Before white settlement, the Palmyra area was home to the Cayuga and Seneca Indians. Their displacement after the Revolution, when many went to Canada, opened the land to settlers. Massachusetts, which claimed a large portion of western New York, sold its holdings to the land speculators Phelps and Gorham, and settlement was later actively promoted by Charles Williamson, agent for the Pulteney Associates. The rapid growth of villages followed completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. Events in this area raised social and religious issues of national importance: in 1826, the disappearance of William Morgan produced the Anti-Masonic movement; Joseph Smith's vision on the Hill of Cumorah near Palmyra resulted in the Book of Mormon and the founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints; and the home of the Fox Sisters near Hydeville is regarded as the birthplace of spiritualism. Small industries grew up along the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad, but the region remained rural and became known for fruit orchards and horticultural nurseries, especially the growing of roses.