Editing Livingston County, New York (section)

=== Seneca treaties ===
The destruction of the Iroquois villages during the Sullivan Campaign greatly impoverished the Senecas but did not deprive them of title to the land. This led to the creation of a series of treaties in order to facilitate westward expansion of white settlers. These treaties were not all supported by the Iroquois and consequently forever altered their culture.

After the Treaty of Paris, Messrs. [[Phelps and Gorham Purchase|Phelps and Gorham]] purchased from [[Massachusetts]] the rights to approximately eight million acres west of what is referred to as the old [[Preemption Line|Pre-emption Line]]. The two men negotiated a treaty with the Seneca which was intended to extinguish Indian claims to this land. Approximately two-thirds of present-day Livingston County was covered by this treaty.

In 1790, Phelps and Gorham sold about 1,200,000 acres to [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]], known as the "financier of the [[American Revolution]]." Morris then sold the land to a company of English capitalists, with [[Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet|Sir William Pulteney]] obtaining the majority interest. Charles Williamson, agent for Pulteney, took an absolute conveyance of the "Genesee Tract." The first permanent white settlement he established was the small village Williamburgh in Groveland at the confluence of the Genesee River and the [[Canaseraga Creek|Canaserega Creek]]. The village prospered until 1806 before it was abandoned.

The remainder of the original purchase was bought by [[Samuel Ogden]] in 1791 for Robert Morris, who then sold most of it to the [[Holland Land Company]], reserving 500,000 acres, known as the [[Morris Reserve]]. By the terms of the sale, Morris obligated himself to extinguish the Indian title to the land sold. However, his involvement in land speculation left him penniless and imprisoned for debt for several years.

The 1794 [[Treaty of Canandaigua]] recognized the sovereignty of the [[Iroquois|Six Nations]] and restored their title to lands in western New York. But as pressure by western developers increased, the [[Treaty of Big Tree]] in 1797 was negotiated in the Wadsworth brothers' [[log cabin]] in Geneseo. This treaty included the western one-third of Livingston County and extinguished Indian title to practically all the lands west to the [[Niagara Frontier]], excepting a handful of Indian [[Indian reservation|reservations]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=History of Livingston County, New York 1687–1881|last=Smith|first=James M.|publisher=D. Mason and Co.|year=1881}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, and Morris' Reserve|last=Turner|first=Orsamus|publisher=Erastus Darrow|year=1851}}</ref>