The Holland Land Company, organized by six banking firms in the Netherlands, purchased the unsettled land of western New York State through its agent Theophile Cazenove in 1792-93, acquiring more than three million acres known as the Holland Purchase. It included the area west of the “Transit Line,” located 13 miles east of here, from Lake Ontario to Pennsylvania, but excluded a strip along the Niagara River and six reservations established for Indians. Joseph Ellicott, the company's agent for more than 20 years, surveyed towns, planned roads and millsites, laid out the city of Buffalo, promoted canal construction, and dominated party politics in the area. From its main office at Batavia, the company sold most of the purchase in 360-acre lots with a small down payment, but many settlers struggled to complete payments because of the hardships of clearing the land and marketing farm products. Opposition to company policies led some to riot in 1836, and by 1837 the company had sold all its property. From the Holland Purchase were formed four counties and parts of four others, comprising 129 rural and suburban towns and 11 cities with a population in 1960 of more than 1,600,000.