USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume I > Part 25
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From the "return" by Major Adam Hoops, who made a re- survey of the Phelps and Gorham tract for Mr. Morris in 1791-2, it appears that there were 85,896 acres of land in the "Gore." The new or corrected line passed east of Geneva and brought that settlement within the limits of the Purchase, a fact that if origi- nally recognized would have caused it to be selected as the head- quarters of the proprietors, instead of Canandaigua.
As soon as practicable Captain Williamson, acting for the London Associates, who in the meantime had become owners of the property, took possession of the Reed and Ryckman tract. He seized some other portions of the "Gore" and through his repre- sentative, John Johnstone, quieted titles by buying out the patents of the original grantees, for all of which he afterwards obtained compensation lands from the state. Litigation over the titles and the delay of the state in confirming the new preemption line, not formally accomplished until by legislative enactment on April 6, 1796, retarded Captain Williamson's plans for developing the country, particularly the village of Geneva. When the location of the line was finally legally established, he proceeded with the launching of a packet boat on the lake and the erection of a tavern, which, opened the following year, was the Astor House of its day. It was the finest caravansary west of Utica, and, standing at the "doorway" or entrance to the Genesee Country, it tended to make, as designed by Mr. Williamson, a favorable im- pression on all "respectable people" who entered the new land of promise. It offered all the comforts of a good English inn after
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a long and weary and dirty journey by stage coach from Albany and other points in the east. John Maude, an English traveler who visited the region in 1799 and 1800, wrote in 1800 that, "as respects provisions, liquors, beds and stabling, there are few inns in America equal to the hotel at Geneva." Captain Williamson established also that essential of a thriving new community, a printing office, and began publication of a newspaper, "The On- tario Gazette."
Among the men who as agents of the colonizing companies, as administrators of public affairs, as managers of the task in- volved in bringing the attractions and advantages of the Genesee Country to the attention of those who might be induced to enter upon and develop it, and as advisors and helpers of those who enlisted in the development of the rich domain, none rendered more conspicuous or more faithful service than the man who represented the interests and managed the affairs of Robert Mor- ris and the London Associates, Charles Williamson.
As heretofore mentioned, Williamson, following the purchase of western New York land in 1792 by the London Associates, came to America from Scotland to look after the affairs of the syndicate and attend to the sale and settlement of the great tract. Coming by way of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, he located at what is now Bath, Steuben County. Mr. Maude again reported: "On Captain Williamson's first arrival he built a small hut where now is Bath. If a stranger came to visit him, he built up a little nook for him to put his bed in. In a little time a boarded or framed house was built to the left of the hut; this was also in- tended as but a temporary residence, though it then appeared a palace. His present residence, a very commodious, roomy and well planned house, is situated on the right of where stood the log hut long since consigned to the kitchen fire.
"On the first settlement of the country, these mountainous districts were thought so unfavorably of when compared with the rich flats of Ontario County that none of the settlers could be prevailed upon to establish themselves here till Capt. Williamson himself set the example, saying: 'As nature has done so much for the northern plains, I will do something for these southern mountains :' though the truth of it was that Captain Williamson saw very clearly, on his first visit to this country, that the Susque- hanna, and not the Mohawk, would be its best friend. Even now
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it has proved so, for at this day (1800) a bushel of wheat is better worth one dollar at Bath than sixty cents at Geneva. This differ- ence will grow wider every year; for little, if any, improvement can be made with the water communication from New York, while that to Baltimore will admit of extensive and advantageous one."
We may smile at this prophecy of the traveler of 1800, written of course before there was so much as a dream of the Erie Canal or of the marvelous railroad development of later years, but from his standpoint and in his time it was not unwarranted.
Having become a naturalized citizen of this country Captain Williamson took title to the lands acquired by the London Asso- ciates, which he surrendered upon settlement with them in 1801, when under an act of the legislature passed April 1, 1798, aliens had become enabled to purchase and hold real estate. The amount of personal property, consisting of bonds and notes, which he then transferred to them was $551,699.77, while the valuation of the land conveyed was fixed as follows: To Sir William Pulteney, in Ontario and Steuben counties, $2,607,682.25; to William Hornby, $350,924.45, and to Patrick Colquhoun, $37,188.13, a total of $3,547,494.58.
