Oliver Phelps (politician): Difference between revisions
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|publisher=|accessdate=28 December 2012}}</ref> Phelps added a wing to the home in 1794, a display of his wealth and an "architectural masterpiece" that still features original Paris-made wallpaper.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hatheway House|url=http://www.suffield-library.org/localhistory/hatheway.htm|publisher=Suffield Library|accessdate=28 December 2012}}</ref> He opened one of the first land sales offices in the U.S. in Suffield<ref name=suffieldlib/> and another in Canandaigua. During the next two years they sold {{convert|500000|acre|km2|adj=on}} at a higher price to a number of buyers, and the remaining {{convert|2100000|acre|km2|adj=on}} to U.S. Senator [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]] of Pennsylvania, who Phelps had done business with during the Revolutionary War. |
|publisher=|accessdate=28 December 2012}}</ref> Phelps added a wing to the home in 1794, a display of his wealth and an "architectural masterpiece" that still features original Paris-made wallpaper.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hatheway House|url=http://www.suffield-library.org/localhistory/hatheway.htm|publisher=Suffield Library|accessdate=28 December 2012}}</ref> He opened one of the first land sales offices in the U.S. in Suffield<ref name=suffieldlib/> and another in Canandaigua. During the next two years they sold {{convert|500000|acre|km2|adj=on}} at a higher price to a number of buyers, and the remaining {{convert|2100000|acre|km2|adj=on}} to U.S. Senator [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]] of Pennsylvania, who Phelps had done business with during the Revolutionary War. |
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Phelps was appointed the first judge of Ontario County (1789–1793), even before he moved |
Phelps was appointed the first judge of Ontario County (1789–1793), even before he moved to Canandaigua in 1792. He built the first framed house in Canandaigua and a [[grist mill]]. Phelps retained extensive holdings in the infant Ontario County. He maintained an interest in its affairs and in further land speculations. He was a founder and the largest stock holder in the Hartford National Bank and Trust Co.<ref name=osgood/> He was also the largest financial contributor to the Hamilton-Oneida Academy built in 1793 by [[Samuel Kirkland]] on {{convert|300|acre|km2|adj=on}} acres he donated. Kirkland, a Presbyterian minister and missionary among the Oneida, had aided Phelps in his land purchase from the Indians and had received {{convert|4000|acre|km2|adj=on}} acres from the Oneidas and New York State.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hauptman (Editor)|first=Laurence M.|title=The Oneida Indian Journey: From New York to Wisconsin, 1784-1860|year=1999|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|location=Madison, Wisconsin|isbn=978-0299161446|coauthors=L. Gordon McLester III (Editor)}}</ref> He was also appointed the first judge of Ontario County and served in Congress between 1803 and 1805.<ref name=suffieldlib/> |
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=== Loses land holdings and home === |
=== Loses land holdings and home === |
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A sudden rise in the value of the Massachusetts scrip inflated the cost of the debt they held and Phelps and Gorham were unable to make their payment for the remaining {{convert|1000000|acre|km2|adj=on}}. They gave up their contract for the land instead. Despite his vast land holdings |
A sudden rise in the value of the Massachusetts scrip inflated the cost of the debt they held and Phelps and Gorham were unable to make their payment for the remaining {{convert|1000000|acre|km2|adj=on}}. They gave up their contract for the land instead. Despite his remaining, vast land holdings, changing money values affected the mortgages held on the tracts of land and a depressed land market caused Phelps to get into financial difficulty. In about 1800, the reverses forced him to sell his Suffield home and his interest in the Hartford National Bank and Trust Co. |
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Additional entanglements in western real estate ventures resulted in "personal embarrassment" and, for a time, the prospect of debtor's prison. Phelps' troubles were not over, however. Purchasers of his land had continued difficulty paying off the [[mortgage loan]]s which he held. |
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==Death and burial== |
==Death and burial== |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 19:18, 28 December 2012
Oliver Phelps | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 17th district | |
| In office March 4, 1803 – March 4, 1805 | |
| Preceded by | None; new seat |
| Succeeded by | Silas Halsey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 21, 1749 Poquonock, Connecticut |
| Died | February 21, 1809 (aged 59) Canandaigua, New York |
| Resting place | Pioneer Cemetery, Canandaigua, New York |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
Oliver Phelps was early in life a tavern keeper in Granville, Massachusetts. During the Revolution he was Deputy Commissary of the Continental Army and served until the end of the war. He supplied troops and was commended by General George Washington. After the war ended, he was appointed a judge, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and became a land speculator in western New York state. A depressed real estate market forced him to sell most of his holdings.
Personal life
Phelps (October 21, 1749 – February 21, 1809) was born in Poquonock, Connecticut and moved to Suffield, Connecticut, where he apprenticed to a local merchant.
