The Sesquicentennial of Genesee County, 1802-1952

119 pp. Illustrated with black-and-white photos, maps, and ads. Genesee County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. Its county seat is Batavia. Its name is from Seneca word Gen-nis'-hee-yo, meaning "the Beautiful Valley". The county was created in 1802 and organized in 1803. Genesee County comprises the Batavia, NY micropolitan statistical area, which is also in the Rochester-Batavia-Seneca Falls, NY combined statistical area. It is in Western New York. It is the namesake of Genesee County, Michigan; that is, the Michigan county was named for Genesee County, New York. When counties were established in New York State in 1683, the present Genesee County was part of Albany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). In 1784 Tryon County was renamed as Montgomery County. Around this time, the Pennsylvania Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony also claimed the territory as their own, but New York did not enforce its territorial claim. In 1789 Ontario County was split off from Montgomery as a result of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. Again, the county theoretically extended west to the Pacific Ocean. It was not until the Holland Purchase of 1793 that Western New York was enforced as the territory of New York State. Land in the region was sold through the Holland Land Company's office in Batavia, starting in 1801. All the land in Western New York was in the newly created Genesee County, and all of that was in the single town of Batavia. Genesee County was created by a partition of 7,100 square miles (18,000 km2) of land from Ontario County. The county was not fully organized so it remained under the supervision of Ontario County until it achieved full organization and separation during March 1803. On April 7, 1806, Genesee's area was reduced to 5,550 square miles (14,400 km2) due to a partition that created Allegany County. On March 8, 1808, Genesee's area was again reduced, this time to 1,650 square miles (4,300 km2) due to a partition that created Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, and Niagara Counties. On February 23, 1821, Genesee's area was again reduced, this time to 1,450 square miles (3,800 km2) due a complex partition that produced Livingston and Monroe Counties. On April 15, 1825, another partition reduced Genesee's area to 1,030 square miles (2,700 km2) in the creation of Orleans County. On May 1, 1826, the Orleans partition was again surveyed, with 10 square miles (26 km2) of land along the western half of the Orleans/Genesee border returned to Genesee. On March 19, 1841, Genesee's area was again reduced, this time to the 500 square miles (1,300 km2) it remains to this day due to the partitioning to create Wyoming County.