelings of discontent prevailing among the Indians, the lessees were themselves easily persuaded to become members of the Phelps and Gorham association, or syndicate as it would now be called, and in that manner become owners under proper authority.
Having made a satisfactory arrangement with the principal men in the New York Genesee Company, and in particular with its leading and governing spirit, John Livingston, Mr. Phelps at once made preparations for a grand council with the Six Nations to be held at Kanandesaga, but on reaching that place about June 1, 1788, he found an existing difficulty or disagreement between the New York Genesee Company and the Niagara Genesee Company, and that the leading men of the latter were holding the Indinas at Buffalo Creek and had persuaded them not to attend the council. Thereupon Mr. Phelps proceeded to Buffalo Creek and succeeded in removing the objections of some of the
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THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE.
principal men of the Niagara Genesee Company by promising them townships in return for their friendly influence with the natives.
This done a council was at once held with the Indians at Buffalo Creek with result, on the 8th of July, of the Six Nations releasing the lessee company from the provisions of their agreement so far as related to the pre-emption tract; and with the further result of a sale by the Six Nations to Phelps and Gorham, for themselves and their associ- ates, of the entire tract ceded to Massachusetts, estimated to contain 2,500,000 acres of land. The consideration of the sale was the pay- ment to be made to the Indians of $5,000 and an annuity of $500 forever. By the deed of transfer then executed by the chiefs and sachems of the Six Nations Phelps and Gorham, for themselves and their associates, became the owners in fee simple absolute of all the lands of Yates County that lay west of the pre- emption line. In fact that purchase covered the greater part of what is now Ontario, Wayne, Yates, Steuben, and Livingston Counties, and parts of Monroe and Allegany Counties. The strip of land lying east of the pre- emption line and west of Seneca Lake was claimed by the lessee companies, but the manner in which they afterward became divested of their title will be made clear later in the present chapter.
While Oliver Phelps was busily employed in arranging for his nego- tiations with the Indians, and bringing to satisfactory terms the disturb- ing elements in the lessee companies, Mr. Gorham, the associate of Mr. Phelps, was engaged in preparing for the survey of the east and west boundary lines of the Massachusetts lands as preliminary to the survey and division into townships of the body of the tract. For this work the services of Col. Hugh Maxwell, an engineer of good repute, were engaged and the survey of the line was made during 1788. But the work of surveying the east line was not performed by Colonel Maxwell nor under his immediate direction. He was taken ill about the time the survey began and was obliged to return to his home, while the running of the line devolved upon his assistants and subordinates. Among those engaged in this work were at least one or more who were directly the subservient tools of the New York Genesee Company, and who, at the command of their principals, were dishonest enough to survey the line, not as contemplated by the letter and the spirit of the agreement
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HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
between New York and Massachusetts, but so far as possible in the selfish interests of land sharks and speculators of the company above mentioned. At that time Geneva, or Kanandesaga, was a village of some importance, and was the chief seat of operations in the whole Genesee country and withal a very desirable acquisition. This point the ruling spirits of the lessee company desired to retain and control, but could not with a correct running of the line as contemplated in the pre- emption compact. The sudden illness of Colonel Maxwell opened to the lessees a convenient opportunity to defraud Phelps and Gorham by inducing the assistant engineers to deviate from the correct line, or what should be the correct line, and establish the boundary to the westward of Kanandesaga or Geneva, thus throwing the coveted district without the Massachusetts tract and bringing it within the territory claimed by the lessees under their contract of lease with the Six Nations. This was done. The engineer in charge made a deflection to the westward, and so established the original or first pre-emption line as to defraud Phelps and Gorham of thousands and thousands of acres and brought Geneva well over on the lessee tract. This palpable fraud was not dis- covered until some years afterward, and not until the territory had been surveyed into townships and sold to divers purchasers. And when dis- covered and the new pre-emption line run many complications were created with the unfortunate consequences ever attendant upon con- flicting titles.
