Batavia is a city in Genesee
County
, Western New York
, USA
, located
near the middle of Genesee County, entirely within the Town of
Batavia
. Its population as of the 2000 census was
16,256.
The name Batavia is Latin for the Betuwe region of
the Netherlands
, and honors early Dutch land
developers.
Batavia is the county seat of Genesee County.
The city hosts the
Batavia Muckdogs
baseball club of the
New York-Penn
League. They won the 2008 championship. In 2006, a national
magazine ranked Batavia third among the nation’s
micropolitans based on
economic development.
The
New York State Thruway
(
Interstate 90) passes north of the
city. Genesee County Airport (GVQ) is also located north of the
city.
Its
UN/LOCODE is USBIA.
History
The Holland Land Company
The
current City of Batavia was an early settlement in what is today
called Genesee Country, the
farthest western region of New York State,
comprising the Genesee
Valley
and westward to the Niagara River
, Lake
Erie
and the Pennsylvania
line. The area was purchased in 1792 by the
Holland Land Company, a
consortium of Dutch
bankers. The 3.5 million
acre
(14,000 km²) territory, purchased from
Robert Morris, a prominent
Revolutionary banker, was known as
"
The Holland Purchase."
Batavia,
the name the Dutch gave the city is a poetic name for the
Netherlands
. It
comes from the
Batavian Republic,
which was a short-lived republic in the Netherlands at the turn of
the nineteenth century, itself named after the
Batavi tribe that lived
there in Roman times.
One of the
provisions of the sale was that Morris had to settle the Indian title to the
land, so he arranged for his son Thomas
Morris to negotiate with the Iroquois
at Geneseo,
New York
in 1797. About 3,000 Iroquois, mostly
Seneca, arrived for the negotiation.
Seneca chief and orator
Red Jacket was
adamantly against the sale, but his influence was thwarted by
freely distributed liquor and trinkets given to the women. In the
end he acquiesced and signed the
Treaty of Big Tree, in
which the tribe sold their rights to the land except for a small
portion for $100,000.
Mary Jemison,
known as
The White Woman of the Genesee, who had been
captured in a raid and married her Seneca captor, proved to be an
able negotiator for the tribe and helped win more favorable terms
for them.
In the negotiations Horatio Jones was the translator and
William Wadsworth provided his unfinished
home. The land was then
surveyed under the
supervision of
Joseph Ellicott, a
monumental task of the biggest land survey ever attempted to that
time.
In 1801
Ellicott, as agent for the company, established a land office in
Batavia and the entire purchase was named Genesee
County in 1802, with Batavia as the county seat.
The company sold off the purchase until 1846, when the company was
dissolved. The phrase "doing a land office business", which denotes
prosperity, dates from this era. The office still exists and is a
museum today, designated a
National Historic Landmark.
Joseph
Ellicott lived in Batavia for many years although he thought
Buffalo
would grow
to be larger. Batavia has a major street named after him
(Ellicott Street and a smaller street, Ellicott Avenue), as well as
a large monument in the heart of the city. Batavia was incorporated
as a village in 1823.
The present counties of western New York were all laid out from the
original Genesee County, and the modern Genesee County is but one
of many. But the entire area as a region is still referred to as
Genesee Country. Thus, Batavia was the core from which the
rest of western New York was opened for settlement and
development.
The Masonic Scandal
A scandal erupted in Batavia in 1826, when
William Morgan, a local n'er do
well was offended by the local
Masonic
Lodge (Western Star Chapter R. A. M. No. 33 of
Le Roy, New York), and threatened to expose
the secrets of the lodge. He was arrested on a minor charge, then
released when his charge was paid, into the company of several men,
with whom he went, apparently unwillingly.
It was developed later
that the men were Masons, and they carried him to Fort Niagara
, where he was held captive, and from whence he
disappeared. Although the Masons claimed he was only bribed
to cease publication and leave the area forever, public sentiment
was that he was murdered. No conviction was ever obtained. His
captors were only charged and convicted with his abduction.
The event roused tremendous public furor and anti-Mason sentiment
ran high. Anti-Masonry was a factor in politics for many years
later, as well as religion. Many
Methodist Episcopal clergy had
joined the Masons, and this was one of the reasons the
Free Methodist Church separated.
