Joseph Ellicott was born in Bucks County, Penna., November 1st, 1760. Died at New York, August 19th, 1826. He was the first resident agent of the Holland Land Company for whom in 1798 he began the survey of the western part of the state then owned by them. Even at that day his predictions of its future wealth and importance fell but little short of what has since been realized. For more than twenty years he used with great judgment combined with liberality, the powers entrusted to him. As one of the earliest and by far the most efficient advocates of the Erie Canal, his name is a part of the history of New York. His reputation among his fellow citizens as a man of the highest intelligence, as well as the influence of his station, gave his opinions great weight with every successive administration during the first twenty years of the present century. And in every portion of the tract once subject to his control may be seen marks of his foresight and generosity. He was the founder of Batavia and Buffalo, N.Y.
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