Geneva

History

The area was long occupied by the Seneca tribe, which had established a major village of Kanadaseaga here by 1687. The British helped fortify the village against the French of Canada during the Seven Years' War (locally known as the French and Indian War); later they added defensive fortifications against the Americans during the Revolutionary War. During the latter warfare, the punitive Sullivan Expedition of 1779 mounted by rebel forces destroyed many of the dwellings, as well as the winter stores of the people, and they abandoned the ruins. Following the war and the forced removal of the Seneca from their native land, European-Americans settled here about 1793. They developed a town encouraged by the Pulteney Association, which owned the land and was selling plots. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Lt. Col. Seth Reed (), who had fought at Bunker Hill, was one of many pioneers who moved from Massachusetts into Ontario County. By trade with the Seneca, he bought a tract of land eighteen miles in extent. This occurred in 1787, while his wife Hannah stayed in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, with their family. (This was before the first Trade and Intercourse Act, or Nonintercourse Act, was passed in 1790, formally declaring that land sales to individuals were invalid unless they occurred during a public treaty held under the authority of the United States.) "Seth Read moved his wife Hannah and their family to Geneva, Ontario County, New York, in the winter of 1790". The settlement at Geneva was not yet permanent; the European Americans continued to harass the Seneca on the frontier. In 1795 Read and his family removed to Erie, Pennsylvania, where they became its earliest European-American settlers. The Village of Geneva was incorporated in 1806, formally separating it…

Geography

The town is at the wide northern outlet of Seneca Lake, a lake that spans south to Watkins Glen. Geneva is in the Finger Lakes region, the largest wine-producing area in New York State. The Cayuga-Seneca Canal is part of the watershed of Keuka Lake. It flows north through Geneva, connecting to the Erie Canal, which was completed in 1825, giving access for the region to the Great Lakes and midwestern markets for their produce, as well as to buy natural resource commodities. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land and of it (27.18%) is water. Geneva is connected via the east–west US 20, concurrent with NY 5. NY 14 is a north–south highway through the city. It is approximately equidistant from Rochester and Syracuse, each being about 45 miles away. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Geneva has a warm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Geneva was on July 22, 2011, while the coldest temperature recorded was on February 18, 1979, and January 22, 2005. |source 2 = National Weather Service }}

Race & ethnicity