Mr. Williamson served as a member of the assembly from Ontario County, then embracing all of western New York, for three successive years beginning with 1796. On March 18, 1795, he was appointed as a judge of Ontario County, and in 1796 he became first judge of Steuben County. He served as à lieutenant-colonel of militia. His enterprise in opening roads, his advances to induce settlement and his activities in other direc- tions called for outlays of capital far beyond receipts from sales to settlers, which were of necessity slow. As a result, by the year 1800 his principals in England had been called upon for large advances, the expenditures having aggregated $1,374,470.10 as against receipts of $147,974.83, with about $300,000 owed by purchasers of the lands.
Samuel McCormack, in a "memoir" intended perhaps as a defence of Colonel Williamson, then recently superseded in the management of the Pulteney estate land's in America, declared that they constituted the greatest land speculation ever entered into by any individual, described western New York as "a fertile and beautiful region" and likened it to Derbyshire in England
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and Lauquedoc in France, capable of providing "all the necessities and many of the luxuries of life," and predicted that at some future day it would be "the seat of a great people."
He credited Colonel Williamson with having discharged his difficult duty in a manner "which will not only be the source of incalculable advantage to the future proprietors, but secure to him the lasting gratitude of that part of America which formed the theatre of his meritorious exertions. He is stiled with much propriety the Father of the Western Part of the State of New York.
"On assuming the management of this property Colonel Wil- liamson found it an immense tract of country, wholly covered with wood, nearly impenetrable on account of the total want of roads and therefore almost entirely unknown. His first care was to have it surveyed and laid off into convenient subdivisions. * The want of roads was the great obstacle in the sale of lands and the opening up of new townships. Colonel William- son, however, partly by bribes, partly by exhortations and en- treaties encouraged them to persevere; superintended all the operations in person, and at last by very great exertions succeeded in making roads, which traversed the estate in almost every direc- tion. In traveling from New York to the falls of the Niagara there is a good turnpike road and tolerable inns for more than five hundred miles. The remainder of the journey being upwards of a hundred miles, must be performed on horse- back or in waggons, but in the course of a year or two the Turn- pike road will be completed as far as the Falls and then the jaunt from New York to Niagara will be one of the finest in the world.
"In the building or at least the founding of towns Colonel Williamson's exertions were no less meritorious than in the mak- ing of roads. ** *
"The value of these lands rises in a kind of geometrical ratio. Each parcel sold doubles or trebles the value of each adjoining parcel."
Even the prospect of war, in the view of Mr. McCormack, did not materially threaten the security or value of the property. The investment of Sir William, bought at a cheap rate, but repre- senting in the aggregate a considerable sum, was, under the able management of Colonel Williamson, the means of opening up a magnificent country that had been a wilderness since the creation.
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Following the retirement from management of the Pulteney- Hornby-Colquhoun property, Mr. Williamson returned to Eng- land, but being aroused at what General Peter B. Porter once re- ferred to as the dawning of liberty and symptoms of revolution in South America, he set forth with the intention of taking an active part in the impending conflict, and died on the way.
Robert Troup was the attorney of Sir William Pulteney in effecting a settlement with Williamson and, in 1801, was given full power of attorney to continue the agency, which he did until his death in 1832, the property in the meantime descending to Pulteney's daughter, Henrietta Laura, the Countess of Bath, then to St. John Lowther Johnstone, her cousin, and his heirs, the management of the real estate being conducted for the benefit of the Johnstone branch of the family, and the personal property, by will of the Countess of Bath, to the representatives of the family known as the Pulteney branch.
