Joseph Ellicott

Joseph Ellicott was born in Bucks County, Penna., on November 1st, 1760, and died in New York on August 19th, 1826. He was the first resident agent of the Holland Land Company, and in 1798 he began the survey of the western part of the state then owned by them. His predictions of its future wealth and importance fell but little short of what was later realized. For more than twenty years he used with great judgment and liberality the powers entrusted to him. As one of the earliest and by far the most efficient advocates of the Erie Canal, his name became part of the history of New York. His reputation among his fellow citizens as a man of the highest intelligence, together with the influence of his station, gave his opinions great weight with every successive administration during the first twenty years of the nineteenth century. In every portion of the tract once subject to his control were seen marks of his foresight and generosity. He was the founder of Batavia and Buffalo, N.Y.

Batavia, New York · United States