Revolutionary War support
During the Revolutionary War Phelps was Deputy Commissary of the Continental Army. He was introduced to Robert Morris, the great financier of Revolutionary times.[1] He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1778 to 1780; and a member of the United States Constitutional Convention in 1779 and 1780. He was a member of the Massachusetts Senate in 1785, and of the Governor’s council in 1786. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Eighth United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1803, to March 4, 1805, and ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1804 on the ticket headed by Aaron Burr.
Speculates in land purchase
The connections he thus established aided his efforts in forming in 1789 a syndicate with Nathaniel Gorham, a former member of the Federal Constitutional Convention. They lobbied for a law that was passed by the Massachusetts legislature that enabled them to buy land very inexpensively using Massachusetts Consolidate Scrip, which had very little value.
They negotiated with the Indians for purchase of 2,600,000-acre (11,000 km2), but finally purchased title to 494,000-acre (2,000 km2) in Genesee Country, New York (then Massachusetts), for USD$1 million (about £300,000), or less than 25 cents per acre, between 1787-1788.[2] The scrip's low value substantially reduced Massachusetts' proceeds from the sale.[3]
At first Phelps and Gorham thought they would make the site of current-day Geneva their headquarters, but discovered by survey, just in time, that their site was just east of their boundary. So they chose Canandaigua, New York, at the head of Canandaigua Lake, as the seat of the new Ontario County. The name Canandaigua is derived from the Iroquois word "Kanandarque" which means chosen spot. It was the site of the principal village of the Seneca Indians, burned by the whites during the war in the Sullivan Expedition.
Builds home in Suffield
After the purchase, Phelps returned to Suffield, Connecticut and bought what was later named the Hatheway House from its builder Shem Burbank, who as a Tory sympathizer during the American Revolution had suffered financial difficulties afterward.[4] Phelps added a wing to the home in 1794, a display of his wealth and an "architectural masterpiece" that still features original Paris-made wallpaper.[5] He opened one of the first land sales offices in the U.S. in Suffield[2] and another in Canandaigua. During the next two years they sold 500,000-acre (2,000 km2) at a higher price to a number of buyers, and the remaining 2,100,000-acre (8,500 km2) to U.S. Senator Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, who Phelps had done business with during the Revolutionary War.
Phelps was appointed the first judge of Ontario County (1789–1793), even before he moved to Canandaigua in 1792. He built the first framed house in Canandaigua and a grist mill. Phelps retained extensive holdings in the infant Ontario County. He maintained an interest in its affairs and in further land speculations. He was a founder and the largest stock holder in the Hartford National Bank and Trust Co.[1] He was also the largest financial contributor to the Hamilton-Oneida Academy built in 1793 by Samuel Kirkland on 300-acre (1.2 km2) acres he donated. Kirkland, a Presbyterian minister and missionary among the Oneida, had aided Phelps in his land purchase from the Indians and had received 4,000-acre (16 km2) acres from the Oneidas and New York State.[6] He was also appointed the first judge of Ontario County and served in Congress between 1803 and 1805.[2]
Loses land holdings and home
A sudden rise in the value of the Massachusetts scrip inflated the cost of the debt they held and Phelps and Gorham were unable to make their payment for the remaining 1,000,000-acre (4,000 km2). They gave up their contract for the land instead. Despite his remaining, vast land holdings, changing money values affected the mortgages held on the tracts of land and a depressed land market caused Phelps to get into financial difficulty. In about 1800, the reverses forced him to sell his Suffield home and his interest in the Hartford National Bank and Trust Co.
Additional entanglements in western real estate ventures resulted in "personal embarrassment" and, for a time, the prospect of debtor's prison. Phelps' troubles were not over, however. Purchasers of his land had continued difficulty paying off the mortgage loans which he held.
Death and burial
He tried to help those who had bought his land contracts but who could not fulfill their contracts, but Phelps died in debtors prison on February 21, 1809, in the town he sold and helped develop.[2] He was interred in the Pioneer Cemetery in Canandaigua, New York.
References
- ^ a b Osgood, Howard Lawrence (1891). The Title of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. Rochester Historical Society. p. 33.
- ^ a b c d "Oliver Phelps (1749-1809)". Retrieved 27 December 2012.
- ^ Chandler, Alfred N. (2000). Land Title Origins: A Tale of Force and Fraud. Beard Books. p. 568. ISBN 978-1893122895.
- ^ "Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden". Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- ^ "Hatheway House". Suffield Library. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- ^ Hauptman (Editor), Laurence M. (1999). The Oneida Indian Journey: From New York to Wisconsin, 1784-1860. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299161446.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)
Additional reading
- United States Congress. "Oliver Phelps (id: P000298)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Milliken, Charles F. (1911). A History of Ontario County, New York and Its People Vol. 1. Lewis Historical Publishing Co. p. 15. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
External links
- Oliver Phelps at Find a Grave
- United States Congress. "Oliver Phelps (id: P000298)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
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