USA > New York > Monroe County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Allegany County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming > Part 25
USA > New York > Livingston County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Yates County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Wayne County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
USA > New York > Orleans County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 25
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NOTE. - Major Recse died at his residence in Geneva after this portion of the work was prepared for the press.
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He was appointed cashier to the old Bank of Geneva when it went into operation. He was in service during the war of 1812, as a Deputy Quartermaster of the Northern Division of the Army ; and in later years he has filled the office of Bank Commissioner of State, and Postmaster at Geneva.
In a work devoted to other objects, but a brief space can be spared for Revolutionary reminiscences -even those as full of interest as are those of the subject of this sketch. Speaking of Mr. Morris, he observes: - " His commercial transactions were immense, extend- ing over the greater portion of the commercial world ; and to all this was added the onerous task of providing for an army in the field, and an armed force upon the ocean. He brought all his energies of mind and body in requisition for the Herculean labor ; was active, vigilant - at times sleepless, - and all in his employ were kept in motion. There was no man who could have filled his place. He wielded an immense amount of wealth ; had an extraordinary facul- ty to inspire confidence ; he unloosed purse strings that no one else could have unloosed. Even those of the society of Friends, their principles forbidding an immediate or remote participaton in war or any of its relations, who constituted at that period a large class of Philadelphia capitalists, lent him money ; in one especial instance, $6,000 in specie, in a pressing emergency of the army, with an in- junetion of secrecy .* The relations between him and Washington during the whole of the Revolution, was one of great intimacy, con- fidence and friendship. There was no one individual upon whom the Father of his country so much relied, in all the terrible conflict that won our national Independence.
As the clerk of Mr. Morris, Mr. Recse had an opportunity of seeing Washington under circumstances which enable him to speak familiarly of him. "He always," says he, " received me and treated me with great kindness of manner, when I had business to transact with him. He was mild and courteous - sedate -not austere."
Mr. Reese observes that Mr. Morris' sudden reverses were in a
* When the gallant Rochambeau was about to return to France, a deputation of Friends were among those who made to him congratulatory addresses : - " It is not" said they, "on account of thy military qualities that we make thee this visit - those we hold in little esteem ; but thou art the friend of mankind, and thy army conducts itself with the utmost order and discipline. It is this which induces us to render thee ou. respects. "
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great measure consequent upon what he regarded as his fortunate investments in the Genesee country. Stimulated by his golden prospects here, and especially by his successful sale to Sir William Pultney and his associates, renowned throughout Europe as the fortunate American land operator, he bought of himself and with others, immense traets of wild land in different States of the Union. Pay days came before sales could be effected ; a change from af- fluence, a princely fortune, to bankruptey, attended with dignity, integrity, and honorable conduet, marked the close of his useful career.
CHAPTER II.
v
SALE OF PHELPS AND GORIIAM TO ROBERT MORRIS - RE-SALE TO ENG- LISII ASSOCIATION - ADVENT OF CHARLES WILLIAMSON.
A NAME intimately blended with the whole history of the Revo- lution, one to whose memory a larger debt of national gratitude is due than to that of any other man, (the great leader in the struggle always excepted,) was early and prominently identified with all this region. What could well furnish the material for an elaborate his- torieal work, must here be but the brief sketch necessary to his in- troduction as a large proprietor of the soil of the Genesee country.
Robert Morris was a native of Liverpool, England. While a youth, bis father emigrated to this country, locating in Baltimore. Entering into the service of the eminent merchant of Philadelphia, Charles Willing, as a elerk, he became the partner of his son and successor. At the breaking out of the Revolution, although en- gaged in an extensive mercantile and commercial business that de- manded his attention, he became at once an active partizan in the struggle. In 1776, he was a member of Congress from Pennsyl- vania, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
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In the previous year, soon after the battle of Trenton, General Washington, in a pressing emergency, had realized from him a tem- porary loan for the army. Again, money was wanted by the commander in chief, and he supplied it; the army was destitute of bread, and the doors of his store houses were opened for their relief; it was without lead for bullets, - stripping the lead fixtures from private dwellings for that purpose, - when the ballast of one of his vessels supplied the deficiency. Invested with the office of Secretary of an empty Treasury - becoming the financier of the poorest country that ever kept an army in the field, or armed ships upon the ocean - his own means were put in requisition, and his almost unbounded credit freely used. With a tact, as a financier, never excelled, when money must be had, he obtained it. When other men or bodies of men failed, he would succeed. When the rich bankers of Amsterdam knew no such new creation as the United States, or its Congress; or, knowing them, had no confi- dence in their engagements, they trusted him on his private re- sponsibility with millions, which he used in the public service. And when the great struggle was drawing to a close - when a last and desperate blow was to be struck, and the army that was to do it, was in New Jersey, without pay, and destitute of comfortable clothing and rations, * - when even its stout hearted commander- in-chief was almost yielding to the embarrassments with which he was surrounded, and upon the point of leading his army the wrong way, because he could not command the means to move it where it should go- the active, patriotic financier hastened to his camp, and by assuring him that he would supply all immediate wants, en- couraged him to put his army in motion. The destination was Yorktown ;- the defeat of Cornwallis, the crowning act of the Revolution, was the result.t Mr. Morris died in New Jersey, in 1806. He was eventually reimbursed by Congress for all of his expenditures and losses in the Revolution, though not for the sacri- fices of time and abstraction from his private business, that his pub- lic services made necessary. He was, however, eminently success-
* " I saw that army when it passed through Philadelphia," says the venerable James Reese ; "and a more ragged, shoeless, and sad looking one, has seldom been put upon the march in the direction of an enemy."
t The money in specie, that he had promised, was borrowed, and paid to the army, but a few days before the attack upon Cornwallis.
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ful in his commercial affairs, and at one period, was by far the wealthiest man in the United States; but engaging enormously in land purchases -other than in this region -he became embar- rassed, and the country he had so well served, had the sore morti- fication of seeing him, toward the close of his useful life, the tenant of jail limits.
Mr. Morris' extended commercial affairs, had made him in a measure, a citizen of the world, instead of that of the new republic. Such was his credit at one period, that in most of the commercial cities of Europe, his private notes passed from hand to hand, with all the confidence that would have been had in the issues of a sound bank. At the close of the Revolution, an immense quantity of wild lands were thrown into market, speculation became rife, and Mr. Morris entered into it upon an extensive scale. Mr. Phelps, during the Revolution, having been connected with the commissary depart- ment of the Massachusetts line, and Mr. Gorham, being a promi- nent merchant in Boston, Mr. Morris had made their acquaintance, and when they sought a purchaser for their unsold lands in the Gen- esee country, they applied to him. Little was known in the com- mercial cities of all this region, other than what had been gathered from maps, and from those who had accompanied Sullivan's expedi-
NOTE. - The Duke Liancourt, who made the acquaintance of Mr. Morris, and speaks of him in language of respect and esteem, mentions among his gigantie business oper- ations, his investments in the city of Washington. The capital was located in an era of speculation and inflation, and magnificent expectations were entertained in reference to the city that would grow up around it. In company with Messrs. Nicholson and Greenleaf, of Philadelphia, he purchased 6,000 lots at $80 per lot, with the condition that there should be built upon them 120 two story brick houses, within seven years. This purchase was made of commissioners; the company bought about an equal number of lots of original proprietors of the ground. Successful sales followed, part of the buildings were erected, but the bubble burst and added to the embarrassments of Mr. Morris, ruining many others of the large capitalists of the United States. The city of "briek kilns," and "magnificent distances," as Mr. Randolph called it, abounds with the relics of the extravagant views entertained at an early period.
The private notes that Mr. Morris issued during the Revolution, were called "Long Bobs,"Sand " hort Bobs ;" having reference to the drawer's name, and the periods of their maturity. @ For a more extended biographical sketch of Robert Morris, see History of Holland Purchase.
* An unthinking Shylock at a public watering place, during the last summer, in W. N. Y., gave it as his sage and profound opinion, that no " worthy, deserving man," ever suffered by the operations of the old law, which imprisoned for debt ; and added the wish, that it could be restored. The author must here note what occurred to him at the time : - The man, without whose individual exertions, the Revolutionary strug- gle would have been a failure ; and the man who projected the overland route of that great dispenser of wealth and prosperity to millions- the Erie Canal - were victims of that relic of an iron age, which strangely enough had found at this late period, one advocate.