The Advent of the Erie Canal
The
Erie Canal in 1825 bypassed Batavia,
going well to the north at Albion
and Medina
, enabling Buffalo
and Rochester
to grow much faster. With the sale of the
western part of the state completed, Batavia became a small
industrial city in the
heart of an
agricultural area. It became
known for the
manufacture of
tractors, agricultural implements,
sprayers and
shoes. It also was
a
tool and die making center for
industries in other areas.
The largest manufacturer, Johnston Harvester Company came into
being in 1868. In 1910, the business was acquired by
Massey-Harris Co. Ltd, and became a subsidiary of that
Canadian
company, founded by Daniel Massey in
1847.
Batavia
grew rapidly in the early Twentieth century, receiving an influx of
Polish
and Italian
immigrants. The
City of Batavia was incorporated in 1915.
Recent history
In recent years much of the heavier industry left for other areas
of the US, or abroad, and Batavia became part of what has become
known as
The Rust Belt.
From 1985 to 1991, Batavian and journalist
Terry A. Anderson
was held captive in Lebanon
by Hezbollah partisans,
and his sister, Peggy Say, became an ardent campaigner for his
release.
The construction of the
Buffalo Federal Detention
Facility, a federal
immigration detention center adjacent
to the airport has provided more jobs in the area, as well as
expansion of the airport itself, including lengthening the
runway to accommodate larger aircraft in 2005.
Inmates at the detention center have included terrorism suspects,
such as
Nabil Ahmed Farag
Soliman, who embarked on a hunger strike in 1999 after two and
a half years in federal detention.
Barber Conable, political leader and
World Bank president was a former
resident.
Author
John Gardner, a
Batavia native, set his novel
The Sunlight Dialogues (1972) in
1960s Batavia. Also a native is
Bill
Kauffman, a political writer and columnist, whose
Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette (2002) is about the
city. Author
F. Scott Fitzgerald references Batavia in
his novel,
Tender Is the
Night (1934), plus popular authors
Stephen King and
Peter
Straub mention or set parts of their novel,
The Talisman
(1983), in the city.
Batavia was referenced in
The Simpsons
Season 8 episode
The Twisted World of Marge
Simpson, when the first order to
Marge's
pretzel business after
securing the protection of the local
mafia
comes from the Meat Packers Union Hall in Batavia.
Batavia is the hometown of renowned trumpet virtuoso and recording
artist,
Joey Pero.Filmmaker
Mark Pirro is from Batavia .
Geography
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
5.2 square miles (13.6 km²), of which, 5.2 square
miles (13.4 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles
(0.2 km²) of it (1.14%) is water.
New York State Route 5
(east-west) intersects
New York
State Route 33,
New York
State Route 63, and
New York
State Route 98 in the city. The
New York State Thruway is immediately
north of Batavia.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 16,256
people, 6,457 households, and 3,867 families residing in the city.
The
population density was
3,133.9 people per square mile (1,209.3/km²). There were 6,924
housing units at an average density of 1,334.8/sq mi
(515.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.23%
White, 5.43%
Black or
African American, 0.48%
Native American, 0.87%
Asian, 0.02%
Pacific Islander, 1.06% from
other races, and 1.90%
from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 2.45% of the
population.
There were 6,457 households out of which 29.4% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were
married couples living together, 13.2% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 40.1% were non-families.
33.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.2% had
someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 3.01.
In the city the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age
of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to
64, and 18.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
38 years. For every 100 females there were 93.2 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $33,484, and the
median income for a family was $42,460. Males had a median income
of $32,091 versus $23,289 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$17,737. About 10.2% of families and 12.3% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 16.5%
of those under age 18 and 6.9% of those age 65 or over.
Notable events
- The First Business Incubator in the United States, the Batavia
Industrial Center, was started in Batavia.
- John Elway, quarterback of the Super
Bowl champion Denver Broncos, hit his first professional home run
at Dwyer Stadium while playing minor league baseball.
- In March 1926, over 1,000 people turned out to hear Helen Keller speak in the city.
- The first union Soldier to enlist in the Civil War was from Batavia.
- On September 3, 1993 a tornado tore
through Batavia killing two people.
References
- Genesee
County webpage
- About Batavia - Did You Know
- National Weather Service Buffalo, New York - Western New
York Weather History (September 3)
See also
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
