WESTERN / CENTRAL New York timeline / 1788

1788
Jan 8
Politician John Canfield Spencer is born in Hudson.

Jan 27
Former New York governor William Tryon dies at his Grosvenor Square, London,
home.

Mar 31
Massachusetts votes to sell Phelps and Gorham the New York lands agreed upon at the Hartford Convention.

April
Against the desires of Red Jacket, but with the approval of the grand sachem Farmer’s Brother, Phelps and Gorham pay the Seneca 2100 pounds ($5000) in cash and trade goods, plus a 500 pound annual payment for 2,600,000 acres of land west of the Genesee River, which become part of the Military Tract, land set aside for veterans of the Revolution. A survey is launched to divide the land into cardinally-oriented six-mile-square townships. The survey, run by Colonel Hugh Maxwell, completed next year, will also mark off the Pre-Emption Line running from the Pennsylvania Line to Lake Ontario, setting apart New York land owned by Massachusetts. The Seneca give Phelps and Gorham an additional 84,00 acres for a mill site in exchange for providing them a sawmill and a gristmill. The two investors hire Ebenezer (Indian) Allan to start a mill at the Falls of the Genesee. The Onondaga accept a reservation of a few square miles.

Apr 1
The Phelps and Gorham purchase is concluded.

Apr 23
Massachusetts governor John Hancock issues a proclamation, finalizing the Phelps and Gorham purchase. Massachusetts sells its 2,600,000 acres of its western New York lands, at under 3 cents an acre, to Oliver Phelps, Nathaniel Gorham and other investors.

May
Comfort Tyler begins making salt from the salt springs on the shores of Lake Onondaga.

May 12
Colonel Hugh Maxwell sets out from Heath, Massachusetts, to met Oliver Phelps and others in New York State.

May 13
Maxwell arrives in Albany, finds he missed Phelps by two days, heads west.

May 14
Maxwell arrives in Schenectady, finds Phelps, Kirkland, and the pastor's assistant Elisha Lee are close to a day ahead of him.

May 16
Maxwell meets Phelps, Kirkland and Lee at Canajoharie. They set out for Fort Stanwix (Rome).

Jun 2
Maxwell and his companions arrive at Kanadesaga, near today's Geneva. A number of Iroquois are present, in hopes of concluding treaty.

Jun 4
Maxwell writes his wife from Kanadesaga, detailing his travels. ** Oliver Phelps writes Samuel Fowler from Kanadesaga, describing the natural surroundings and predicting a city will be built on the spot.

Jun 10
Maxwell, Lessee captain Benjamin Allen and three assistants depart from Kanadesaga, and row to the southern end of Seneca Lake.

Jun 11
Maxwell's party arrives at Catherine's Town (Montour Falls).

Jun 12
In the midst of a rainy day Maxwell arrives at Newtown.

Jun 13
Maxwell begins a trial survey.

Jun 16
Maxwell reaches the area four miles west of the northern end of Seneca Lake.

Jun 17
A New York State Convention opens at Poughkeepsie's Van Kleek House to consider the proposed U. S. Constitution. Governor George Clinton acts as chairman. Anti-federalist delegates outnumber constitutional supporters, 23-19.

Jun 19
Between now and July 2nd only Article I is discussed in Poughkeepsie.

Jun 21
Oliver Phelps, and Reverend Kirkland, accompanied by Caleb Benton, Ezekiel Gilbert, James Dean, Benjamin Barton, John Johnson, along with a number of Seneca chiefs and Mos Debarge, set out for Buffalo Creek, get to Flint Creek, about 24 miles away.

Jun 22
The party moves on, encountering rain most of the morning, arriving at their destination around noon. They are housed in the Indian settlement and called into council, where they are told by Chief Fish Carrier that some of the other chiefs have not arrived and talks will temporarily be held off.

July
The Constitutional debates in Poughkeepsie conclude. ** Colonel Maxwell begins his two-month survey of New York's Pre-Emption Line.

Jul 4
Oliver Phelps, Colonel John Butler, Joseph Brant, and Samuel Street arrive at Buffalo Creek.

Jul 8
Phelps and Gorham sign a treaty with the Seneca at Buffalo Creek, buying 2,600,000 acres of lands between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River, including the Mill Lot, at the falls of the Genesee.

Jul 11
Livingston tells the Poughkeepsie delegates that plans are being made to move the capital from New York City to Philadelphia. ** Major Thompson Maxwell, youngest brother of Hugh Maxwell, joins the colonel at Kanadesaga.

Jul 13
Phelps returns to Kanadesaga, instructs Maxwell to begin the re-survey.

Jul 20
Maxwell, three assistants, and New York Genesee Land Company (Lessee) surveyor William Jenkins, depart from Kanadesaga, and row to the southern end of Seneca Lake.

Jul 23
A vote is made in Poughkeepsie to ratify the Constitution without prior conditions that could seriously cripple the document.

Jul 25
Colonel Maxwell begins his journal of the surveying of New York's Pre-Emption Line.

Jul 26
New York, having become the 11th state today, upon learning of Virginia's ratification,
approves the Constitution, 30-27, over the objections of governor George Clinton.

Aug 7
The Maxwell Survey arrives at Town No. 9, First Range, about where routes 5 and 20 cross the state today. Maxwell takes a brief break from the survey.

Aug 21
Phelps, back in Massachusetts, writes to his agent William Walker, expresses his concern that Kanadesaga might not lie within the lands he and Gorham purchased

Aug 22
After a delay the Maxwell survey resumes, heads north.

Sep 12
Onondaga Indians sign the treaty of Fort Schuyler, formerly called Fort Stanwix, ceding “all their lands forever,” (with the exception of certain reserved lands) to the State of New York.

Sep 13
Congress schedules elections for the Presidency. New York City is declared the temporary capital of the U. S.

Sep 19
Phelps writes to Walker a second time, again questioning the survey's accuracy.

Sep 23
Amasa Leonard is the first child born in Binghamton.

Sep 30
William Walker, Caleb Barton and Benjamin Barton, acting for Phelps and Gorham, give title to 100 acres at the Falls of the Genesee River to Ebenezer “Indian” Allen, in return for his constructing and operating a grist mill and saw mill by next June first. The speculators reserve half of any mines and minerals on the site.

Oct 3
Phelps advises Walker to make the outlet of Kennedarqua (Canandaigua) Lake his headquarters, so as to avoid problems with the Lessees.

Oct 5
Walker writes to Phelps that he sees no use in running the line again and that he 's chosen Canandarqua Creek for a town. The site will become Canandaigua.

Nov 21
Massachusetts officially transfers 2,600,000 acres of its Hartford Convention lands to
Phelps and Gorham, including lands in Allegeny, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario,
Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne and Yates counties. The contract calls for a payment of
$1,000,000 in Consolidated Securities scrip, trading far below par. When par later
increases dramatically Phelps and Gorham are unable to fulfill the agreement.


State
The Onondaga accept a reservation of a few square miles. ** The Town of Cortlandt is founded. ** Jeremiah Wadsworth of Hartford travels to the western part of the state, to inspect the Genesee Valley. ** Elmira is settled. ** Major Asa Danforth, Jr. joins Comfort Tyler in the Syracuse/Liverppol area, in making salt. ** Gamaliel Wilder moves into the future South Bristol, and the Gooding Brothers pioneer Bristol. ** The town of Aurelius settlement at Cayuga is settled by John Harris of Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania. ** Future Geneva settler Phineas Prouty Sr. is born. ** 378 members of Jemima Wilkinson’s Society of Friends arrive at the middle of the west shore of Seneca Lake, found a settlement, which they name New Jerusalem. ** The Reverend Mr. Howe, a Baptist, conducts the first religious services in Binghamton. ** Future governor John Alsop King is born in New York City to Rufus and Mary Alsop King. ** New Hampshire farmer William Markham III and his brother-in-law Ransom Smith walk from Ackworth to New York's Genesee Valley and help survey the Avon/Rush area. They chose a lot on the east bank of the Genesee and return to Ackworth. There they collect William's wife Phoebe and their infant son, Ransom's wife Lettice Markham Smith and his younger brothers David and John. They all set out for the Genesee but are stopped by a lost horse on the Susquehanna River and forced to wait for spring. ** A tavern keeper named Middaugh moves to the Lewiston area. ** Oliver Phelps arrives from his home in Granville, Massachusetts, to explore his New York lands. ** Pennsylvanians Elijah Breck and Captain Daniel McDowell, along with William Wynkoop from Ulster County, found the Chemung County village of Breckville. ** A son, Seneca, is born to Ebenezer and Lucy Allan. ** The Seneca sign a treaty at Buffalo Creek, relinquishing title to lands between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River. ** Caleb Benton, one of the disenfranchised lessees of Phelps & Gorham land, donates 1,104 acres of his consolation lands near Seneca Lake to James Parker and the Society of Universal Friends. The long, narrow property will become known as the Garter. ** New Jersey trader and cattle drover Benjamin Barton settles in Geneva. ** Severe winter weather occurs. ** Procedures for apprenticing the children of the poor are put into place. ** Settler Enos Boughton buys six-square-miles of land at the future site of Victor, from the Phelps and Gorham Purchase – Township No. 11 Range No. 4.

Maryland
Hagerstown businessman Colonel Nathaniel Rochester marries Sophia Beatty.