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 26
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"One undivided sixtieth part of the whole of the land included in these five deeds, had been reserved by Massachusetts, in their original agreement with Samuel Ogden, Morris's agent, to meet the demands of John Butler, who had contracted with Phelps and Gorham for the purchase of the same, prior to the surrender of their claim to Massachusetts. Butler, however, subsequent to the surrender, and before the execution of the conveyances above re- cited, assigned his right to said sixtieth part to Robert Morris, which enabled him to acquire a title to the whole at the same time.
"The tract of land described in and conveyed by the first men- tioned deed, took the name of Morris's Reserve, from the fact that he retained that tract in the sale which he afterward made to the
LAKE
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PART OF
18 Mik Cr.
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Johnston'. Landing 15
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New Ark Fort George?
Niagara
10
14
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A. Burr, 100,000 Acres
Watson Cragle & Co., 100,000 Acres
Le Roy Bayard & McEvers
86,175 Acres
Queens Town
dench Landing
Stulmany Cresk
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Tannawasta
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Peters Great Spring Tavern 7 South Boundacy of Phelp's & Gorham's Purchase C'est from Gestes Conewaco
Boale of Miles. 0. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14 18 18 20 22 24
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33,750 Aeres
Berry's For
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200,000 Acres 2
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3% Bland
No. 1
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25.000
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13 Range | 12 Range
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10 Range |9 Range
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North Boundary o f
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Ogden, 50,000 Acres
Towa
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Buffalo
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Bigtree Towers
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LAKE
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Cottringer,
50.000 Acres
Meridian drawn from the Confluence
Wilhelm & Jan Willink 51, 000 Acres
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8. Sterrett, 150,000 Acres
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MAP OF HOLLAND LAND COMPANY'S PRELIMINARY SURVEY 1797
1
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
Holland Company. Mr. Morris sold out in parcels from forty, to one hundred and fifty thousand acres each, to wit: He sold to Leroy, Bayard and M'Evers the triangular tract, bounded south- easterly by the Phelps and Gorham Purchase west of Genesee River, west by a line beginning at the southwest corner of said Phelps and Gorham's tract, and running due north to Lake On- tario and north by said Lake Ontario, containing about eighty- seven thousand acres.
"The next sale which Mr. Morris made (which was before he sold the land described in the other deeds to the Holland company) was one hundred thousand acres to Watson Cragie and Green- leaf, bounded east by said triangular tract, north by Lake Ontario, west by a line running parallel with the west line of the triangle and six miles distant therefrom, and south by an east and west line so far south of Lake Ontario as that the tract shall contain one hundred thousand acres. This sale was made under the full- est confidence (on what authority it is not known) that the full width of the tract fell on the land described in the first mentioned deed executed to Mr. Morris by Massachusetts, which appears to have been an erroneous assumption.
"This tract, after several transfers, was conveyed in 1801, to the State of Connecticut (being purchased with a portion of their school fund) and Sir William Pultney, one undivided half each, which was divided between them in 1811, portions of the share of each being interspersed through the whole tract. The lands falling to the one share being called Connecticut lands and to the other Pultney estate lands, although the whole tract is usually designated the Connecticut Tract.
"Mr. Morris then sold fifty thousand acres, south of and adjoining the Connecticut tract to Andrew Cragie. This sale, however, was made after Mr. Morris had sold the land included in the other four deeds from Massachusetts, to the Holland com- pany, or to persons in trust for them. This tract was bounded east, partly by the Triangular tract, and partly by a line run due south from the southern angle thereof, in the whole one hundred four chains and sixty-seven links; north by the Connecticut tract six miles; west by a line parallel to, and six miles west from the east boundary of the tract, one hundred four chains and sixty- seven links, and south by an east and west line, parallel to the north bounds of the tract, one hundred four chains and sixty-
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
seven links south therefrom; this is generally called the Cragie tract. Mr. Morris sold to Samuel Ogden fifty thousand acres described as lying south of, and adjoining the Cragie tract, and of the same length and breadth: This is called the Ogden tract. He likewise sold one other tract containing fifty thousand acres to Gerrit Cotringer, lying south of, and adjoining the Ogden tract, or the same length and breadth.
