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Welcome to Genealogy
Trails
Volunteers working to put
free historical data online.
My name
is Jennifer Morse and as your
Steuben
County,
NY
host I try to
post as much data online as possible in order to make it freely available
to all. We gratefully accept contributions of raw data such as census
information, marriage/birth/death records, and obituaries, county
histories, biographies, old newspaper items - anything that would help
someone build their family tree!!
Feel free to email me with your contributions -
every little bit helps.
I regret that I am unable to do personal
research |
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Steuben
County
New
York
Genealogy and
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FORMATION & ORGANIZATION OF
STEUBEN COUNTY
Steuben County was named for Friedrich Wilhelm Augustin, Baron
von Steuben (1730-1794), a German-Prussian General who served with
George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. Settlers first became
aware of the area during Sullivan’s expedition. Until this time it was
inhabited mostly by the Iroquois, which were driven out of the area by
Sullivan in response to the Wyoming Massacre that took place in nearby portions of
Pennsylvania.
Settlement at
the end of the war was impeded, however, as ownership of
Western
NY was contested
and had long been claimed by both
Massachusetts and New
York.
Finally, on December 16, 1786 a compact was reached between the two states.
Massachusetts received the greater part of
New
York
lying west of Seneca Lake and conveyed about 2,600,000 acres to Oliver
Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham at the end of 1788. The portion of the
purchase which now constitutes
Steuben
County was surveyed by Frederick Saxton, Augustus
Porter, Thomas Davis, and Robert James in the summer of 1789.
Phelps and Gorham sold the remaining unsold land, in 1790, to
Robert Morris of Philadelphia, who in turn sold it to Sir William
Pulteney, of England, in 1792. This has since been known as the Pulteney
Estate, and their agent, Charles Williamson was responsible for selling
the remaining land.
Formed
March 18,
1796,
Steuben
County was taken from
Ontario
County. Originally it
was divided into six towns, that of:
Bath, Canisteo, Dansville,
Fredericton,
Middletown, and Painted
Post. Since its organization, portions have been annexed to Allegany, Yates,
Livingston and
Schuyler
Counties, leaving it with
1,397 square miles of land area, making it larger than the state of
Rhode
Island. The County Seat
is Bath, the village
named for Sir William Pulteney’s daughter, Laura, the Countess of
Bath. |
ONLINE DATA