The surveys into townships of the Phelps and Gorham purchase were made from the eastern pre-emption line as run in 1788. That line passed through Yates County, forming the eastern boundary of Barring- ton and Milo, as originally surveyed ; thence northward through Torrey, as now established, and Benton, passing across Kashong Creek about 200 rods east of Bellona. What is commonly called the " old pre-emp- tion road 1" is nowhere on the pre-emption line in the town of Benton, nor until one passes north from Cromwell's Hollow in Seneca town- ship, Ontario County.
The survey of the territory into townships was commenced in 1788
1 The road' dividing Starkey and Barrington and running about a mile into Milo is on the old pre-emption line ; also in Milo the straight road passing north and south through Milo Center, in Torrey for a short distance near Caleb Legg's, and in Benton for only a few rods on the McMaster property.
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PHELPS AND GORHAM FINANCIALLY EMBARRASSED.
and completed in 1789. So far as the character of the surface would admit the towns were supposed to contain contents of six miles square. Running from south to north were first surveyed the range lines. Therefore the eastern boundary of Barrington being the pre- emption line the land between it and a parallel line six miles west from it con- stituted the "first range." Still another line six miles farther west and parallel to that last described included the townships of the second range. Traveling northward through each range monuments were placed at the end of every six miles, and by running lines at right angles to the range lines, at the designated points, there would be included six miles square, thirty-six square miles, or a township area. So it was in counting from south to north that the town of Barrington was nun- bered "six" in the first range; Milo, being next north, number " seven," first range ; Benton, number " eight," first range. From this is also shown the fact that south of Barrington and between that town and the Pennsylvania line were five other townships in the first range. This is but an explanatory example of the system of surveys employed in sub-dividing the Phelps and Gorham purchase, as it has been com . monly called. Jerusalem and Potter were in the second range and Italy and Middlesex in the third range. Township numbers ran from south to north and range numbers from east to west from the old pre emption line.
In 1789 the enterpising land operators, Messrs. Phelps and Gorham, found themselves to be in a substantially embarrassed condition finan- cially. To be sure they were the possessors of upwards of 2,000,000 acres of the best lands in the State of New York, and to a fair pro- portion of that vast area they had succeeded in extinguishing the Indian claim of title. However the expenses incurred in doing what had been done up to this time had been enormous. The surveyor's charges had been large, while the payment to the Indians and the distribution of influenc- ing presents among them amounted to no small cost. Then, too, was the ever present contingent of hangers-on, persons who had helped or claimed to have assisted in bringing about a peaceful settlement of diffi- culties, and who were persistent in their demands for money and lands. During this time the proprietors had succeeded in disposing of about half, slightly less, of their vast estate, but the purchasers were in the
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HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
main persons who held shares or stock in the association, and who had accepted town grants or deeds in exchange for their interests in the company. Therefore the year 1789 found Phelps and Gorham with a large amount of land remaining, but with very little ready cash, and the payment agreed to be made to Massachusetts, the $100,000, was now due. The worthy proprietors had reckoned upon paying the purchase price in Massachusetts money, which at the time they made the original contract was worth only about fifty cents on the dollar, but which on account of the State's having funded her debt and re-established her credit among other States of the Union had advanced to nearly par value. The result of this was that, instead of being able to make the payment with about $50,000 actual means, the proprietors found them- selves under the necessity of raising nearly $100,000, an obligation they could not meet.
In this emergency Phelps and Gorham memorialized the Massachu- setts legislature, asking that they be released from the payment of the whole principal sum, and expressed a willingness to pay for that por- tion of the lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished. This proposition was agreeable to the State, the more so perhaps from the knowledge they had that the remaining territory could find ready sale to Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, the financier of the Revolution and a man of large means and influence.
In the early part of 1790 a sale was effected to Mr. Morris, the deed or contract therefor being executed by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, and the lands embraced in the transfer included all that the grantors had purchased under the pre-emption right except such town- ships as had already been sold, of which there were about fifty. The consideration agreed to be paid by Mr. Morris was £30,000 New York money, or its ready equivalent of $75,000.
