HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



43 



some previous negotiations with the eastern portion of the 

 Six Nations, and proposed to take a patent for a tract the 

 boundaries of which should "begin at a tree on the bank 

 of Seneca Lake, and run along the bank of said lake to the 

 south, until they should have sixteen thousand acres between 

 the lake and the east bounds of the land ceded to Massa- 

 chusetts." Their request was granted, and a patent issued. 

 The patentees proposed to Messrs. Phelps and Gorham to 

 join them in running the pre-emption line, each party fur- 

 nishing a surveyor. A " Mr. Jenkins," according to some 

 authorities, was selected by Reed and Ryckman, and Col. 

 Maxwell by Phelps and Gorham. Meanwhile, the lessees, 

 assuming that their transactions were valid, took an interest 

 in the matter, and as Messrs. Reed and Ryckman were both 

 shareholders in their company, the matter was mutually 

 accommodated between them. The line was run — which is 

 known as the " Old Pre-emption Line." 



In running this line the surveyors managed to bear to 

 the west of the " due north" course required by the terms 

 of cession. Messrs. Phelps and Gorham were much disap- 

 pointed in the result,* suspected error or fraud, but made 

 no movement for a resurvey. Their suspicions had been 

 first excited by an offer from a prominent member of the 

 lessee company for " all lands they owned east of the line 

 that had been run." They were so well assured of it that 

 in the deed to Mr. Morris they specified a tract in a gore 

 between the line then run and the west bounds of Mont- 

 gomery and Tioga Counties, those counties then extending 

 to the true pre-emption line. The resurvey was not made 

 while Mr. Morris owned the lands, but having stipulated 

 in his conveyance to the English purchasers an accurate 

 survey of all he conveyed, he instructed Maj. Hoops to 

 correct the line. The two brothers — Joseph and Benjamin 

 EUicott — who had just completed the survey of the city of 

 Washington, were employed to superintend the work, using 

 for the first time in this country the transit instrument 

 which had then been recently invented in Germany. Upon 

 their arrival from England they were joined by Judge Por- 

 ter, who was then a surveyor in the employ of Phelps and 

 Gorham. " A corps of axemen was employed, and a vista 

 of 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 between the lands 

 of the State of New York and those which had been ceded 

 to Massachusetts." 



The lands purchased by Phelps and Gorham were sur- 

 veyed into tracts running north and south, called ranges, 

 and these ranges were divided into townships six miles 

 square.f This was done under contract with Col. Hugh 



* Probably they would have made Geneva instead of Canandaigua 

 the centre of their operations, but for the fact that this line, as at first 

 run, left Geneva on the eastward of the pre-emption lino, and in what, 

 since the running of the new line, has been known as " The Gore/' 



f This, we believe, is the first time in the history of our country 

 when this rectangular method of surveys was adopted, — dividing the 

 townships into parallel ranges and designating them by numbers. It 

 was afterwards applied by the government to the whole Northwest 

 Territory, and is the method prevailing in all the Western States. 



Maxwell, who completed most of the northern portion of 

 it previous to the close of 1788. In 1789 the work was 

 prosecuted with the assistance of Judge Augustus Porter 

 and others. The surveys of townships into farm lots, in 

 cases where whole townships were sold, was done at the ex- 

 pense of the purchaser. Judge Porter, John Adlum, and 

 Frederick Saxton were among the earliest surveyors of the 

 subdivisions. 



From the original field-notes of the surveyors, in the 

 land-ofiice of the Pulteney estate, at Bath, we gather the 

 following particulars of surveys made in 1791 and 1792. 

 The general title of the book is " Surveys of that part of 

 West Genesee which was sold by Messrs. Gorham and 

 Phelps to Robert Morris, Esq., except a small tract bounded 

 on the south side of Chapin and Street's township and the 

 township five-eighth parts of which were sold to Smith, 

 Jones and others." The general survey of this tract was 

 made by Frederick Saxton, Adam Hoops, John Adlum, and 

 Augustus Porter, and calculated by Frederick Saxton and 

 Adam Hoops. The purchase of Robert Morris was found 

 to contain, after deducting twenty-six thousand four hund- 

 red and forty-six acres, two roods, and thirty perches, for 

 lands sold to John Stone, E. Scott, Rev. Samuel Kirkland, 

 E. H. Robins, Esq , and others, one million two hundred 

 and forty-six thousand five hundred and sixty-nine acres, 

 one rood, and ten perches. Maj. Adam Hoops adds his 

 certificate to these surveys, in the words following : 



'' The above are the contents of sundry townships and 

 tracts of land in the county of Ontario and State of New 

 York, sold by Messrs. Gorham and Phelps to the Honor- 

 able Robert Morris. The several surveys were made by 

 the persons whose names are hereinbefore mentioned, and 

 their field books and notes : reference being had thereto as 

 directed in the margin at A, B, C, D, E, will show the 

 surveys of the particular townships and tracts. 



" Returned at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, 

 this fourth day of February, Anno Domini' 1793. The 

 contents being, as above written in figures. One Million 

 Two Hundred and Sixty-four Thousand Five 

 Hundred and Sixty-nine Acres, One Rood, and 

 Ten Perches. 



(Signed) '^ A. Hoops, Surveyor y 



The gore between the old and new pre-emption lines >was 

 found upon survey to contain eighty-nine thousand and two 

 acres, two roods, and twelve perches. Deducting for the 

 portion of Seneca Lake included within the lines four thou- 

 sand and fifty-five acres, three roods, and seven perches, the 

 net amount of land vras eighty-four thousand eight hund- 

 red and ninety-six acres, three roods, and five perches. 

 The true Pre-emption Line w^as run by Messrs. EUicott, 

 Armstrong, and Saxton; the off*sets by Morgan Jones, 

 Augustus Porter, and Frederick Saxton, and the calcula- 

 tions were made by Adam Hoops and Frederick Saxton. 

 The latter died before the returns were completed. The 

 length of the gore, from the eighty-second mile-stone in the 

 northern line of Pennsylvania (southeast corner of Steuben 

 County) to its terminus on Lake Ontario at Sodus Bay, was 

 found to be eighty-four miles, seventy-seven chains, and 

 forty-five links. 



