Farmers Loan and Trust Company records, 1829-1866.
Collection Number: 659
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Farmers Loan and Trust Company records, 1829-1866.
Repository:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Collection Number:
659
Abstract:
Includes material relating to the business. Also, accounts for the Batavia and Buffalo
Land Offices, and other material pertaining to Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties,
New York. Microfilm covers correspondence of the presidents of the company.
Creator:
Farmers' Loan and Trust Company
Quanitities:
2.2 cubic feet.
Language:
Collection material in English
The Farmers Loan and Trust Company, one of the earliest of the investment trust companies
to commence operations in the United States, absorbed the bulk of its interest in
the lands of Western New York when the Holland Land Company went out of business in
1835. By 1840, the Farmers Loan and Trust had invested $2,647,071.50 through trusts
in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, New York, Orleans, and
Wyoming Counties. The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company eventually became Citibank of
New York.
The Farmers Loan and Trust Company records give the history of the various trusts
it formed between 1835 and 1856. The records include abstracts of title, agreements
of sale and articles of trust, copies of the deeds and the contract schedules used
to transfer title, detailed maps of townships where the transfers took place, resolutions
by officers of the company, powers of attorney to company agents, schedules of land
and of mortgage foreclosures, bills of costs, accounts of cattle received in payments
on mortgages, and other material relating to the management of the business. The
volumes include accounts for the Batavia and Buffalo Land Offices (1838-1842, 1848-1852,
1852-1855), land tables for the Batavia Land Office (1842-1857), a register of deeds
for the Farmers Loan and Allegany Counties (1833-1857), a register of deeds for the
farmers Loan and Trust (1841-1866), schedules for mortgages for Cattaraugus and Allegany
Counties (1833-1857), and appraisals of lands in Wyoming County (1847-1848). The microfilmed
copies of the first five letterbooks of the presidents of the company cover the period
from the creation of the parent organization, the Farmers Fire Insurance and Loan
Company, in 1832 to 1854; include hundreds of letters to agents, attorneys, and others,
among them being Herman J. Redfield, Benjamin Pringle, Junius A. Smith, and John Lowber
of Batavia, Washington Hunt of Lockport, Truman Lewis of Orangeville, Wyoming County,
and Stanley N. Clarke of Ellicottville, Cattaraugus County; and touch upon every aspect
of the business, land sales, mortgage payments, foreclosures, defaulting, acceptance
of payments in kind on land debts, and the like. Many of the letters in these volumes
from the presidents, Henry Seymour, Lewis Curtis, R. C. Cornell, Dow D. Williamson,
and from the secretary, R. K. Delafield, throw light on conditions in the money and
security markets of New York, and show how the company gradually shifted its emphasis
from land as a field of investment to state securities and to railroads. Included
are letters to Horatio Seymour, Erastus Corning, James S. Wadsworth, Cornelius Vanderbilt,
August Belmont, Charles Butler, George B. Upton, Bostonian railroad officials Charles
Williams of Philadelphia, Whiting and Adams of Detroit, and to foreign firms, the
Rothschilds, Thomas Wilson and Company of London, and Hope and Company of Amsterdam.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Farmers' Loan and Trust Company records, #659. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections,
Cornell University Library.
Names:
Corning, Erastus.
Wadsworth, James S.
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 1794-1877.
Belmont, August, Sr., 1813-1890.
Seymour, Horatio.
Batavia Land Office
Batavia Land Office
Buffalo Land Office
Subjects:
Land titles -- New York (State)
Real property -- Valuation -- New York (State)
Powers of attorney -- New York (State)
Land tenure -- New York (State)
Real estate investment -- New York (State)
Financial institutions -- New York (State)
Commercial finance companies -- New York (State)
Trust companies -- Real estate investments -- New York (State)
Mortgages -- New York (State)
Agriculture -- History.
Banks and banking -- New York (State) -- Allegany County.
Banks and banking -- New York (State) -- Cattaraugus County.
Foreclosures -- New York (State)
Real property -- Exchange of.
Land trusts -- New York (State)
Form and Genre Terms:
Mortgages.
Deeds.
Abstracts.
CONTAINER LIST
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Scope and Contents
All the material in the collection may not be covered by this guide.
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