Oliver Phelps - Purchases Interest in Western New York

Purchases Interest in Western New York

Further information: Phelps and Gorham Purchase

The connections he thus established aided his efforts in forming in 1789 a syndicate with Nathaniel Gorham. They purchased title to most of western New York from the state of Massachusetts.

At first they thought to make (modern day) Geneva their headquarters, but discovered by survey, just in time, that their site was just east of their boundary. So they chose Canandaigua, New York, at the head of Canandaigua Lake, as the seat of the new Ontario County. The name Canandaigua is derived from the Iroquois word "Kanandarque" which means chosen spot. It was the site of the principal village of the Seneca Indians, burned by the whites during the war in the Sullivan Expedition.

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