"Mr. Morris sold forty thousand acres to Wilhelm and Jan Willink, bounded east by the Genesee River, north by Phelps and Gorham's Purchase west of Genesee River, twelve miles; west by a line running due south from the southwest corner of said Phelps and Gorham's Purchase and south by a line parallel with the north bounds of the tract and so far south as to include forty thousand acres: This is called 'The Forty Thousand Acre Tract.' Of this tract Mr. Morris sold to John B. Church, one hundred thousand acres, being six miles wide, lying east of, and adjoining the lands sold by him to the Holland company, and extending nearly from the Pennsylvania line to the Cotringer tract. One undivided half of this tract fell into the hands of the creditors of J. B. Church and the other half became the property of his son, Judge Philip Church, which parts have since been separated.
"The tract six miles wide, east of the Cotringer tract and Church's tract, containing one hundred and fifty thousand acres, was sold by Mr. Morris to Samuel Sterrett, and the lands between the Sterrett tract and the forty thousand acre tract, except the Mount Morris tract, part of Gardeau Reservation, &c., is gener- ally known as Morris' honorary creditor's tract."
The land purchased of Massachusetts by Morris, with the exception of the tract heretofore mentioned as retained, was con- veyed by four deeds given by him and Mrs. Morris: (1) to Her- man LeRoy and John Linklaen, for one million and a half acres, dated December 24, 1792; (2) to Herman LeRoy, John Linklaen and Gerrit Boon, for one million acres, dated February 27, 1793; (3) to Herman LeRoy and John Linklaen, for eight hundred thousand acres, dated July 20, 1793; (4) to Herman LeRoy, Wil- liam Bayard and Matthew Clarkson, for three hundred thousand acres, dated July 20, 1793.
These tracts purchased with funds provided by financiers in Holland were held in trust by the several grantees for their bene- fit, aliens then being unable to take title to real estate under the
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY.
laws of this state. Later, when the legislature had raised this inhibition the trustees conveyed the whole tract to the Holland Company.
The curious fact is noted, that, in parcelling out the purchase to the three branches of that company, William Willink, Jan Wil- link, Wilhelm Willink, the younger, and Jan Willink, the younger, took by choice the three hundred thousand acres in its southeast corner, for the reason it was nearest Philadelphia, the residence of the agent general, Theophilus Cazenove. They made this choice in ignorance of the fact that the tract selected comprised some of the least desirable lands in the whole domain, embracing as it did what are now the towns of Bolivar, Wirt, Friendship, the east part of Belfast, Clarksville and Cuba in Allegany County, Port- ville and the east part of Hinsdale and Rice in Cattaraugus County.
The sale to Mr. Morris, as was the earlier one to Phelps and Gorham, had been made subject to the condition that the Indian title should be extinguished, and the Hollanders, as security that he would fulfill this part of the agreement, had reserved 37,500 pounds of the money they were to pay for the property. To ful- fill his agreement to extinguish the Indian title, Mr. Morris ar- ranged for a council, which was held at Geneseo in September, 1797, known as the treaty of Big Tree, elsewhere described, under the supervision of Jeremiah Wadsworth, acting as Commissioner for the United States government, with William Shepard repre- senting Massachusetts, and Thomas Morris and Charles William- son representing the former's father, Robert Morris. At this council the Seneca Nation surrendered all the land included in this purchase of Robert Morris, with the exception of the follow- ing reservations: The Canawaugus reservation, containing two square miles located on the west bank of the Genesee River, west of Avon ; Little Beard's and Big Tree reservations, which together included four square miles on the west bank of the Genesee oppo- site Geneseo; Squawkie Hill reservation of two square miles, on the north bank of the Genesee, north of Mount Morris; Gardeau reservation of twenty-eight square miles, on both sides of the Genesee, two or three miles south of Mount Morris; the Caneadea reservation of sixteen square miles, on both sides of the Genesee and extending eight miles along that river in the County of Alle- gany; the Oil Spring reservation, of one square mile, on the line between Allegany and Cattaraugus counties; the Allegany reser-
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
vation of forty-two square miles lying on each side of the Allegany River, from the Pennsylvania line northeastwardly about twenty- five miles; the Cattaraugus reservation of forty-two square miles, each side and near the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek on Lake Erie; the Buffalo reservation of one hundred and thirty square miles, lying on both sides of the Buffalo Creek and extending east from Lake Erie about seven miles wide. The Tonawanda reservation, seventy square miles, lying on both sides of Tonawanda Creek, beginning about twenty-five miles from its mouth and extending eastwardly about seven miles wide; the Tuscarora reservation of one square mile, located about three miles east of Lewiston, on the mountain ridge.
