Batavia

History

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 tract purchased in western New York (the Holland Purchase) was a 3,250,000 acre (13,150 km) portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase that lay west of the Genesee River. It was purchased in December 1792, February 1793, and July 1793 from Robert Morris, a prominent Revolutionary banker, by the Holland Land Company, a consortium of Dutch bankers. The village of Batavia was founded in 1802 by resident Land Agent Joseph Ellicott, under the authorization of Paul Busti of the Holland Land Company. Batavia, New York, was named by Busti in honor of the Batavian Republic (1795–1806), a republican government of the Netherlands and home of the investors of the Holland Land Company, itself derived from Batavia, a historic and geographic region dating to Roman times. One of the provisions of the sale was that Morris needed 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 Senecas, 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. 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 was captured in a raid and ended up marrying her Seneca captor, was an able negotiator for the tribe and helped win them more favorable terms. The…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 5.2 square miles (13.6 km), of which 5.2 square miles (13.4 km) is land and 0.1 square mile (0.2 km) (1.14%) is water. The city also sits directly along the 43rd parallel north. New York State Route 5 (east-west) intersects state routes 33, 63 and 98 in the city. The New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) is immediately north of Batavia. This climatic region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Batavia has a humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfa" or "Dfb" on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  5,141
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,027
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  4,882
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  4,724
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  4,477
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,378
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,222
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,191

Most recent

• M 3.8 — 2023-02-06
  1 km NE of West Seneca, New York
• M 2.6 — 2022-03-15
  5 km SSW of Warsaw, New York
• M 2.6 — 2020-03-29
  11 km N of Lyndonville, New York
• M 2.52 — 2017-07-11
  11 km NNW of Barker, New York
• M 2.46 — 2014-02-13
  34 km N of Lyndonville, New York
• M 2.7 — 2009-12-21
  10 km NNE of Olcott, New York