"The Simcoe Scare" has an insignificant place in history, but for a time it had much of dire portent for the Genesee Country. Overzealous representatives of the British crown, viewing the situation at the south from the refuge afforded by Canada, which alone had been saved from the wreckage of Great Britain's colo- nial enterprise in the New World, not unnaturally looked for opportunities to retrieve English fortunes. They knew and prob- ably did not overestimate the jealousies and dissensions that per- vaded the new and as yet loosely knit United States. They much overestimated the strength in the states of the Tory sentiment not yet reconciled to severance from the Mother Country, and they hastily concluded that they could rely upon the dormant wrath harbored by their Indian allies in the recent war. So, underesti- mating the strength of the elements they could rally, in an effort to upset the government whose independence they had been com- pelled to recognize, and overestimating their ability to enlist at this time the aid of the home government in a renewal of the strife, they sought to avail themselves of the first opportunity to reestablish English influence if not English control in America.
That the people of the new nation had real cause for apprehen- sion was destined to be shown a few years later, but the hostile demonstration known as "The Simcoe Scare" was the result of an ill-conceived gesture of the governor of Upper Canada that was soon repudiated by the British government and turned out to be
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a flash in the pan. It was a real "scare," however, and had in it elements quite as grave as those from which have sprung momen- tous armed conflicts.
The British, in contravention of the treaty of Paris, had con- tinued to maintain armed forces on our borders at Oswego and at Fort Niagara, Governor Simcoe, from his first assuming the gov- ernment of Upper Canada, had manifested the greatest jealousy of the progress of the settlement of our western country. He was even said to have threatened to send Captain Williamson to Eng- land in irons if he ever ventured to enter Canada.
In the month of August, 1794, Lieutenant Sheaffe of the British army was sent by Governor Simcoe with a formal protest to Captain Williamson against the settlement which the latter had just begun at Sodus. News of this hostile demonstration by an agent of the British government spread like wild fire through the settlements of western New York. To this was added the disquieting knowledge that for some unknown reason there had been an increasing emigration of Indians to Canada. They had gone in detached bodies, but as if by some secret understanding. The Senecas particularly had become overbearing and quarrel- some, and a far more than usual number of outrages had been committed upon the white settlers. Harmar and St. Clair had suffered defeat at the hands of the western Indians, and it was doubtful what would be the issue of the campaign in which Gen- eral Anthony Wayne was engaged to compel cessation of hostili- ties on the frontier.
Under the circumstances, the settlers in the Genesee Country not unnaturally feared the worst. They had assumed that perma- nent peace had come and had laid aside the weapons of war to take up the plowshare. They had engaged in the struggle to sub- due the wilderness in confidence that they could build homes and till the ground free from the menace of such horrors as had accom- panied border conflicts with the red allies of Britain.
The notice given to Mr. Williamson by an officer of his Majes- ty's army was to the effect, that the colonists must get out and keep out of the territory beyond the old French line, until such time as the treaty by which the Revolutionary war was termi- nated had been finally executed. This "inexecution" of the treaty resulted from certain minor differences between Great Britain and the States, differences which were not finally adjusted until
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a year or so later. News of Lieutenant Sheaffe's warning and of Captain Williamson's defiant response, that he should go on with the projected settlement at Sodus and at other points in the western country, combined with the restlessness of the Indians and their evident disposition to encourage and abet the hostile outbreaks of their brethren in the west and south, impelled the settlers to demand energetic measures for their protection .on the part of both the state and national governments.
Captain Williamson using the most reliable and expeditious means of communication then available dispatched express orders to Edmund Randolph, secretary of state, and to Samuel Knox, secretary of war, in President Washington's cabinet, and to Gov- ernor George Clinton at Albany, urging that the insolence of the British officers be resented and means provided to prevent more overt acts.
