Henrietta History

excerpt from "Henrietta, New York from 1818 to 2018 A Bicentennial Commemoration", by Town Historian Tina Thompson

West Woods and the First Town Board Meeting

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, a part of the land in the Pittsford township was known as the West Woods. Permanent settlement began in 1806 when settlers contracted to purchase land from Dr. William Six (d. 1811) and his brother Dr. Cornelius Charles Six of Holland through their agent James Wadsworth. The early pioneers faced several challenges. First, the land they were settling was for the most part flat, wet and very heavily forested. Trees needed to be cut down, log cabins built and tree roots removed so the soil could be plowed and planted. Second, the deeds of conveyance for the sale of land between Dr. Cornelius Charles Six and the early settlers had not been filed as required in the office of the Secretary of State (New York). Third, when the deeds were finally available in 1817, the proprietors in the Netherlands required an increase in contract price for the land based on the improvements that had occurred since 1807. Many early pioneers were forced to sell their property “at a sacrifice” and move west.

Because many of the settlers in West Woods, or West Town as it was also called, did not have necessary records regarding their property, they were not permitted to vote at town meetings in Pittsford. Until 1821, the New York State Constitution stated that only those who owned their land could vote. Resentment grew between leaders of Pittsford and the residents of West Woods. In 1816, Simeon Stone of Pittsford challenged every voter at the polls as a ‘non-freeholder.’ (A freeholder is someone who owns the title to a property.) The residents of the West Woods were prepared and had purchased for one day a deed to a small piece of land.

In 1817, a town meeting was held in the schoolhouse near the southwest corner of what is now East Henrietta and Lehigh Station Roads. The schoolhouse is no longer standing but was probably located behind the former Jeffrey’s Tavern, now Stone's Pub. At this meeting Henrietta was selected as the name for Township XII, Range VII. Henrietta Laura Pulteney, Countess of Bath, England, was the only child of Sir William Johnstone Pulteney, who at one time owned the land that included the township. The New York State legislature was petitioned and on Friday, March 27, 1818, an act to divide the town of Pittsford was passed:

That from and after the day preceding the first Tuesday in April next, all that part of the town of Pittsford, county of Ontario, known as township #12, in the 7th range, shall be and the same is hereby erected into a separate town by the name of Henrietta, and that the first town meeting shall be held at the place at which the last town meeting of the town of Pittsford was adjourned.