CHAP. I.]

THE GENESEE COUNTRY.

17

WESTERN NEW YORK, 1784-1814.

Having looked over the history of Congregationalism in Eastern and Southeastern New York, we turn now to the Western, Central, and Southwestern parts of the State, called in early days "the Western Country," "Western New York,” and the "Genesee Country." The country thus designated, in general terms, included nearly all New York west of the Catskill and Adirondack mountains, to the lakes and the Pennsylvania line; a tract of country two hundred and fifty miles long and of more than half that average width. Strictly speaking, the "Genesee Country" was a little less comprehensive than Western New York, including the country west of Onondaga river.* This extensive and fertile territory remained almost an unbroken wilderness until after the Revolutionary War, the oldest town in it dating back only to 1784. But after the Indian titles to the lands had been extinguished, in 1788-90, the settlement of this territory was very rapid.

The first settlers were mostly New England people, Connecticut and Massachusetts leading

*Morse's Gazetteer describes the Genesee Country as bounded north and northwest by Lake Ontario; south by Pennsylvania; east by the military townships in Onondaga county; and west by Lake Erie and Niagara river. This would give a tract of country about one hundred and fifty miles long and eighty or more miles wide.

the hosts. And though the desire to improve their worldly condition was undoubtedly the controlling motive of most of these emigrants, yet many of them were Christian people who valued the religious institutions of New England, and were anxious to secure them for their new homes. But the first settlers were widely scattered and unable to do much toward supporting religious institutions. The Connecticut churches, however, appreciated not only the wants of their brethren who had gone into the wilderness, but their need of help; and so, as early even as 1784, local ministerial associations and individual churches in Connecticut began the benevolent work of sending their ministers on short missions into "the Western Country;" the associations supplying, during these temporary absences, the pulpits of the pastors whom they had sent to the new settlements.

In 1788 the General Association of Connecticut took this subject under particular consideration, and recommended this plan to all the local associations. But this not working smoothly, the Association next took the business into its own hands, obtained an act of the legislature, authorizing a collection to be taken up in all the churches of the State, to support missionaries in the new settlements, and to supply the pulpits of those who went on these missions; for, at first, it was deemed important that ordained and experienced ministers only should be intrusted with

CHAP. I.]

MISSIONS INAUGURATED.

19

this important missionary work, which included the formation of churches and the administration of church ordinances, as well as preaching the gospel and visiting from house to house throughout the new settlements. The response of the churches was prompt and liberal, three hundred and eighty pounds and more being contributed the first year, and the amount being steadily increased, from year to year, until it amounted to thousands of dollars yearly.*

For the first year the General Association commissioned nine missionaries for short missions to the new settlements.

This course was continued until 1798, when the Association organized itself into the Connecticut Missionary Society, and in 1802 obtained an act of incorporation to enable them to do their work more easily and effectively.

The Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Robbins, pastor of the Congregational church of Norfolk, Conn., for more than fifty-two years, appears to have been the first missionary commissioned by the General Association of Connecticut, to labor in the new settlements of Western New York. On the 3d

*In 1793 the whole collection for Home Missions was £380 13s. 1 1-4d. ($3.33 to a pound lawful money); in 1794 it was doubled, £789 14s. 7 3-4d.; in 1795 it was reported in dollars, $1,109.52; in 1799 it was nearly doubled, $2,018.25; in 1800 it was $2,224.22; in 1802 it was $2,986.16; and in 1813 it rose to $3,275.90.- See Connecticut Missionary Narratives and Reports, from 1793 to 1814.

of July, 1793, he left home for the neighborhood of the Mohawk river. In three days he reached the destitute settlements there, and then travelled up and down the river, and north and south, on either side of the Mohawk, as far as he could, preaching, visiting from house to house, catechising the children, instructing the parents, organizing churches, ordaining ministers, and doing whatever promised to advance the interests of pure religion in the new and destitute settlements. He administered the Lord's Supper at Clinton; attended the ordination of the Rev. Joel Bradley and preached on the occasion at Westmoreland, and then went to the vacant settlements north of Albany, doing the same sort of missionary work among them as he had done along the Mohawk river.

A few days after Mr. Robbins left home, the Rev. David Huntington started on a similar mission to New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania. Commencing at the town of Catskill, he went westward to the confluence of the Chemung and the Susquehanna rivers, into the State of Pennsylvania, as far as the "Great Bend" in the Susquehanna, in Luzerne county.

The Rev. Samuel Eells, of North Branford, Conn., began his mission in New York on the 17th of August, 1793. He went, first, by way of Albany, through the new settlements, northwestward, toward Lake Ontario, and then through the twenty or thirty settlements already begun, north

CHAP. I.] MISSION OF REV. AARON KINNE.

21

and south of the Mohawk. He attended an ordination at Clinton, preaching. the sermon; he formed a church at Whitestown, Oneida county; and laid the foundation for another, at Wrights' Settlement, north of Fort Stanwix, near Rome, in the same county.

The Rev. Aaron Kinne, of Groton, Conn., set out on his mission, September 25, 1793. Beginning at Whitestown, he traversed the country westward to the neighborhood of the Genesee river; then southward to the borders of Pennsylvania; then northward to the settlements around Canandaigua lake (Canandarqua, or Canandarque, as it was then called) and around Seneca and Cayuga lakes; visiting about fifty settlements in all. In this tour of eighty-eight days, Mr. Kinne preached eighty times, besides holding numberless conversations with the people, advising and assisting them in the formation of churches, and writing confessions of faith and covenants for their use. He then went south again, to Tioga Point, in Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the Chemung and the Susquehanna, now known as Athens, and thence turned his face northward again toward Catskill, spending about twenty days and preaching about as many times.

Let any one take a map of New York and follow the track of this brave old missionary, through the whole central portion of the great State, and consider that this journey was performed on horseback, often over nearly impass