Present at this council, in addition to the persons named here- tofore, was Joseph Ellicott, who had been engaged as principal surveyor of the Holland Company's lands in western New York, and who with this service began his twenty years' connection with the company. As soon as the agreement with the Indians had been reached, he, representing the company, and Augustus Porter, looking after the interests of Mr. Morris, made a preliminary survey of the tract, starting at the northeast corner of the Phelps and Gorham tract, west to the Genesee, traversing the south shore of Lake Ontario to the mouth of the Niagara River; thence along the eastern shore of that river to Lake Erie; thence along the southeast shore to the west bounds of the state, being a meridian line running due south from the west end of Lake Ontario as be- fore established by Andrew Ellicott, surveyor general of the United States.
The task of opening the Holland Purchase committed to the company's agent general, Joseph Ellicott, was a tremendous one.
Mr. Williamson in his "Account of a Gentleman's Journey Into the Genesee Country in February, 1792," reported that the road from Albany to Whitestown, one hundred miles, was passa- ble for wagons, but beyond that the travelers had to take provi- sions for themselves and their horses, as there were only a few straggling huts, scattered along the path, from ten to twenty miles from each other, and they afforded nothing but the con- venience of fire and a kind of shelter from the snow. From Geneva to Canandaigua, he wrote, the road is only the Indian path a little improved. From Canandaigua to the Genesee the country was almost totally uninhabited, only four families residing on the
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
road. Upon the whole at this time there were not any settle- ments of any consequence in the Genesee Country. "Even in this state of nature," he wrote, "the county of Ontario shows every sign of future respectability; no man has put the plough in the ground without being amply repaid."
Augustus Porter in his reminiscences reported that after com- pleting the survey for Robert Morris to Allentown, the west line of Mr. Morris' latest purchase, he travelled on the beach, there being no road, and as yet none other than the Indian trail, from Buffalo to Canawaugus (now Avon). In a letter of May, 1801, Mr. Ellicott says he has learned that the inhabitants at Transit Store House have undertaken to open a road to Ganson's and he wants to be considered a subscriber toward the expenses of the undertaking.
In the spring of 1798, when the survey of the Holland Pur- chase was first undertaken, all the travel between the Phelps and Gorham tract and Buffalo was on the old Indian trail; the winter previous, however, the legislature passed an act appointing Charles Williamson a commissioner to lay out and open a state road from Canawaugus on the Genesee to Buffalo Creek on Lake Erie and to Lewiston on the Niagara River. To defray the ex- pense of cutting out these roads, the Holland Company subscribed $5,000. The first wagon track opened on the Holland Purchase was by Mr. Ellicott, as a preliminary step in commencing operations early in the season of 1798. He employed a gang of hands to improve the Indian trail, so that wagons could pass upon it, from the east transit to Buffalo Creek. In 1801 he opened the road as far west as Vandeventer's. The whole road was opened to Le Roy before the close of 1802.
In the summer of 1799, there not being a house on the road from the eastern transit line to Buffalo, Mr. Busti, the agent general of the company, authorized Mr. Ellicott to contract with six reputable individuals to locate themselves on the road, about ten miles asunder, and open houses of entertainment for travelers at their several locations, in consideration of which they were to have a quantity of land, from fifty to one hundred and fifty acres each, "at a liberal time for payment, without interest, at the low- est price the company will sell their lands, when settlements shall be begun."