Mr. Morris had no sooner become fully possessed of his new purchase than he proceeded to investigate its character and condition, and he soon discovered or had strong reason to suspect that a gross fraud had been practiced in running the east line. For the purpose of accurate information on the subject he engaged Adam Hoopes to explore the country, and particularly to re-survey the east boundary and determine upon the accuracy of the original line. But before anything had been
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THE PRE-EMPTION LINE RESURVEYED.
done in this matter Mr. Morris's agent in England succeeded in mak- ing a sale of the tract to a party of English capitalists, comprised of Sir William Pultney, John Hornby, and Patrick Colquhoun. The nego- tiations were had with Charles Williamson, who acted in the capacity of agent for the persons named and received the deeds in his own name, which the actual purchasers, being aliens, could not hold. The consid- eration paid Mr. Morris was £35,000 sterling or, its equivalent, $170,- 000. Mr. Morris's ownership was quite brief, but his profit was none the less substantial. The lands included within this sale amounted to about 1,200,000 acres. The deed was executed April II, 1792.
Among other things Mr. Morris had agreed with his grantees that he would cause to be made an accurate survey of the pre-emption line, and in accordance with this promise he directed the work to be done under the supervision of Major Hoopes. He also caused Andrew, Jo- seph, and Benjamin Ellicott to be engaged as assistants in the work. The work was performed in 1792, Benjamin Ellicott being in immediate charge and assisted by his brothers and others named Armstrong, Sax- ton, and Briscoe.
This party of competent and trustworthy surveyors commenced at precisely the same point as had the previous engineers, at the eighty- second milestone in the Pennsylvania line, but the new men at once discovered that the original line began bearing to the westward at the very outset, and so continued with occasional variations until Sodus Bay was reached. The greatest variation from the correct line was two miles, sixty-five chains, and sixty-four links, and this at a point eighty- one miles from the place of beginning. Throughout the towns that now form a part of Yates County the line was shown to be from one and one-half to two and one-half miles farther west than it should have been. This survey made by the Ellicotts and others also demonstrated very clearly that the running of the old line so far from its true course was the result of fraud and not an error.
This discovery worked to the great disadvantage of the State and to the owners and settlers, who had by that time taken possession of their lands. The State had sold and granted to divers individuals all the lands lying between the old pre-emption line and Seneca Lake, and many of the purchasers and grantees under these sales were in posses-
10
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HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
sion. Now the true pre-emption had been surveyed and fixed, and within the Phelps and Gorham purchase, as by that survey decided, were found the lands and improvements of persons holding titles from the State. Nothing now remained to be done on the part of the State other than to satisfy the claims of the injured parties. In many cases Mr. Williamson confirmed the State titles and received compensation therefor from the State by grants of lands in other localities from the public lands, while in other instances the governor appeased the claim- ants by grants of public lands, but generally was compelled to give from three to six acres for each one possessed by the person found to be on the pre-emption tract.
The principal settlement in this region at that time was the Friends colony in the towns of Milo and Torrey and the vicinity generally. They were found to be in part on the pre-emption tract and in part on State lands. The chapter next following shows how they became quieted in their possession through the generosity of Charles Williamson.
The new pre- emption line touched the waters of Seneca Lake at a point about two miles north of the village of Dresden, and continued in the lake the remainder of its length. The result of the survey showed Geneva to be wholly within the Massachusetts district and therefore a part of the Phelps and Gorham purchase. Neither Phelps, Gorham, or Robert Morris ever realized any additional remuneration on account of the discovery, but whatever of advantage or profit came of it fell to the Pultney association, of which Charles Williamson was active agent.
One of the largest tracts of land that was brought within the purchase after running the new line was the 16,000 acres originally granted to Seth Reed and Peter Ryckman in consideration of services performed by them in acquiring title to the State by influencing the Indians to at - tend the council. Moreover both these persons were members of the lessee company and the grant was in part made to quiet and satisfy them.
Charles Williamson claimed of the State on behalf of his principals compensation for the total amount of 37,788 acres of land, a portion of which land lay within the county of Yates as afterward established. One parcel was a 320-acre tract reserved by treaty to Joseph Poudre, and which was in the towns of Seneca, Ontario County, and Benton, this county ; another was a tract of 2,600 acres surveyed to William J.
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LAND GRANTS.
