Phelps and Gorham Purchase
The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the purchase of rights to approximately 6,000,000 acres ( 24,000 ) land in western New York. The purchase price was 1 million U.S. dollars, (2005) value of approximately $ 20 billion in terms of purchasing power equivalent to a present. The area to the west of New York comprised the whole country west of Seneca Lake between Lake Ontario and the border of Pennsylvania. Buyers were Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, both from Massachusetts, and the seller was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. ( In some discussions of this subject, the Phelps and Gorham Purchase refers to the entire 6,000,000 acres ( 24,000 ) and in others only 2,250,000 acres ( 9,100 ). This arises because although Phelps and Gorham, the subscription rights throughout the 6,000,000 acres ( 24,000 ) bought, they were only able for the area east of the Genesee River to clear the Indian claims and thus obtain clean claims. )
Colonial land claims
After the American Revolution, West New York was opened for tapping, as if to New York and Massachusetts agreed and their competing claims to the territory in December 1786 attached any by the Treaty of Hartford. The compromise was that while New York would have sovereignty over the land, Massachusetts subscription rights for the acquired claim of the Indians.
The Massachusetts legislature confirmed on April 1, 1788 to purchase between the Commonwealth on one side with Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham on the other side for the price of 1 million U.S. dollars in three equal annual Ratenzahlugen in certain Massachusetts securities (then should be worth about 20 U.S. cents ) and the transfer of all rights and claims to the western territory, which was described in the Treaty of Hartford.
Advice on Buffalo Creek
Phelps and Gorham wasted no time with the exploitation of their purchase. On July 8, 1788 Phelps ( Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca ) met with the Indians of the Five Civilized tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy at Buffalo River to issue a deed or contract for the rights to a portion of their land. They finally agreed to nearly one-third of the ceded in the Treaty of Hartford territory to Massachusetts, namely to the eastern part, from the Genesee River as a western boundary to a point on the northern boundary line of the State of Pennsylvania, the 42nd latitude, and from there to a point 82 miles west of the northeast corner of Pennsylvania on the Delaware River, the preemption Line is. The agreement also includes a small section of land west of the Genesee River that is connected ( 39 km) runs from Lake Ontario about 24 miles to the south and extends from the western bend of the Genesee River 12 miles ( 19 km) to the west, parallel to the course of the Genesee River below. This 184,300 acres ( 746 ) Strip west of the Genesee River was so named as " The Mill Yard Tract " because Phelps and Gorham the Indians west of the Genesse asked for the land at the falls, as they build a sawmill and a grist mill there wanted. For the cancellation of the entitlement Phelps and Gorham paid the Indians $ 5,000 plus an annual pension of $ 500. The area where the claim was deleted, includes about 2,250,000 acres ( 9,100 ), including the Mill Yard Tract.
Default of payment
Due to the Phelps and Gorham late payment of installment of 1790, the rights went to the land of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase west of the Genesee River, approximately 3,750,000 acres ( 15,200, 5,860 square miles) included, on March 10, 1791 Massachusetts back. On March 12, 1791 Massachusetts agreed to sell the rights to the land west of the Genesee to Robert Morris for 333,333.33 U.S. dollars. The land was transferred on May 11, 1791, Morris in five deeds. At this time, Morris was the richest man in America and a signer of the U.S. Constitution and the financier of the American Revolution.
Morris then sold most of this land in December 1792 and in February and July 1793, the Holland Land Company ( known as "The Holland Purchase" ). However, he kept to himself 500,000 acres ( 2,000, 780 square miles) in a 12 mile-wide strip along the east side of the country, which was acquired by Massachusetts from the Pennsylvania border to Lake Ontario, known as "The Morris Reserve". The north end of the Morris Reserve, a 87,000 acre ( 350, 136 square miles) triangular shaped area ( "The Triangle Tract " ), was sold by Morris to Herman Leroy, William Bayard and John McEvers, while a 100,000 acres ( 400, 160 square miles) large part of the territory west of the Triangle Tract went to the State of Connecticut. In September 1797 Morris put the remaining Indians claim for the whole country west of the Genesee by the " Treaty of Big Tree " ( Geneseo ).
The Phelps and Gorham land east of the Genesee River, which had not been sold, was also acquired by Robert Morris in August 1790, which is about 1,200,000 acres ( 4.9100, 1870 square miles) were, which were then sold to The Pulteney Association.