1803
Mar 1
The towns of Northampton, Southampton, Leister and Batavia are formed in Genesee County. Elections are held at the house of Josiah Fish, Captain Curtis, Joseph Smith and Peter Ven Deventer, respectively.
May
Canadian hunter and fisherman William Walsworth crosses Lake Ontario in an open boat with his family, settles at the mouth of Oak Orchard River, in the future Orleans County.
May 9
Edwin Scrantom is born to Rochester pioneer Hamlet Scrantom, in Durham, Connecticut.
Jul 20
Buffalo area resident Louis le Couteulx writes to Joseph Ellicott suggesting the natural barrier across the mouth of Buffalo Creek be removed.
October
Didymus C. Kinney, his wife Phoebe Hartwell Kinney, and family, are one of of the first settlers to purchase land in the future Orchard Park Township.
Oct 7
The approximate date Carroll, Fitzhugh and Rochester leave Hagerstown, Maryland, for New York's Genesee Valley, where they have previously purchased land. After visiting their property in Geneva and prepareing to return to Maryland, land agent John Johnston(e) persuades them to detour to the falls of the Genesee.
Oct 21
Brothers-in-law Robert Rose and John Nicholas leave Hampstead, Virginia, along with their families and 75 slaves, head for New York State, in a number of coaches, four horse wagons and a phaeton.
Nov 8
The Hundred-Acre-Tract, on the Genesee River, site of Ebenezer "Indian" Allan's abandoned mill and the future site of Rochester, is bought from Pulteney Associates by Major Charles Carroll, Colonel William Fitzhugh and Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, a few days after their first visit, for $1750, payable in five installments. John Johnston acts as Sir William Pulteney's attorney.
State
John J. Gould begins publishing the Western Repository and Genesee Advertiser. ** Isaac Tiffnay begins publishing the Ontario Freeman. ** Three Pennsylvania pioneers found Fredonia. ** Three Quaker missionaries buy 609 acres of land that later give birth to Salamanca. ** Triangle Tract land agent Richard Stoddard persuades some settlers from Killingsworth, Connecticut, to settle in the Le Roy area, rather than proceeding on to Ohio's Western Reserve. ** Elizur Webster settles the future site of Warsaw. ** An extra half-story is added to the courthouse in Bath as well as a steeple, and windows are replaced. Total cost - $215. Six staffs are purchased, at $3 a piece, to be used by constables acting as court attendants. ** Joseph and Andrew Ellicott begin their survey of the future site of New Amsterdam (Buffalo). Surveyor William Peacock comes to work for them. ** Vermonter Orange Carter settles the Genesee County town of Darien. ** Brothers James and William Walsworth first settle the Carlton area of Orleans County. Matthew Dunham and sons Matthew, James and Charles, of New York City, settle near James Walsworth on Johnsons Creek. William Walsworth has settled on Oak Orchard Creek. ** A road is surveyed between Oak Orchard and the new Genesee County, twenty miles north of Batavia, following the Niagara Escarpment. It will become known as Ridge Road. ** The Painted Post Tavern's innkeeper Benjamin Patterson quits and buys a farm in Irwin. ** Abner Sheldon settles the Monroe County town of Mendon, on the site once occupied by the Seneca Indian town of Totiakton. ** Vermonter David Eddy makes the first settlement in the Erie County town of East Hamburgh. James and Asa Woodward make the first settlement in the Town of Lancaster. ** Thomas Slayton and Gad Warner settle the Niagara County village of Royalton. ** The towns of Southampton, Batavia and Leicester are taken off the Town of Northampton. ** Scots pioneers build the first schoolhouse west of the Genesee, in the newly-formed Southampton (later Caledonia). ** Genesee County's first militia unit is mustered in. ** Ontario and Genesee counties have a combined total of 1877 active voters. ** The Cowing family settles in the area west of Seneca Lake. ** Rose and Nicholas arrive in the Geneva area with their entourage. ** Land speculator Oliver Phelps begins representing the Genesee region in the Eighth U.S. Congress. ** Gouverneur Morris presents the outline of his 1800 proposal to build a canal across the state to Surveyor-General Simeon DeWitt, who is quite skeptical. ** The approximate date thirty-year-old Connecticut resident Jesse Hawley, an early proponent of the future Erie Canal, moves to western New York. **
Batavia
Adam Hoops and three business partners make the first purchase from the Holland Land Company. Joseph Ellicott has the log office torn down and moves business into a frame building on the site. ** Batavia is named county seat of Genesee County. ** The approximate date Mechanic Street (later renamed State Street) is laid out, perpendicular to Main Street. ** Ellicott's 15-year-old nephew David E. Evans arrives from Maryland to serve as a clerk in the land office.
Pittsford
Monroe County's first library - The Northfield Library Company - is established, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Patterson, on Mendon Center Road. Its forty subscribers pay dues of one dollar a year. ** English-born Vermonter William Thornhill (spelling changed to Thornell by Vermonters), settles on Phelps and Gorham land in the area.
Rochester
Spring flood waters carry the former sawmill belonging to Ebenezer Allen and subsequently to others - over the falls of the Genesee.
(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte
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