February
New York land speculator James Wadsworth arrives in Plymouth, England.
Mar 18
Steuben County, named for the American Revolution soldier Baron von Steuben,
is created out of Ontario County. Governor John Jay appoints William Kersey
county judge, Stephen Ross surrogate, William Dunn sheriff and George Cooper
county clerk. The Town of Frederickstown is renamed Wayne.
Apr 1
Moses Culver and Nathan Reeves and their families leave Long Island by
flatboat, heading for upstate New York. They eventually reach the site of the
future Newark.
Apr 6
The state legislature officially adopts the corrected Pre-Emption Line.
June
The English leave Ogdensburg, as well as forts Niagara and Oswego. ** James Wadsworth
reports from England that money is as scarce in Britain's as it is in the U. S. He continues
touring farms and manufactories.
Jun 11
New York land speculator Nathaniel (Nathaniel) Gorham dies of apoplexy in his birthplace, Charlestown, Massachusetts, at the age of 58. He’s buried in the Phipps Street Cemetery there.
July
The first visitors for Charles Williamson's fair begin arriving at Bath.
Jul 21
The Court of Common Pleas for Steuben County first sits in the Bath courthouse.
September
3,000 guests have arrived at Bath for the fair by the middle of the month and it
commences. Williamson's purebred Virginia Nell looses a £1,000 race to Silk
Stockings, a horse owner by New Jersey sportsman William Dunn. Southerners,
who bet heavily on Virginia Nell, lose money, goods and slaves. Bath acquires a
black population.
October
Williamson's fair draws to a close. The promotion will end up making a £50,000
profit. ** Over the last six months Williamson spent £1,252:4 in wages on a scheme
to make the village of Hopetoun a wheat distribution center. By the end
of the year he will spend another £1,524:4:2 more. The experiment will be a
failure due to declining levels of the water in the Seneca Lake outlet.
November
After conducting a survey of the Cayuga Reservation, New York auctions off the
land for $279,000 in contracts.
December
Williamson visits Philadelphia and agrees to take over part of the Morris Reserve
land sold to promoter Andrew Craigie. Pulteney refuses to finance the transaction,
but Williamson goes ahead.
State
The first printing press in Steuben County. William Kersey and James Edie begin publishing the Bath Gazette and Genesee Advertiser. ** Williamson builds a theater in Bath, holding performances every day. ** 800 settlers live in the immediate area, per Williamson's calculations. ** Williamson is elected as Steuben County judge. ** TheMcElwees finish clearing the Bath land, after 305 days of labor. Their bill will come to nearly $1000. ** A mineral spring bursts out of the ground at Dansville and is named The All Healing Spring. ** The Ontario County town of Pittstown (later Honeoye, then Richmond) is formed. ** The 40-ton Seneca Lake sloop Alexander, named for Williamson's father, is launched at Geneva. It inaugurates regular traffic on the lake. Albany-born lawyer James Cochran attends the festivities, gains some prominence when he plays for a dance that night. He will make a successful bid for the U. S. Congress in the fall, serve from 1797-1799. This year he will also be named to the State Board of Regents, serving through 1820. ** Williamson pays John Woods $112.60 for chimneys at Mile Point in Geneva. $500 worth of furniture and groceries are brought in. ** Williamson builds a hotel in Geneva. The cost of the masonry is $770, $1,400 for lumber from James Barden, and $4,538.47 for carpentry work by David Abbey. ** Printer Lucius Carey arrives in the Genesee Valley to publish a newspaper for Williamson. ** Williamson forms a company along with Samuel Colt, Jacob Hallett, John Johnstone, Thomas Powell, Polydore Wisner, and others, to provide a piped water supply for Geneva. ** Williamson's brother John dies in Scotland. ** Oliver Phelps mortgages several parcels of land near Canandaigua to Superintendent of Indian Affairs Israel Chapin and his successors, to serve as security for the regular payment of the rent due the Seneca Indians. ** Massachusetts sells lands abandoned by Phelps and Gorham to Robert Morris later to form the nucleus of the Holland Land Company tract. Land sales are begun. ** Richard Hooker and Joseph Blivin settle the Steuben County town of Cohocton. ** Charles Williamson builds the Painted Post Tavern on the future site of Corning, to host prospective land buyers. ** Early settler James Otto arrives in Macedon. ** Ontario County contains 1258 qualified electors. ** 100 settlers in the Genesee District (western part of Ontario County) register cattle earmarks in the town books. ** When the national land speculation bubble bursts Robert Morris is thrown into debt. ** The state legislature tables a report by Thomas Eddy and English engineer William Weston that advised building a canal from the headwaters of the Mohawk River directly to the Finger Lakes, bypassing Wood Creek and Oneida Lake. ** Scots ornithologist Alexander Wilson emigrates, eventually ending up in the Seneca Falls area. ** Braddock's Bay is settled. ** English traveler Isaac Weld reaches the Genesee Valley near Avon after a tour of the Great Lakes west of the state. He then travels on to Bath. ** The Ontario County pioneer Allen family arrives this year and next, settle Allen's Hill in the Town of Richmond.
Rochesterville
Mr. Sprague moves away with his wife, three daughters and son-in-law named Fleming. Josiah Fish and his son Libbeus are joined at the mill by the remainder of Fish's Vermont family - his wife and five children, including daughter Philothetta. ** Gideon King and Zadok Granger began their settlements, having surveys made on both the larger tract and the Allan's Mill plot. King's Landing (later Falltown or Upper Landing, then Hanford's Landing) at the falls is settled.
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