Oliver Phelps papers

Oliver Phelps was a merchant, soldier, judge, United State Representative, and land speculator who served as Deputy Commisary of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Phelps was born in Poquonock, Connecticut, October 29, 1749 and married the daughter of Zacahriah and Sarah (Steele) Seymour, Mary Seymour (1752-1826), with whom he had two children, Oliver Leicester (1775-1813) and Mary (1778-1859). In 1770, he moved to Granville, Massachusetts to open his own store at the age of 21. During the Revolutionary War, Phelps joing the Continental Army and fought at the Battle of Lexington. Phelps led a group of speculators to organize the Connecticut Land Company and purchase preemtion rights to approximately three million acres in the Connecticut Western Reserve of Ohio. Phelps was also largely involved in land speculation in western New York and the lower Mississippi. Together with Nathaniel Gorham, Phelps purchased the title and preemtive rights to the 'Western Territory' (6,000,000 acres in Western New York between Lake Ontario and the Pennsylvania border, to the west of Seneca Lake) from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for $1,000,000 on April 1, 1788. This purchase, fittingly called the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, granted Phelps and Gorham exclusive negotiating authority with the Iroquois to determine and settle land ownership. Presbyterian minister and missionary among the Oneida, Samuel Kirland, assisted Phelps and Gorham when negotiating with the Oneida and Iroquois. After the Revoutionary War, Phelps ran for Lieutenant Governor alongside Aaron Burr in the 1804 gubernatorial election. Phelps died on February 21, 1809 at the age of 59. The Oliver Phelps family is buried in Pioneer Cemetery, Canandaigua, New York.