Skip to main content

Holland Land Office Museum

Holland Land Office Museum

Before the territory could be opened up for settlement, it was necessary to obtain land rights from the Senecas. The Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, followed by the Big Tree Treaty of 1797, served this purpose. The Senecas retained 200,000 acres of land for a reservation. They also were to receive interest from federal stocks and bonds. The Holland Land Company hired a general agent, Theophile Cazenove, who was located in Philadelphia, to oversee land sale. In 1798, Joseph Ellicott was hired and he, along with his brother Benjamin and 130 men surveyed the purchase for the next three years at a total cost of $70,921.69 1/2.

In November of 1800, Paul Busti succeeded Cazenove as General Agent. Busti would serve in this role until his death in 1824. Busti appointed Joseph Ellicott resident agent and in January 1801, sale of land began at Asa Ransom's house in Clarence. The area was still part of Ontario County, which had levied high taxes on land. This combined with the distance settlers traveled to record deeds, led to the creation of a new county in 1802. The county, Genesee, was named from an Indian word meaning "beautiful valley."

Land sold for about $2.00 per acre and partial payment could be made by working on road or mill construction. Many immigrants and New Englanders took advantage of the opportunity offered, and cleared, settled, and developed the region that we call Genesee County. The first Batavia land office, a log cabin, was replaced by a frame building in about 1809. That building was then replaced by a fireproof building, completed in 1815, that still stands today as the Holland Land Office Museum. In 1894 the Holland Purchase Historical Society was formed to restore the building and maintain it as a museum.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Featured Articles

Famous writers including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts turned Sleepy Hollow Cemetery into our country’s first conservation project.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.

Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.

Born during Jim Crow, Belle da Costa Greene perfected the art of "passing" while working for one of the most powerful men in America.