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tion. Mr. Morris, however, sought the means of further informa- tion. Ebenezer (or Indian) Allan, was then located as an Indian trader on the Genesee River, at what is now Mount Morris, and was in the habit of making yearly visits to Philadelphia for the pur- chase of goods. Samuel Street who resided at the Falls on the Can- ada side, had also visited Philadelphia. From them Mr. Morris ob- tained information, which induced him to accede to a proposition of Messrs. Phelps & Gorham. Their deed of conveyance embraces their entire final purchase of Massachusetts, of about two millions, two hundred thousand acres, excepting such towns and parts of town- ships as they had sold, being in all, about one million, one hundred thousand acres. The consideration and actual price paid by Mr. Morris, was thirty thousand pounds New York currency.
At an early period after the purchase, Mr. Morris employed Maj. Adam Hoops to explore the country,* who reported that "in respect to soil, climate and advantageous navigation," it was equal to any portion of the United States. Measures were immediately adopted for the survey of such portions as was unsurveyed. The celebra- ted David Rittenhouse was then just perfecting some surveyor's in- struments, and he was employed to fit out Major Hoops' expedition. t
NOTE .-- Mr. Morris after he had made the purchase, wrote to his agent in London, that " Mr. Ebenezer Allan, the oldest settler in that country" had assured him "that hemp grows like young willows, it is so rampant and strong, and that he has raised forty bushels of the finest wheat he ever saw, and so of other articles in like abund- ance. He asserts that the forest trees about Philadelphia are not larger than the bran- ches of trees in his neighborhood." In another letter he assures his agent that he has had the most flattering accounts of his Genesce purchase, from those who belonged to the Friend's settlement on Seneca Lake, that had returned to Pennsylvania on a visit to their connexion. He assures him that he has from all quarters heard such favora- ble accounts of the country, that were he a young man, he would " pitch his tent there !"
* Major Hoops was residing near Philadelphia. He had been in the army through- out the Revolution, was in Sullivan's campaign, and at one period, belonged to the staff of Washington ; and was one of the aidsof Gen. Sullivan, in his expedition to the Genesee country. He was connected with the earliest surveys of all this region. When Mr. Morris afterwards, purchased all the regions west of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, he explored it and commenced the surveys. In 1804, he in company with Ebenezer F. Norton, purchased the most of the township of Olean. They laid out there, the village of Hamilton, which was afterwards, changed to Olean. He was a bachelor; died in Westchester, Pa., in 1835 or '6.
t There is an anecdote connected with Mr. Rittenhouse, which is quite too good to be lost, and may be preserved here. When he had completed one of his astronomical instruments, in anticipation of the transit of Venus, he had invited several friends to be present, and enjoy a view of it. Among the rest he had invited a respectable far- mer from the country, who knew far more about raising crops, than he did about movements of the planets. He answered in a note, that he should be very much en- gaged the evening named, but if Mr. Rittenhouse would have the " transit of Venus postponed for a few evenings" he would be very happy to attend.
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In Mr. Morris' extensive land operations, he had agents in all the principal cities of Europe. His agent in London, was Wm. Tem- ple Franklin, a grand-son of Dr. Franklin, to whom he had given an inadequate idea of its real value. Just as he became fully ap- prized of its value, and was in active preparation to bring it into market for settlers, under his own auspices, he received news from Mr. Franklin, that he had sold it. The purchasers were an "Asso- ciation," consisting of Sir Wm. Pultney, John Hornby and Patrick Colquhoun. The first was a capatalist, and at that period occupied a high position as a citizen and statesman. He resided in the city of London. The second, had been governor of Bombay, and was a retired London capitalist. The third was eminent in his day, as a statesman and philanthropist .* The price paid for what was sup- posed to be about one million one hundred thousand acres, but which in fact amounted to almost one million two hundred thousand acres, was thirty five thousand pounds sterling. Mr. Morris had written to Mr. Franklin previous to the sale, a letter from which he would have inferred, that he intended advancing on the price, but the sale was made previous to the reception of the letter. In that letter he says : - "I have applications in all, for 250,000 acres of the Genesee lands, and they are daily increasing. This winter has disclosed the real character those lands deserve. Many genteel families are going to settle there, and as I have determined to settle my son there, no one can doubt the favorable opinion I entertain of the soil, climate and rapidity of settlement." "I consider that the southwestern Indian war, will eventually be of advantage to the set- tlements of the Genesee country." "There is now in this city a Mr. Jackson, who lives on the borders of Seneca Lake, who is accom- panied by an Indian. They assured me that before they left, while there was snow on the ground, every night thirty or forty families arrived at his place, (Friends settlement,) on their way to settle the lands that had been bought before my purchase." "All our public affairs go on well. This country is rushing into wealth and impor-
* A marble tablet erected in front of the Presbyterian church iu Canandaigua, to perpetuate his memory, has upon it an inscription which recognizes the principal events of his useful life. He was a native of Glasgow, and died in London, in 1820, aged 76 years. Few men have contributed more to the reformation of criminal laws, to the promotion of trade and commerce, in founding systems for benefitting the poor, and for public education, in England and Scotland. In some of his correspondence in the hands of the author, he mentions having spent some time in America previ- ous to 1790 ; as is inferred, in some of the Southern States.
