The Genesee Country. 297 
in numbers, but also in the substantial character of the immigrants; 
a very great portion of the settlers Avere among the most wealthy 
farmers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, the Jerseys and New England. 
The country had at this period arrived at that state of improve- 
ment that enables the inhabitants to live in comfort and luxury. 
Already were weekly markets established at the larger villages, 
and the United States had established a weekly post for the con- 
veyance of letters. To improve the communication with the coast 
seemed to be all that was necessary to render the Genesee country 
as desirable as any part of America. To remedy the inconven- 
ience arising from the want of roads, the Legislature of the State 
had by a law passed in this year, taken the road fromWhitestown 
to Geneva under their supervision. A lottery was granted for 
making certain great roads, among which this was included. The 
inhabitants of the country through which this was to pass, made 
an offer of their services to aid the State Commissioner to the 
amount of 4000 days work, M^hich was faithfully performed. By 
these uncommon exertions the road, nearly 100 miles in length, 
was completed 64 feet in width and paved with logs, under a 
covering of gravel through the low country, which rendered such 
a construction necessary. In consequence, the road from Fort 
Schuyler, on the Mohawk river, was so far improved that a stage 
started on the 30th of September and arrived at the hotel in Ge- 
neva, in the afternoon of the third day, with four passengers. 
This season a new settlement was begun on the west side of the 
Falls of the Genesee river, about nine miles from its junction with 
Lake Ontario. 
1798. — It is stated that not less than 3000 people came into 
the counties of Ontario and Steuben, in the space of six weeks, 
and as soon as the navigation opened, the number rapidly in- 
creased. The rapid progress of the country in improvement, be- 
sides wealthy farmers, induced many persons of liberal education 
to move in, who were enabled already to find society suited to 
their different tastes. The opening of a market at Baltimore for 
the lumber and fat cattle of the country, created a desire among 
the inhabitants to improve the navigation of the river. A court 
house and jail this season was erected at Bath, and the inhabit- 
ants at the same period encouraged a clergyman to settle among 
them; this was the first establishment of the kind in the country. 
It had been generally supposed that the Genesee country was a 
flat, level tract of land, interspersed thickly with stagnant waters; 
but it was soon ascertained that this was not the case; it was dis- 
covered that the whole tract of country from Geneva to the Gene- 
see river, with few exceptions, was composed of a range of gently 
.swelling ridges of land, inclining generally from north to south, 
in their relative position, with small streams running in the inter- 
