n
Saturday by 6 p. m. (3.) "From Canajoharie through Cherry Valley to the
Court House in Cooperstown," to leave every Friday at 4 p. m., and
arrive on Saturday by 1 p. m. (4.) "From Whitestown to Canandaigua once
in two weeks"; to leave Whitestown every other Monday at 8 a. m., and
arrive at Canandaigua the next Thursday by 2 p. m. This advertisement
bears date July 8, 1794. It does not state the mode of conveyance
required.

On the 3d of March, 1797, Congress established a post-road "from
Kanandaigua in the State of New York, to Niagara." This route was run
through Avon and LeRoy, and probably through Batavia, and thence on the
north side of the Tonawanda Creek, and through the present town of
Lockport to Niagara.

In the "History of Onondaga County" it is stated that a Mr. Langdon
first carried the mail through that county on horseback from Whitestown
to Genesee in 1797 or 1798[G]; that he distributed papers and unsealed
letters by the way before intermediate offices were established; that a
Mr. Lucas succeeded Mr. Langdon in transporting the mail, which, in
1800, had become so heavy as to require a wagon to transport it that the
first four-horse mail-coach was sent through in 1803; and that in 1804
Jason Parker ran a four-horse mail-coach twice a week from Utica to
Canandaigua. From an advertisement at Canandaigua, copied by Turner, it
appears that a mail-coach was that year run twice a week between Albany
and Canandaigua.

It is stated in Turner's "History of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase" (p.
174), that Luther Cole was the first to carry the mail from Whitestown
to Canandaigua--on horseback when the roads would allow, but often on
foot. The same history states that the mail-route from Canandaigua to
Niagara was established "about 1798" (1797) and that the mail was
carried through by Jasper Marvin--who sometimes dispensed with mail-bags
and carried the mail in his pocket-book--and that he was six days in
going and returning. The route, it is stated, was the usual one from
Canandaigua to Buffalo and then down the river on the Canada side, to
Fort Niagara; but other, and it is believed more reliable authority
states, that the mail at this time was carried through Cold Springs, in
the present town of Lockport, and did not pass through Buffalo Creek.

The surveys upon the Holland Land Company's Purchase were commenced in
the spring of 1798, and the first wagon track on the Purchase was opened
that year. Before that