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
Three persons accepted this offer, as follows: Frederick Wal- thers, who took one hundred and fifty acres where the village of Stafford is now located; Asa Ransom, who also located on one hundred and fifty acres, in what afterwards was known as Ran- som's Hollow; Garrett Davis, who located on one hundred and fifty acres east of and adjoining the Tonawanda reservation. These three men erected and furnished comfortable houses in compliance with their agreement. With the exception of those settled at Buffalo, Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Walthers were the pioneer women on the purchase. When Mr. Ellicott announced he was ready to begin selling the land, these three households were the only settlers in the entire Holland tract.
In May, 1801, General James Wilkinson appeared on the fron- tier with engineers commissioned to open a road between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. A good beginning was made in that and the succeeding season, but the enterprise was not completed until 1809, when with an appropriation of $1,500 obtained from the state, Joseph Landon, Peter Vandeventer and Augustus Porter, acting as commissioners, opened a passable wagon road from Black Rock to the Falls.
The first crops raised on the Holland Purchase were at the Transit Store House. That was the spring of 1799, and the clear- ing and cultivation of the plot was done not by settlers but by a gang of hands who were waiting for weather that would permit the start of a surveying expedition. Oats, potatoes and garden vegetables were planted, which the tavern keeper there, Mr. Wal- ther, reported to Mr. Ellicott yielded good crops.
As soon as Mr. Ransom had built his house, Mr. Ellicott made it his headquarters, his appointment as local agent of the company dating from October 1, 1800.
Immediately following his appointment as local agent, the in- defatigable Ellicott, anxious to realize for his principals some return on the large expenditures involved in the opening of their lands, the cutting of roads and the provision of inns for the accom- modation of prospective buyers, took measures to bring the advan- tages of the new country to the attention of possible investors. In 1800 he issued a prospectus which set forth these advantages in reasonable colors and may be quoted as showing conditions on the tract at that time :
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
"HOLLAND LAND COMPANY WEST GENESEO LANDS-Information
"The Holland Land Company will open a Land Office in the ensuing month of September, for the sale of a portion of their valuable lands in the Genesee Country, State of New York, situate in the last purchase made of the Seneca Nation of Indians, on the western side of the Genesee River. For the convenience of applicants, the Land Office will be established near the centre of the lands intended for sale ond on the main road, leading from the Eastern and Middle States to Upper Canada, Presque Isle in Pennsylvania, and the Connecticut Reserve. Those lands are situate, adjoining and contiguous, to the lakes Erie, Ontario and the streights of Niagara, possessing the advantage of the navigation and trade of all the upper lakes as well as the river Saint Lawrence, (from which the British settlements derive great advantage), also intersected by the Allegany River, navigable for boats of 30 to 40 tons burthen, to Pittsburgh and New Orleans and contiguous to the navigable waters of the west branch of the Susquehanna River, and almost surrounded by settlements, where provision of every kind is to be had in great abundance and on reasonable terms, renders the situation of the Holland Land Company Geneseo Lands more eligible, desirous and advantageous for settlers than any other unsettled tract of inland country of equal magnitude in the United States. The greater part of this tract is finely watered (few exceptions) with never failing springs and streams, affording sufficiency of water for grist mills and other water works. The subscriber, during the year 1796 and 1799, surveyed and laid off the whole of these lands into townships, a portion of which, to accommodate purchasers and settlers, is now laying off into lots and tracts from 120 acres and upwards, to the quantity contained in a township.
