42 



HISTOEY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



organization until his death. He died in 1826, aged sixty- 

 two years, leaving several sons and daughters. 



Phelps and Gorham being unable to extinguish the 

 Indian title to the western portion of their lands, as stipu- 

 lated in their contract with Massachusetts, surrendered to 

 that State that part to which the Indian title remained, in 

 consideration of which the State relinquished two-thirds of 

 the contract price. In 1796, Massachusetts sold these 

 lands to Robert Morris, who extinguished the Indian title 

 thereto, sold some, and mortgaged the residue to William 

 Willink, of Amsterdam, and eleven associates, denominated 

 the '' Holland Land Company." This mortgage was fore- 

 closed, and the lands bought in by said company. Thus 

 the '' Holland Company" acquired a full title to all the lands 

 surrendered by Phelps and Gorham to Massachusetts, and 

 lying west of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. 



Robert Morris in those days was a large speculator in 

 lands, and a man of unlimited financial resources. He was 

 a native of Liverpool, Eng., and came with his parents to 

 this country when a youth. He entered the service of 

 Charles Willing, the eminent merchant of Philadelphia, as 

 clerk, and subsequently became a partner of his son and 

 successor. At the breaking out of the Revolution he be- 

 came at once an active partisan in the struggle. In 1776 

 he was a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, and one 

 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Invested 

 with the office of secretary of an empty treasury, he became 

 the financier of tlie 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. 



" When the rich bankers of Amsterdam knew no such 

 new creation as the United States, or as Congress, or, 

 knowing them, had no confidence in their engagements, 

 they trusted him, on his private responsibility, with mil- 

 lions, which he used in the public service. And when the 

 2:reat stru^de 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 com- 

 fortable clothing, — when its stout-hearted commander-in- 

 chief was almost yielding to the embarrassments by which 

 he was surrounded, and upon the point of leading his army 

 the wrong way, because he could not command the means 

 of leading it where it should go,^ — the active, patriotic 

 financier hastened to his camp, and by assuring him that 

 he would supply all immediate wants, encouraged him to 

 put his army in motion. The destination was Yorktown ; 

 — the defeat of Cornwallis, the crowning act of the Revolu- 

 tion, was the result." * 



Mr. Morris was eventually reimbursed by Congress, 

 though not for the sacrifice of time and abstraction from 

 his private business which his public services had made neces- 

 sary. He was, however, eminently successful in his com- 

 mercial affairs, and at one time was by far the wealthiest 

 man in the United States. He met with many reverses, 

 however, and died poor in New Jersey, in May, 1806. 

 Mr. Phelps, during the Revolution, having been con- 



•••■ The monej, in specie^ that he had promised was borrowed and 

 paid to the army but a few days before the attack upon Cornwallis. 



nected with the commissary department, and Mr. Gorham 

 being a prominent merchant in Boston, Mr. Morris had 

 made their acquaintance, and when they sought a purchaser 

 for their unsold lands in the Genesee country, they applied 

 to him. Little was known in the commercial cities of all this 

 region, other than what had been gathered from maps and 

 from those who had accompanied Sullivan's expedition.f 

 Mr. Morris, however, sought the means of further informa- 

 tion. Ebenezer (or Indian) Allen was then located as an 

 Indian trader 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 Niagara 

 Falls on the Canadian side, had also visited Philadelphia. 

 From them Mr. Morris obtained the information which in- 

 duced him to accede to the proposition of Messrs. Phelps 

 and Gorham. 



Their deed of conveyance bears date Nov. 17, 1790, and 

 was executed by Nathaniel Gorham and Rebecca his wife, 

 and Oliver Phelps and Mary his wife. It embraced their 

 entire final purchase of Massachusetts, with the exception 

 of such townships and parts of townships as they had sold, 

 being in all one million two hundred and sixty-four thou- 

 sand five hundred and sixty-nine 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 em- 

 ployed Maj. Adam Hoops to explore the country, who re- 

 ported that " in respect to soil, climate, and advantages of 

 navigation," it was equal to any portion of the United 

 States. Maj. Hoops was then residing near Philadelphia. 

 He had been in the army throughout the Revolution, was 

 in Sullivan's campaign, and at one period belonged to the 

 staff of Gen. Washington. He was one of the aids of 

 Gen. Sullivan in his expedition to the Genesee country, and 

 was one of the earliest surveyors of all this region, being 

 employed first by Phelps and Gorham, and afterwards by 

 Mr. Morris. In 1804 he purchased part of the township 

 of Olean, and was the founder of the village which now 

 bears that name. He died in Westchester, Pa., about 1836. 



SURVEYS — PRE-EMPTION LINE. 



The first survey undertaken of the Phelps and Gorham 

 Purchase was the establishment of the " Old Pre-emption 

 Line," its eastern boundary. The survey originated in this 

 way : the State of New York ceded to Massachusetts all 

 the territory within her boundaries west of a line to be 

 drawn due north and south from the eighty-second mile- 

 stone on the northern line of Pennsylvania. Before the 

 running of this line, it could of course be but a mere con- 

 jecture where it would fall as far north from the starting- 

 point as Seneca Lake. Seth Reed and Peter Ryckman, 

 both of whom had been Indian traders, applied to the State 

 of New York for remuneration for services rendered in 



f It is a somewhat remarkable fact that in most instances in our 

 early history^ the fertility and resources of our new countries were first 

 brought to the knowledge of the public by the marching of armies 

 and expeditions in various directions. Such was the case in the 

 valley of the Mohawk, the Susquehanna, the Genesee, and Ohio 

 valleys. The rich and inviting territory lying between Chicago and 

 the Mississippi River was made known by the march of Gen. Scott's 

 army to tlje Black Hawk war in 1832/ - 