In April, the government's Indian superintendent, General Israel Chapin, wrote to Secretary Knox that "this part of the country, being the frontier of the state of New York, is very much alarmed at the present appearance of war. Destitute of arms and ammunition, the scattered inhabitants of this remote wilderness would fall an easy prey to their savage neighbors should they think proper to attack them." A month later General Chapin urged that 1,200 or 1,500 stand of arms be provided "for the inhabitants of the frontier" and the state appointed commis- sioners to take necessary steps for defense. Finally, it was de- cided that a conference should be held at Canandaigua with the Indians "for the purpose of removing all causes of misunderstand- ing and establishing a permanent peace and friendship between the United States and the Six Nations. "
In the meantime, on August 30, 1794, President Washington had taken prompt steps to lay before the British government the high-handed action of the Governor of Upper Canada and to pro- test against conduct threatening friendly relations between the two countries. In a letter to Mr. Jay, United States minister at London at that time, the President denounced as irregular and high-handed the notice delivered by Lieutenant Sheaffe to Cap- tain Williamson against the latter's occupying lands which "long ago, they (the English) ought to have surrendered, and far within the known and until now the acknowledged limits of the United States."
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President Washington added these emphatic words:
"This may be considered as the most open and daring act of the British agents in America; though it is not the most hostile and cruel; for there does not remain a doubt in the mind of any well informed person in this country not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties that we encounter with the Indians, their hostilities, the murders of helpless women and children, along our frontiers, result from the conduct of agents of Great Britain in this country. In vain is it then for its administration in Britain to disavow having given orders which will warrant such conduct, whilst their agents go unpunished; while we have a thousand corroborating circumstances, and indeed as many evidences, some of which cannot be brought forward, to prove that they are seduc- ing from our alliances, and endeavoring to remove over the line, tribes that have hitherto been kept in peace and friendship with us at a heavy expense, and who have no cause of complaint except pretended ones of their creating, whilst they keep in a state of irritation the tribes that are hostile to us, and are instigating those who know little of us, or we of them, to unite in the war against us; and whilst it is an undeniable fact that they are fur- nishing the whole with arms, ammunition, clothing, and even pro- visions to carry on the war."
Armed with authority conferred by President Washington, Minister Jay made such vigorous representations to the English ministry that the remaining differences between the two countries were settled and a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation was concluded on November 19, 1794, though it was not proclaimed until February 29, 1796.
In this connection the victory achieved by General Anthony Wayne over the western Indians at Fort Miami on August 20, 1794, had had collateral as well as direct effects of far-reacting importance. It had effectually and immediately checked the hos- tilities which, following defeats sustained by the forces under Harmar and St. Clair, had terrorized the country northwest of the Ohio. It chastened the spirits of the Iroquois in western New York and impelled them to consent to parleys at the council at Canandaigua in the fall of 1794. And, most important of all, it so humbled the Indians and convinced them of the power of the government that they were weaned of any further disposition to listen to the blandishments of British emissaries from Canada or
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elsewhere. They returned to their reservations in the Genesee Country thoroughly humbled.
It was confirmation of Wayne's decisive victory brought by runners from the west, that made possible the amicable settlement of controversies between the Six Nations and the United States finally effected at Canandaigua under Colonel Pickering on No- vember 11, 1794.
Withdrawal of the British pretensions, not improbably has- tened by this same event, and the reestablishment of friendly relations with the Indians, gave the settlers the assurance which they needed to proceed with the development of the Genesee Coun- try. The "Simcoe Scare" was happily over. The people who had been aroused by what seemed a threatened attack upon their dearly-bought independence quickly regained their confidence and hopefulness for the future. Succeeding years were years of peace and prosperity, with a steady growth in population, and were marked by the establishment of new civil divisions and the found- ing of settlements destined soon to expand into enterprising vil- lages and cities.
Then came the contentions and controversies that led to the second war with England, that of 1812-14, the cause and progress of which are adequately treated in a separate chapter.
It will suffice our purpose here to say that, despite the sharp division of sentiment as to the merits of the conflict as viewed from the Federalist and the Republican standpoints, the Genesee Country gave loyal support to the American cause and organized effectively, both politically and militarily, for the vigorous prose- cution of the war.
The villages of Canandaigua and Batavia were made deposi- tories for supplies, arms and ammunition, and the militia, which embraced practically the entire able-bodied male population, ral- lied to the colors. Fortunately the Indians who made their homes on the reservations and moved freely among the settlers did not this time take sides with the English forces. Their chiefs first agreed to remain neutral, but, when the British invaded their lands, they dug up the hatchet and formally declared war, al- though it does not appear that any considerable number entered the American army.
