February 1989

Historian's Newsletter

Richard Sherer has produced, Number 1, Volume 2, of The Steuben County Historian's Newsletter.

In this issue he continues republishing the Description of the Settlement of the Genesee Country in the State of New York in a Series of Letters from a Gentleman to his Friend with an account from it of a trip made from Albany beginning February 15th, 1792, to Geneva, Canandaigua and the Genesee River. Letter II in the series relates the conception of the plan to open a road from Lycoming Creek on the West Branch of the Susquehanna to Williamsburgh on the Genesee River, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles. The road was begun in the summer of 1792 and the route completed by August 1793.

The new issue contains the remainder of the assessment roll for Canisteo and the entire list for Dansville for the year 1800.

Also reprinted in the January newsletter is a letter written by Charles Cameron to his nephew Charles, April 22, 1848, in which he recalls laying out the Village of Bath on April 15, 1793. The writer states that he will be 75 in a few days. At this time he was the only survivor "of those merry Irish and Scotch boys who used to be so happy together."

He copied on the back of his letter the 1790 census of the County of Ontario, which then included all the territory west of Lake Seneca to Lake Erie and north from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario. There were 205 families and 1081 individuals in the whole region. This did not count natives, however.

The newsletter also lists the books, letters, maps, and papers in the Corning-Painted Post Historical Society's collection.

For a year's subscription, send $5.00 to RD #2, Box 228, Bath, NY 14810.

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