Settlement Patterns on the Holland Land Purchase Proposal for MGIS Capstone Project by David Watkins July 18, 2007

Background  Western NY  Holland Land Company  Joseph Ellicott  Very few Europeans in the area  First Land sales in 1799

Township 12 Range 5 & 6

Sources of Data  Karen Livsey book  Holland Land Company records Maps Annual Reports Correspondence  County Deed records  History books

Entries from Karen Livsey book

Project Proposal  Using the historic maps, create the required feature classes for counties, tracts, roads, townships, ranges, sections, lots, and parcels.  Using the data from the Holland Land Company sales offices record the original sale of each lot with the name of the owner, location, price, down payment, and acres and assign these attributes to the appropriate record in the ‘parcels’ feature class.  Create a map of townships showing the earliest purchase in each.  For each township that had a purchase made between 1799 and 1807, create a map showing the parcels sold by date with purchaser’s name.

Project Proposal cont’d  Attempt to determine which parcels were sold to non-residents (speculators)  Conduct spatial analyses of the parcels sold between 1799 and 1807 to determine relationships to the following factors: Lowland Plains in the north vs Hills in the south Proximity to a saw or grist mill Proximity to a major road Proximity to market Townships offered at wholesale vs smaller parcels Trend – East to west?

Scope:  Limit the detailed parcel work to those parcels sold prior to January 1,  Limit the scope to original sales only.

References:  Pioneer History Of The Holland Purchase of Western New York Orsamus Turner. Jewett, Thomas, & Co., 1849  The “Market” in the Early Republic, James A. Henretta, in Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 18, No.2, (Summer 1998), pp  Land Subdivision on the Holland Purchase in western New York State, William Wyckoff, in Journal of Historic Geography, 12, 2, (1986:Apr.), pp  History of the City of Buffalo and Erie County, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. H. Perry Smith, editor, Syracuse NY, D. Mason & Co, Pub., 1884