As might be expected, however, there was much anxiety as to their attitude and the whole Genesee Country, being on the fron-
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tier, was greatly aroused, the militia drilling, marching back and forth, and finally taking a gallant part in the operations against Fort Erie. Public meetings were held, committees solicited funds for relief of the women and children who, deserting their homes: in panic "filled the roads," as one of these committees declared,> and sought shelter in the larger village at the east. For a time. the whole western part of the state was almost depopulated.
With the raising of the seige of Fort Erie and the signing of the treaty of Ghent, concluded on December 24, 1814, apprehen- sion subsided as quickly as it had risen, the people returned to their homes, the tide of immigration flowed westward again and the development of the Genesee Country, interrupted for a time, proceeded with a rapidity never afterwards checked.
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MAP FROM AUGUSTUS PORTER'S SURVEY OF THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE, 1792
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CHAPTER XIII.
THE HOLLAND PURCHASE.
BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
While the title to that part of western New York between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River was passing from the State of Massachusetts and the Indians, in 1788, to Phelps and Gorham; then in 1790 to Robert Morris, and then in 1791 to the London Associates, the part of Massachusetts land lying west of the Gene- see, which Phelps and Gorham had been compelled to reconvey to Massachusetts, continued in possession of the red men. But this part of the Genesee Country, constituting two-thirds of the entire Massachusetts tract, was not destined to remain fallow long.
Robert Morris, having made a handsome profit (estimated at $160,000) by his quick turnover of the land purchased of Phelps and Gorham, lost no time in negotiating for the remainder of the western New York tract. On May 11, 1791, he secured from Massachusetts for a consideration of $333,333.33, the preemption right to lands in the state lying west of the first mentioned tract.
Following the plan he had successfully practiced in handling that tract, he sold this to a syndicate of Holland capitalists, after- wards known as the Holland Land Company, reserving only the eastern portion, about twelve miles in width, portions of which he had sold to other parties or placed as security for loans.
The title thus obtained by the Holland Land Company as de- duced by O. Turner, author of the "History of the Holland Pur- chase," was as follows:
"On the 12th day of March, 1791, the State of Massachusetts agreed to sell to Samuel Ogden, who was acting for and in behalf of Robert Morris, all the lands ceded to the said state, by the state of New York, except that part thereof which had been conveyed by Massachusetts to Phelps and Gorham. (See Sec. Office, Massa- chusetts Exemp. Records, fol. 1.).
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"In conformity with this agreement the State of Massachu- setts conveyed to Robert Morris, on the 11th day of May, 1791, the whole of said land in five different deeds-the first including all the land on said tract lying east of a meridian line beginning at a point in the north line of Pennsylvania, twelve miles west of the southwest corner of Phelps and Gorham's tract, and run- ning due north to Lake Ontario, supposed to contain about five hundred thousand acres. (See Sec. Office, Albany, Book of Deeds, 23, fol. 231.) The second deed included all the land between the last described tract and a meridian line beginning at a point in the north line of Pennsylvania, sixteen miles west of the south- west corner of the last described tract, thence running due north to Lake Ontario. (See Sec. Office, Albany, Lib. 23, fol. 234.) The third deed included all the land lying between the last men- tioned tract, and a meridian line beginning at a point in the north line of Pennsylvania, sixteen miles west of the southwest corner of the last described tract, and thence running due north to the shore of Lake Ontario. (See Sec. Office, Albany, Lib. 23, fol. 235.) The fourth deed contained all land lying between the last mentioned tract and a meridian line beginning at a point in the north line of Pennsylvania, sixteen miles west of the southwest corner of the last described tract, and thence running due north to the shore of Lake Ontario. (See Sec. Office, Albany, Lib. 23, fol. 232.) The fifth and last deed included all the land owned by the State of Massachusetts in this state, lying west of the last described tract. (See Sec. Office, Albany, Lib. 23, fol. 237.) The four last mentioned tracts included about three million, three hundred thousand acres.
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