Fredenburgh in the towns of Torrey and Milo; another was the Lan- sing tract of 2,4661/2 acres also in Torrey and Milo; one of 400 acres surveyed to John Quick in Starkey ; one survey of 1,500 acres in Milo certified to James Walker; the Phillips tract in Starkey of 800 acres; the tract of Samuel Latta containing 200 acres in Starkey ; the Nathaniel Owen tract of 200 also in Starkey ; 3,996 acres surveyed to James Wat- son in Starkey; 600 acres in Starkey surveyed to Lansing and De Witt; and 3,600 acres belonging to John Carpenter and others, 1,000 acres be- longing to Charles McKnight and others, and a small gore of 463 acres, all in Starkey. Other particular instances might be cited, but they are not considered as having any importance in this chapter. The remain- ing portion of the land, that lying between the new pre-emption line and Seneca Lake, was practically undisturbed. It had been granted by the State of New York to individuals who held military land warrants or to others to stop clamorous tongues among the lessee companies.
The land lying between the old and new lines became known as "the gore," and by that name it has ever since been designated. When the towns were organized as parts of Ontario County the unsurveyed lands were annexed to the regular towns for jurisdictional purposes. Starkey, however, lying in a great and separate body, became a part of Reading in Schuyler County, and was organized as a part of Yates in 1824.
Much that might properly come within the province of this chapter, particularly that which relates to the sale and disposition of the several townships now forming Yates County, is omitted from the present nar- rative, but will be found in the chapters devoted to township history.
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HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
CHAPTER VII.
Jemima Wilkinson, the Public Universal Friend - First emissary of the Friends Society sent to explore the Genesee Country - His unfavorable Report -A Commit- tee of investigation Chosen - The life of The Friend - Her sickness, recovery, and singular Transformation - Her Teachings -Friends Society Formed - Her travels in New England and Pennsylvania - The Friends the pioneers in Yates County - Founding the new Jerusalem - Their Trials and Hardships - First wheat Sown - The first Mill - The coming of The Friend - Her home and Meeting-house - A dis- sension in the Society - Some prominent members Withdraw -The purchase of Jeru- salem Township - The Friend's Purchase - Her removal to Jerusalem - Death of Sarah Richards - Troubles following her Decease - A serious Litigation - Ultimate success of The Friend's Cause - Death of The Friend - Her last Will and Testa- ment - False prophets enter the Society - Its decline and Downfall - Members of the Society.
A S early as the year 1786 Ezekiel Sherman made a visit of explor- ation and investigation to the region of the then called Genesee country, the object of which was to find some suitable location for the establishing of a permanent settlement by a peculiar sect or class of persons, the devoted followers of Jemima Wilkinson. At that early day, however, settlement of any kind in this region was attended not only with great hardship, but the Indian occupants of the locality were not yet fully reconciled to the singular situation in which they found them- selves on account of the disastrous results of the war just closed ; nor were these savage descendants of the once powerful Iroquois at all dis- posed to readily submit to the invasion of their much loved hunting and fishing region by any white people, no matter how peaceable may have been the settlement or how worthy may have been the object of the colonists.
Finding the country not ripe for occupation Mr. Sherman returned to the place whence he came and reported to the society the results of his investigation. But far from being dismayed by the unfavorable representations of their emissary the society determined to send a committee of three persons to make a further investigation of the con- dition and situation of the new country and if possible to fix upon a favorable tract for their future occupancy and habitation.
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JEMIMA WILKINSON.
Jemima Wilkinson, as she was originally named, or the Universal Friend, as she styled herself after her somewhat remarkable transforma - tion from the material to the spiritual being, was the founder and the conscientious leader of the sect or society just referred to. She was not, neither were her followers, religionists of the order commonly termed enthusiasts or fanatics, nor were they in any sense the followers of a false doctrine. On the contrary the people who allied themselves to the Friend were earnest, honest, upright men and women, and among her followers were numbered many persons who are remembered as having been among the foremost men of the region that was afterward erected into the county of Yates, and whose descendants many of them still occupy the soil of the county and are among the progressive citizens of the present time ; and although the society has been for many years extinct, and memory of it lives only in historical records, still no intelligent speaker has given voice to sentiments other than of praise for the society and admiration for its most zealous founder and head.
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