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tance faster than ever was expected by the most sanguine of the sanguinous." My Genesee lands are infinitely preferable to any American lands that can be offered in Europe." After he had been apprised of the 'sale, he wrote to Mr. Colquhoun :- "Those tracts which Gorham and Phelps had sold previous to my purchase, are settling very fast, and the first settlers are raising enough to supply the new comers." "I am now at New York, on my return from Boston, where I saw several people from the Genesee country, and it affords me great pleasure to reiterate the account which you have already had, of that fine country. On my way through Connec- ticut, I met Mr. Wadsworth who has settled in the Genesee country, with whom I had much conversation, and who I find like every other person who has visited the country, is in raptures with it. Mr. Wadsworth is extremely intelligent, and one upon whose veracity the utmost reliance can be placed. The reports made by him and others in New England, has turned the attention of all who think of emigration, towards the Genesee, and every man who pitches his tent there, adds to the value of your purchase."
Major Hoops, prosecuted the surveys under the new proprietors, by an arrangement with Mr. Morris. He early discovered, what had been suspected, a material error in the running the Pre-emp- tion line. As this is a matter which it will be necessary for the reader to understand, in connection with after events, it may be here stated, that the State of New York ceded to Massachusetts, all the territory west of a line to be drawn due north and south from the 82nd mile stone on the Pennsylvania line. Before the running this line, it could of course be but mere conjecture where it would fall, as far north from the starting point as Seneca Lake. Seth Reed, the afterwards founder of the settlement at Presque Isle, (Erie,) Pa., the grand-father of the present Charles M. Reed, and Peter Ryckman, both of whom had been Indian traders, ap- plied to the State of New York, for a remuneration for services rendered in some previous negotiations with the eastern portion of the Six Nations, and proposed to take a patent for a tract, the boun- daries of which should " begin at a tree on the bank of the Seneca Lake, and run along the bank of the Lake to the south, until they should have 16,000 acres between the Lake and the east bounds of the land ceded to Massachusetts." Their request was acceded to, and a patent issued. Thus situated, they proposed to Messrs. Phelps
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and Gorham, to join them in running the Pre-emption Line, each party furnishing a surveyor. " A Captain Allen," says one authority, " Mr. Jenkins " says another, was selected by Reed and Ryckman, and Colonel Maxwell, by Phelps and Gorham. In the mean time, the Lessees assuming that their transactions were valid, took an in- terest in the matter, and as Messrs. Reed and Ryckman were both share holders in their company, the matter was mutually accommo- dated between them. The line was run, which is known as the " Old Pre-emption Line." Messrs. Phelps and Gorham, were much disappointed in the result, suspected error, or fraud, but made no movement for a re-survey, before they had sold to the English Association. Their suspicions had been at first excited by an offer from a prominent member of the Lessee Company, for " all the lands they owned cast of the line that had been run." They were so well assured of the fact, that in their deed to Mr. Morris, they specified a tract. in a gore between the line then run, and the west bounds of the counties of Montgomery and Tioga, those counties then embracing all of the military tract.
Upon a superficial examination of the line, Major Hoops was convinced of its inaccuracy. Mr. Morris having in his convey- ance to the English purchasers, stipulated an accurate survey of all he conveyed, instructed Major Hoops to correct the line .* Mr. Ellicott with his two brothers, Joseph and Benjamin, had then just finished the survey of Washington city. The transit instrument, for surveying by means of astronomical observations, having just been invented in Germany, Mr. Ellicott availed himself of it, his brother Benjamin superintending its construction. Upon arriving in this country, Mr. Ellicott was joined by the late Judge Porter, who was then a surveyor in the employ of Messrs. Phelps & Gorham ; a corps of axe-men were employed, and a vista thirty feet wide opened before the transit instrument, until the line had reached the head of Seneca Lake, when night signals were employed to run down and over the Lake. So much pains were taken to insure correctness, that the survey was never disputed, and thus the " new Pre-emption Line" was established as the true division line between
* In a letter to Mr. Colquhoun, Mr. Morris says: "These three brothers," (An- drew, Joseph, and Benjamin Ellicott,) "arc of the number of beings on whom nature sports her favors. They are great mathematicians as well as mechanical geniuses, to which they have added much practical experience, and good moral characters."
