CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1801

1801

January

The Holland Land Company opens for business at Asa Ransom's house in Clarence, selling land at approximately $2 an acre.

Jan 17

Catherine Le Roy dies in New York City at the age of 62.

February

Land speculator James Wadsworth gets into a dispute with Schenectady merchant Oliver Kane, wounds him in a duel. ** Wadsworth is given foreign membership in Russia's Imperial Moscow Society of Agricultural Husbandry, under the aegis of Czar Alexander II.

March

Settler Abel Rowe builds a cabin in Batavia. Joseph Ellicott moves his Holland Land Company office into Rowe's cabin. ** Wadsworth and Kane duel again. Wadsworth is wounded.

Mar 5

The state legislature passes a resolution to revise and amend the 1795 "act for the encouragement of schools", to permit $50,000 for the further expansion of schools over the next five years.

April

Chauncey Rust of La Fayette moves to Onondaga County, where he and his family pioneer Maple Grove, in the Town of Otisco. ** Joseph Ellicott begins clearing trees for the new land office at Batavia.

Apr 7

Ontario County is divided into 19 towns, including Northampton.

May 11

Pennsylvania land speculator (Binghamton) William Bingham's wife Anne Willing Bingham dies in Bermuda at the age of 36.

June

James Wadsworth's brother William drives a herd of cattle from Geneseo to Baltimore, Maryland, returns five weeks later with oxen.

Jun 4

A daughter, Ann Matilda, is born to future New York pioneer David Piffard and his wife Sarah, in London.

Jun 22

The U. S. Army announces plans to build a road from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.

Jun 23

Williamson and Pulteney officially wind up their affairs.

July

Former Army captain Philip Church begins a survey of New York State's Morris Reserve (today's Allegany County), takes Moses Van Campen as a guide. Later in the year he will return to the Genesee Valley and begin surveying the future Angelica.

Jul 20

The Skaneateles’ Religious Society (later the First Presbyterian Church) is founded by the Reverend Aaron Bascom of the New Hampshire Missionary Association It’s the oldest congregation in the village.

August

A republican political coup in the state turns out many Federalist office holders.

Oct 13

The New York State Constitution Revision Committee meets, elects Aaron Burr as its president.

Oct 21

Charles Williamson's holdings are conveyed by deed to his principals, England's Pulteney Associates.

Nov 7

Joseph Ellicott gives the settlement of Batavia its name, honoring his employers' country.

State

The western section's first school opens at Ganson's (Le Roy). A log cabin is built at Buttermilk Falls nearby. ** Samuel Lincoln becomes the first settler in the future Bergen. ** Former U. S. Board of War secretary and Board of the Congressional Treasury member Robert Troup succeeds Charles Williamson, dismissed for extravagance as Pulteney land agent in western New York. Williamson quits rather than be demoted from chief agent. ** A Federal-style home is built at 562 South Main Street in Geneva. ** Dunham's Grove (the future Oakfield) is founded. ** The state repeals an act that had required the superintendent of the Onondaga salt works to keep a minimum supply on hand. A one cent duty is also repealed. ** Amos Sottle returns to the future Chautauqua County where he had settled in 1797, bringing a Mr. Sidney and a Captain Rosecrantz with him. ** The state highway commissioners levy a tax on the town of Bath for road maintenance. ** Augustus Griswold builds an ashery at Indian Landing, on Irondequoit Bay, the first one in the area of the future Rochester. ** Charles Williamson's Springfield Farm residence at Bath is completed. ** John Davison, future maternal grandfather of John D. Rockefeller, acquires 150 acres in Cayuga County. ** Governor John Jay retires. ** Abram Paddock settles on the east bank of the Oswego River, at the future village of Phoenix. ** A grist mill is built in Penn Yan. ** Skaneateles has approximately 100 houses. ** The state legislature begins regulating taverns and inns and levying duties on strong liquor sold in them. ** Herman Le Roy, William Bayard, Matthew Clarkson and John McEvers open the newly-surveyed Triangle Tract to settlement. ** Colonel W. Fitzhugh, Major Charles Carroll, and Nathaniel Rochester visit the Genesee Valley again. ** Jared and Ellen (Ginnie) Munson Barker move to Northfield (later Pittsford) from Oneida County with their children David, Asahel, Alanson and Betsy. Jared buys a grist mill, saw mill and house from early settler Simon Stone. ** Penfield brewer and shoemaker Stephen Lusk, widowed in 1799, marries Sarah Hincher (Henshaw). ** Early settlers Samuel Spafford, Enos Blossom and David Bush are appointed school commissioners for the town of Smallwood (which later formed parts of Brighton and Pittsford).

Batavia

Holland Land Office field agent Joseph Ellicott builds a two-story log cabin office. He has a dam and a sawmill built on the site - a bend in Tonawanda Creek. ** Abel Rowe purchases the first lot, erects a tavern across from the land office. ** School teacher Thomas Layton settles here.

Rochester

A trading center opens at the mouth of the Genesee River; it is named Charlotte. ** Early settler Enos Blossom is appointed as a School Commissioner.

Steuben County

Overseers of the poor request levies on the towns for relief. Painted Post is charged the most - $1800. ** The board of supervisors conducts its first audit. ** The county is placed in the Seventh judicial district.

London

The London Stock Exchange is built. Future New York pioneer David Piffard becomes a member. His wife Sarah's failing health necessitate a move to Paris later in the year.

(c) 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte