The Holland Land Company Purchase and Its Early Settlement

The Holland Land Company was a group of Dutch investors who bought over three million acres of land in Western New York. The Western New York land, consisting of the modern day counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming, was purchased in 1792 and 1793. The company surveyed the land from 1798 to 1800, dividing it into the system of townships, ranges, and lots which is still used today.

It was Joseph Ellicott, surveyor and land agent for the Holland Land Company, who designed Buffalo’s layout. Ellicott modeled Buffalo’s street grid pattern after Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s plan of Washington, D.C. The design called for a focal point at what is now Niagara Square from which streets radiate outward like spokes on a wheel.

Though the Holland Land Company received frequent criticism for not doing enough for early settlers, it financed some crucial infrastructure. The company provided some funding for the building of roads, a necessity for the westward bound travelers that the company was hoping to attract to their lands, as well as to meet the commercial needs of already established settlers. Even cleared roads could be treacherous due to mud and tree or shrub regrowth.

The company offered incentives for individuals to start businesses which were important to the region’s development such as gristmills, sawmills, inns, and blacksmith shops. They also provided land and funding towards the building of churches, including St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Buffalo. Some of the earliest Buffalo businesses were taverns, markets, drugstores, bakeries, carpentry shops, hotels, blacksmith shops, mills, and merchants.

The first Holland Land Company sale in Buffalo was in 1804. Most early settlers were native New Englanders and New Yorkers, who were commonly referred to as Yankees. An early traveler described the city’s settlers as “a casual collection of adventurers.” In an effort to ensure settlement on Buffalo land, additional land sale terms were frequently included with Buffalo lots. Mr. Ellicott often required property improvements, including the building of a house, within a certain timeframe. A common scene in early Buffalo was plot improvements in various stages of clearing and development. Settlers cleared their piece of wilderness, making it habitable, and built homes, which were often log or frame houses.

Early life in Buffalo was difficult. Settlers would have brought necessities such as livestock, tools, and looms with them, but otherwise had to make their own everyday items such as furniture, soap, clothing and candles, and had to grind their own grains for cooking. It took time for settlers to set-up their farms and businesses and for Buffalo’s trade network to develop. This affected the land company because if settlers were not generating income, they could not make payments on their land. The company tried to balance their need for profit with the settlers’ monetary struggles by using leniency and accepting crops and livestock in place of cash payment.

Buffalo was devastated on December 30, 1813 when it was burned by British soldiers during the War of 1812. However, after 1825, when Buffalo became the terminus of the Erie Canal, the city boomed. The canal and its connection to Lake Erie offered a quicker and cheaper way to transport goods and people. Buffalo attracted both westward travelers and industry. Buffalo’s population was about 5100 in 1825 and by 1835 it had almost 20,000 inhabitants.

In the 1830s, after a series of disputes with its settlers and unrealized profits, the Holland Land Company sold its Western New York property to several land agencies. By that time, Buffalo’s Holland Land Company settlers had played an important role in transforming the small pioneer town into a bustling port, the gateway to western settlement, and chartered Buffalo as a city.