Articles

The picture is representative of an early homestead, not necessarily from the Great Valley Area.

          The Holland Land Company purchased over 3 million acres of land west of the Genesee River during the 1790s.  Joseph Ellicott (1760-1826) was appointed as the Holland Land Company local agent out of Batavia, NY. Joseph was trained as a surveyor by his brother Andrew who had surveyed Washington, DC.

Peter Ten Broeck, without an heir to his fortune, and having passed the meridian of his life, had for a long time contemplated and finally planned to bestow his wealth so that it might do the greatest good to the greatest number, and establish imperishable honor to his name.  As fast as his estate could be turned into ready means, he had decreed that the balance be expended in an endowment and construction of a literary institution known as “Ten Broeck Free Academy.”  In his last will and testament, after providing certain sums of money to relatives and friends, the balance of his estate am

    “In 1843 Wm. Hurd Eddy braving the dangers of the wilderness moved his family of six by ox-team still further into the country. Six children including Frances, in her mother’s arms, crowded in the wagon, three were girls, two were boys [and Frances held by Mama] making six children in all. Later in life the girls married becoming Mary Eddy Harvey, Nancy Eddy Simmons, Lydia Eddy Harvey Bowen. The boys, William Henry Eddy married Lucy Pratt, James Wyman Eddy married Jane Harvey. William H.