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This is the 3rd version of this cache. Originally placed by the geokitties, and later placed by Bluestone as "Opening the Heart of the Genesee. This is a place full of history and it was researched and written up very well by Bluestone. The history that follows is what was on his cache page.
The hide is a micro, only about 5 ft. from it's last placement. There is no need to disturb any stones, but please take the time to read the history and view the area. It can be claimed as a find by those who have done this cache before.
Williamsburg - The Village That Helped Open the Genesee Frontier. In 1779, the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign reached the end of their long mission to break the Seneca's support of Britain in the Revoltutionary War.
Once the Campaign reached, and destroyed the last Seneca stronghold of Little Beards Town, which was located just across the valley from the site of Williamsburg, the Seneca raids on the Colonies' western frontier was ended, and the soldiers returned eastward, mission accomplished.
Once the war was over, and the newly formed United States started pushing their boundaries westward, many of the newcoming pioneers were former soldiers who were with the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition. Remembering, and once marveling at, the lush country, now known as the Heart of the Genesee Valley, many wished to return to start new lives.
In 1792, a group of land speculators decided to come see for themselves, this rich wonderland described to them by the former veterans. Among the most notable, were Charles Caroll and William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel Rochester.
They built the village of Williamsburg on the east side of this wondrous new river valley. It was one of the first major settlements in the valley.
Unfortunately, it was short lived, and all that remains today is the cemetary.
One of the most notable "pioneers" to settle here was Horatio Jones, a former Seneca captive, who then became the trusted voice and translator of the Seneca, in their later negotiations over lands with the newly formed US government.
Horatio settled in Williamsburg for a short time, with his wife and children. His story is very similar to that of Mary Jemison, The White Woman of the Genesee.
Before the demise of the village, he then moved not too far away to spend the rest of his life farming along the Great Valley.
Below is a little more, official, history of Williamsburg, taken from the NRHP Archives.
The Williamsburg Cemetery is located on a .66-acre parcel on the north side of Abel Road, approximately ¼ mile east of Geneseo-Mt. Morris Rd (NY Rt 36) in the Town of Groveland, Livingston County, in an area that is typified by agricultural fields and second-growth forest.
The cemetery is circled by a fence of iron pickets that appears to date from the early twentieth century; its original gate at the southwest corner has been replaced by a modern farm road gate. The land slopes upward from west to east. The graves in the cemetery are arranged in rows running north-south, or perpendicular to the slope.
The surviving stones are concentrated in the northeastern corner and in the westernmost rows of the cemetery. A wide swath of grass with no stones bisects the cemetery into eastern and western halves. A handful of mature conifer and hardwood trees are distributed through the cemetery, primarily at the edges of the property.
The stones bear dates that range from the 1814 to ca. 1910 and illustrate a wide range of styles from this period. The simplest stone, with no date, marks the grave of a former slave and is simply carved with the name “Mamma Rachael”; local tradition states that there are other African-American burials in the same vicinity, but their markers have been lost. Many of the graves retain foot- as well as head stones; these burials suggest that these graves, at least, are orientated “facing” east, up the hill. The cemetery contains a variety of styles and decorative motifs in its stones, including: a life-sized cut sheaf of wheat atop the granite stone of Daniel Fitzhugh that dates from ca. 1881; obelisks, most notably the Birney-Fitzhugh and Abel monuments; marble tablet stones with simple bas-relieve marginal decorations; a reliquary coffin shaped stone of granite; and faceted shafts (missing final urns or other decorative finials). The cemetery also contains an arched slate stone, dating from 1814, with a central incised figure of an urn holding a weeping tree at the top, flanked on the upper corners of the stone by stylized rising suns.
Established in 1792, the Williamsburg Cemetery is historically significant as one of the earliest European-American settlement-period community cemeteries in all of western New York State and as the last surviving above-ground remnant of the vanished village of Williamsburg. Williamsburg was the first village established in the region by Captain Charles Williamson acting in his capacity as land agent for a group of British investors who bought land in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase in the late eighteenth century through financier Robert Morris. The cemetery is also the final resting place of several individuals of transcendent importance in the history of the Genesee Valley, including Charles Carrol and William Fitzhugh, early investors, settlers and community leaders in what is today Livingston County and business partners of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, founder of the city that still bears his name. Included with the Fitzhugh burials is the grave of James Birney, son-in-law of William Fitzhugh and the first candidate for the U.S. Presidency nominated by the Liberty Party in 1840 and 1844 on a abolitionist platform.
Source: NRHP Archive
Although there are MANY interesting gravestones here, and if you're into photographing them, you should definately bring a camera...
HOWEVER:
THERE IS NO NEED TO DISTURB ANY GRAVESTONES IN SEARCHING FOR THIS CACHE.
Please respect the cemetery.
NO night caching.
There are no specific hours posted, but please lets keep it to daylight hours.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)