Holland Land Company

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Map of the Holland Purchase in western New York (Source: Holland Land Company Map - ca.1821)

The Holland Land Company was a consortium of 13 Dutch investors from Amsterdam without legal personality. This bought land in 1792 and 1793 in the so-called Holland Purchase , which corresponded to the western two-thirds of the land of the so-called Phelps and Gorham Purchase . Since foreigners were not allowed to own land in the United States, the Dutch used trustees. The Trustees acquired that in central and western New York State and western Pennsylvanialocated land. The aim was to sell the land on in the short term for a large profit. In order to make the purchase by the settlers more attractive, however, extensive investments had to be made in surveying and building roads and canals. The last lots were sold in 1840.

Acquisition phase

Previous owner

Mapping of the Phelps & Gorham's Purchase (including the Mill Yard Tract ), the Holland Purchase and the Morris Reserve.

In December 1792, February and July 1793, the trustees of the Holland Land Company bought the 13,150 km² area west of the Genesee River in New York State. The seller was Robert Morris, the richest American at the time . The signer of the Declaration of Independence and financier of the American Revolution had acquired the land and other land from Massachusetts in May 1791 after the first acquirers Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham failed to settle the claims of the Indians and fell into arrears in 1790.

Morris purchase comprised land west of the Genesee River, with the exception of a 750 square kilometer (Mill Yard Tract) which Phelps and Gorham retained along with land east of the river. He paid $ 333,333.34 (converted to around $ 4.81 million today) to Massachusetts for the 15,200 km² area. Moris himself kept a 19 km wide 2000 km² strip that reached in western New York from Lake Ontario to Pennsylvania and is known as the Morris Reserve .

Big Tree Treaty

The Indians had a right of first refusal on the land. A sale to the Holland Land Company was only possible if Morris could redeem this right of first refusal. This happened in the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797. Representatives of the Holland Land Company, Robert Morris, the Indians and an envoy from the American authorities met for the negotiations near what is now Geneseo , south of Rochester, New York. Around 50 Indian chiefs, including Red Jacket , Cornplanter , Governor Blacksnake and Farmers Brother represented their interests. Red Jacket and Complanter were against selling the land. They insisted on land that they could freely dispose of. Finally, on September 15, 1797, it was agreed that the Indians waived their right of first refusal over an area of ​​15,200 km², they would receive $ 100,000 for the waiver and that they would keep a partial area of ​​809 km².

Dissolution of the trustee structure

In 1798 the New York legislature, accompanied by Aaron Burr , decided that foreigners could acquire land directly. The trustees transferred the land to the Dutch owners. This was done initially in two tranches and after a further breakdown into a total of three tranches. All owners of a tranche owned it jointly. Only the last surviving owner could inherit sole ownership of the land.

The first tranche included - except for 1200 km² - the entire land from the Holland Purchase. It was initially transferred to Wilhelm Willink, Nicolaas van Staphorst, Pieter van Eeghen, Hendrick Vollenhoven and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck . Two years later the ownership structure was restructured and Wilhelm Willink Jr., Jan Willink Jr., Jan Gabriel van Staphorst, Roelof van Staphorst Jr., Cornelius Vollenhoven, Hendrick Seye and Pieter Stadnitski were added to the five named people. The 1200 km² area was given to Wilhelm Willink, Wilhelm Willink Jr., Jan Willink and Jan Willink Jr. All members of the Holland Land Company were never in the United States.

Sales phase

In 1789, the Holland Land Company employed the Amsterdam-born financier Theophile Cazenove (1740-1811) as general agent to oversee land sales and inform investors about business. Cazenove worked out of Philadelphia. The investors also bought American bonds such as the South Carolina Funded Debt and the Massachusetts Deposit, and shares in the Pennsylvania Population Company . At the suggestion of Cazenove, the Dutch investors also participated in canal companies in 1791 and 1792, including the Patowmack Canal, the Santee Canal, the Western Canal, the Connecticut Canal and the James River and Kanawha Canal.

The main office of the Holland Land Company in Batavia, New York.

In 1798 the company hired the land surveyor Joseph Ellicott . Together with his brother Benjamin and 130 men, he surveyed the acquired land for three years. The surveying costs at that time were approx. $ 70,922. In November 1800, Paolo Busti (1749 to 1824) succeeded Cazenove as General Manager. The Italian Busti came from Milan and had married a daughter of the Dutch investors. Busti worked for the Holland Land Company until his death in 1824. Other real estate agents with Dutch roots were Gerrit Boon and Adam Gerard Mappa. David A. Ogden and his brother Thomas Ludiow Ogden served as legal advisors to the Company.

In 1801 the Holland Land Company opened its main offices in Batavia, New York and Danby , Vermont . Batavia was the county seat of Genesee County where the acquired land was. Busti set up offices in Mayville, Ellicottville, Buffalo, Meadville, Instanter (a small village of German settlers in McKean County, Pennsylvania), Lancaster, Cazenovia and Barneveld. The employees were instructed to keep the documents in fireproof safes or to use the vaults of the banks. In 1840 the entire Western New York area was sold to local investors and settlers. The Holland Land Company was dissolved around 1846.

The city of Holland in New York State is named after the Holland Land Company.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Clara Davis Kirby: The Early History of Gowanda and The Beautiful Land of the Cattaraugus . Ed .: Niagara Frontier Publishing Company, Inc./Gowanda Area Bi-Centennial Committee. Gowanda, NY 1976.
  2. ↑ Elizabeth Miles Nuxoll: Congress and the Munitions Merchants - The Secret Committee of Trade During the American Revolution 1775 - 1777 . City University of New York, New York 1979.
  3. ^ IR Leonard: Historical sketch of the Village of Gowanda, NY in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation, August 8, 1898 . The Matthews-Northrup Company, Buffalo, NY 1898.
  4. ^ Bernard Christian Steiner: The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry: Secretary of War Under Washington and Adams . Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland 1907.
  5. ↑ City Archives Amsterdam (ed.): Archief van de Holland Land Company - inventory number 333 . Amsterdam.

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