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the lands of the State of New York and those that had been ceded to Massachusetts. In examining the old survey, Major Hoops had discovered the precise points of deviation to the westward. It had commenced soon after leaving the Pennsylvania line, gradually bearing off' until it crossed the out-let of the Crooked Lake, where an abrupt offset was made, and then an inclination for a few miles, almost in a north-west course ; then as if fearful that it was running west farther than was necessary to secure a given object, the line was made to incline to the east, until it passed the foot of Seneca Lake, when it was run nearly north and south to Lake Ontario. All this will be observed upon any of the old maps. It will at once be perceived that the site of Geneva, the 16,000 acres of Reed and Ryckman, and the supposed interests of the Lessees, had caused more than a usual variation of the surveyor's compass. Judge Porter's explanation is as follows: "Geneva was then a small settlement, beautifully situated on the Seneca Lake, rendered quite attractive by its lying beside an old Indian settlement, in which there was an orchard." *
The old pre-emption line, terminated on Lake Ontario, three miles west of Sodus Bay, and the new line very nearly the center of the head of the Bay. With the exception of the abrupt varia- tions that have been noticed, the old line parting from the true merid- ian about five miles south of the Chemung river, bears off' gradually until it reaches the shore of Lake Ontario. The strip of land between the two lines was called " The Gore." In addition to the patent granted to Reed and Ryckman, the State had presumed the origi- nal survey to be correct, and made other grants, and allowed the location of military land warrants upon what had been made dispu- ted territory. We shall see what was the final disposition of the matter.
After Mr. Morris had made the purchase of Phelps and Gorham, he had once endeavored to promote the settlement of the Genesee lands, entering into negotiations with individuals, and with those who proposed founding settlements or colonies, but he had perfected nothing ; though some sales he had in progress, were consummated
* In speaking of this fraud, to the author, Judge Porter entirely exonerated Col. Maxwell, for whom, in common with all who knew him, he entertained a high res- pect. In fact, it turned out that Col. Maxwell was sick and obliged to trust the line to his associate at the time the fraud was committed.
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
by his successors. His plan of settlement contemplated principally emigration from Pennsylvania ; but there were formidable difficul- ties in the way. A wide forest separated his lands from the most advanced settlements of Pennsylvania, over the mountains and across the streams, of which no avenue had been opened ; and the still greater difficulty was the fear of Indian wars. The Six Na- tions were looked upon as but in a state of armistice, as having re- luctantly yielded to necesssity, and paused in their stealthy assaults ; but far from being reconciled, ready to again take up the tomahawk and scalping knife, upon their own account, if opportunity was. of- fered, or at the bidding of those who were yet brooding over their revenge behind the walls of Forts Oswego and Niagara, and in their Canadian retreats. The borderers of Pennsylvania had seen and felt too much of the horrors of Indian wars, to feel willing to place them- selves again in a position to be harrassed by them. News had reached them of Indian murders of surveyors and emigrants near Presque Isle, and of surveyors in this region ; of solitary cases of a renewal of Indian hostilities upon the Susquehannah; and rumor had vastly magnified the apprehended danger. A society of Men- onists in Pennsylvania, had contracted with Phelps and Gorhanı for a township, and were negotiating with Mr. Morris for a larger purchase, to enable them to settle their sons in this country, but gave up the project in consequence of the fear of Indian war. Mr. Morris writes to Mr. Colquhoun soon after he had sold to the As- sociation, that " these worthy but timid people had grown afraid since the Indian wars at the westward had become so general as it is, to let their sons go out even to the townships they have bought, lest the Six Nations should become parties, and attack the Genesee settlements. Now as there is not the least danger of this happening, the Six Nations having decided already for peace, yet these timid peo- ple will await their own time. I will, however, announce to them that I can supply them with the lands they wanted, and as I think the Indian war will be of short duration, there is little doubt but they will buy it when it is over."
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