"The lands abound with limestone, and are calculated to suit every description of purchasers and settlers. Those who prefer land timbered with black and white oak, hickory, poplar, chestnut, wild cherry, butternut and dogwood, or the more luxuriant timbered with basswood or lynn, butternut, sugar-tree, white ash, wild cherry, cucumber tree (a species of the magnolia) and black walnut may be suited. Those who prefer level land or gradually ascending, affording extensive plains and valleys, will find the country adapted to their choice. In short, such are the varieties of situations in this part of the Genesee country, every where almost covered with a rich soil, that it is presumed that all purchasers who may be inclined to participate in the advantages in those lands, may select lots from 120 acres to tracts containing 100,000 acres, that would fully please and satisfy their choice. The Holland Land Company, whose liberality is so well known in this country, now offer to all those who may wish to become partakers of the growing value of those lands, such portions and such parts as they may think proper to purchase. Those who may choose to pay cash will find a liberal discount from the credit price."
Mr. Ellicott on July 4, 1801, wrote Mr. Busti, the agent gen- eral : "When we reflect that there are lands for sale in every possible direction around us, that every purchaser who comes into this quarter has to pass by innumberable land offices, where lands are offered on almost every kinds of terms imaginable, and that in upper Canada, adjoining the purchase, the government grants lands at 6d Halifax currency per acre, we can not calculate to make very rapid sales, until we have saw and grist mills erected, and roads opened; all of which are going forward."
Mr. Thompson, who had charge of the erection of a home for the local agent at Batavia, frankly intimated that he thought that money spent on log houses was money "thrown away," but Mr.
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HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
Ellicott was not dissatisfied. He informed Mr. Thompson that he assumed the expense for such a building and that he hoped he might never want for a worse house than a good log house. "In- deed I should prefer," he wrote in reply to the other's criticism, "living in such a house to that of being obliged to board in the best brick house in Canandaigua." He was loyal to the under- taking, was not discouraged by its difficulties and foresaw the results with which perseverance and enterprise were sure to be rewarded.
But even when thus attractively advertised, sales on the Hol- land tract continued discouragingly slow for a number of years. The supply of wild lands offered greatly exceeded the demand and the fever for speculation in them had passed. Keen rivalry among companies or syndicates having such holdings resulted, and the Federal government was offering lands in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys at a much lower price for cash than the pur- chasers of western New York lands could afford to set upon their holdings.
The immense tract of wild land, bought by the Hollanders with a view to its disposal in large blocks and at large profits, did not, as we have seen, find ready sale. The land speculations in which many men of wealth had taken a hand in the years imme- diately following the close of the war of the Revolution reached an end that involved even Robert Morris in financial disaster. In the early nineties the bubble had burst. Wild land was a drug on the market. There was too much of it and too little money to invite purchasers even of townships, demand for which had helped stave off the evil day for Phelps and Gorham in the eastern part of the Genesee Country.
So the Holland Company felt compelled to open its lands, as had Phelps and Gorham, to actual settlers, and following their example located an office with this end in view at Tonawanda Bend, later the site of the village of Batavia.
This was in 1801, eleven years later than the establishment of the office at Canandaigua. The office last mentioned had not proved any too much of a success, the returns from its sales direct to settlers not having been sufficient to enable the company to meet their obligations. It seemed, however, the only method for the Hollanders other than to dispose of their holdings at a great sacrifice, and they resorted to it as stated.
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Joseph Ellicott, who had surveyed the land, and now, as agent of the company, was charged with opening it to settlement, pro- ceeded to make the improvements necessary to its development and to offer it on terms that would invite the favorable attention of the hardy but moneyless men who are wont to comprise the pioneers on new lands. He would accept ten, or even only five, per cent of the agreed price, as a cash payment, and give buyers a credit of six, eight or ten years in which to pay the balance.
But notwithstanding these inducements, the immigration of settlers was slow beyond expectations and their ability to meet the agreed payments, liberal as were the terms, small indeed. There was little money in circulation and, when finally the com- pany consented to accept payment in kind, the settlers had need of all they could obtain from their crops to make the betterments which they must have, if they were to make their homes livable and their lands productive. They became discouraged and rest- less and wished themselves back in the East, or in their old homes across seas, where at least they would have the comforting pres- ence to be found in more thickly populated communities, or they were ready to move to regions yet farther west, where they dreamed conditions would be easier and opportunities better.
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