Livingston County, New York facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Livingston County
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Livingston County Courthouse
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Location within the U.S. state of New York
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New York's location within the U.S. |
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Country | United States | ||
State | New York | ||
Founded | 1821 | ||
Named for | Robert R. Livingston | ||
Seat | Geneseo | ||
Largest village | Geneseo | ||
Area | |||
• Total | 640 sq mi (1,700 km2) | ||
• Land | 632 sq mi (1,640 km2) | ||
• Water | 8.5 sq mi (22 km2) 1.3% | ||
Population
(2020)
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• Total | 61,834 | ||
• Density | 97.9/sq mi (37.8/km2) | ||
Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern) | ||
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) | ||
Congressional district | 27th |
Livingston County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,834. Its county seat is Geneseo. The county is named after Robert R. Livingston, who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase.
Livingston County is part of the Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Contents
History
When counties were established in New York State in 1683, the present Livingston County was part of Albany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766 by the creation of Cumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770 by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.
On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city of Schenectady, and the county included the western part of the Adirondack Mountains and the area west of the West Branch of the Delaware River. The area then designated as Tryon County now includes 37 counties of New York State. The county was named for William Tryon, colonial governor of New York.
In the years prior to 1776, most of the Loyalists in Tryon County fled to Canada. In 1784, following the peace treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War, the name of Tryon County was changed to Montgomery County in order to honor the general, Richard Montgomery, who had captured several places in Canada and died attempting to capture the city of Quebec, replacing the name of the hated British governor.
In 1789, Ontario County was split off from Montgomery. The actual area split off from Montgomery County was much larger than the present county, also including the present Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, Steuben, Wyoming, Yates, and part of Schuyler and Wayne Counties.
Genesee County was created by a splitting of Ontario County in 1802. This was much larger than the present Genesee County, however. It contained the present Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Wyoming, and portions of Livingston and Monroe Counties.
Livingston County was formed from Genesee and Ontario Counties in 1821.
Livingston County is home to the State University of New York, College at Geneseo (now SUNY Geneseo)
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 640 square miles (1,700 km2), of which 632 square miles (1,640 km2) is land and 8.5 square miles (22 km2) (1.3%) is water.
Livingston County is located in the Finger Lakes region, south of Rochester and east of Buffalo.
Letchworth State Park in partly in the western part of the county. The Genesee River flows northward through the county.
The Rochester and Southern Railroad (RSR) traverses the county from Greigsville south through Mount Morris to Dansville.
Adjacent counties
- Monroe County - north
- Ontario County - east
- Steuben County - southeast
- Allegany County - south
- Wyoming County - west
- Genesee County - northwest
Major highways
Demographics
Historical population | |||
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Census | Pop. | %± | |
1830 | 27,729 | — | |
1840 | 35,140 | 26.7% | |
1850 | 40,875 | 16.3% | |
1860 | 39,546 | −3.3% | |
1870 | 39,309 | −0.6% | |
1880 | 39,562 | 0.6% | |
1890 | 37,801 | −4.5% | |
1900 | 37,059 | −2.0% | |
1910 | 38,037 | 2.6% | |
1920 | 36,830 | −3.2% | |
1930 | 37,560 | 2.0% | |
1940 | 38,510 | 2.5% | |
1950 | 40,257 | 4.5% | |
1960 | 44,053 | 9.4% | |
1970 | 54,041 | 22.7% | |
1980 | 57,006 | 5.5% | |
1990 | 62,372 | 9.4% | |
2000 | 64,328 | 3.1% | |
2010 | 65,214 | 1.4% | |
2020 | 61,834 | −5.2% | |
U.S. Decennial Census 1790–1960 1900–1990 1990–2000 2010–2020 |
2010 Census
As of the 2010 Census, there were 65,393 people, 24,409 households, and 15,943 families residing in the county. The population density was 103.5 people per square mile (40/km2). There were 27,123 housing units at an average density of 43 per square mile (16.6/km2).
The county's racial makeup was 93.8% White, 2.4% African American, 0.29% Native American, 1.2% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.76% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.76% of the population. In 2017, 26.3% were of German, 21.2% Irish, 14.2% Italian, 13.5% English and 5.6% American ancestry according to the 2017 American Community Survey. 93.5% spoke English and 2.6% Spanish as their first language.
Communities
Towns
Villages
Census-designated places
- Byersville
- Conesus Hamlet
- Conesus Lake
- Cumminsville
- Cuylerville
- Dalton
- East Avon
- Fowlerville
- Greigsville
- Groveland Station
- Hemlock
- Hunt
- Kysorville
- Lakeville
- Linwood
- Livonia Center
- Piffard
- Retsof
- Scottsburg
- South Lima
- Springwater Hamlet
- Tuscarora
- Wadsworth
- Webster Crossing
- Woodsville
- York Hamlet
Hamlet
Notable people
- Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie Adair, published diarist and matriarch of Glenveagh Castle and JA Ranch, was born into the Wadsworth family of Geneseo.
- Lois Bryan Adams (1817–1870), writer, journalist, newspaper editor
- James C. Adamson, NASA astronaut, grew up in Geneseo.
- Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States, was son of a Baptist minister and moved to York in 1837, attending the Old Brick School there. His infant brother, George, is buried at Pleasant Valley Cemetery in York.
- Harriet N. Austin, a water cure physician, dress reformer, and women's rights advocate, was associated for many years with the Jackson Sanitorium in North Dansville
- Cassius McDonald Barnes, American Civil War soldier, served as the 4th Governor of Oklahoma Territory; born in Livingston County.
- Ross Barnes, famous Major League Baseball player, was born at Mt. Morris, Livingston County, in 1850.
- Isabel Chapin Barrows, first woman employed by the United States State Department, worked for a time at the Jackson Sanitorium in Dansville and met her husband, Samuel June Barrows, there.
- Clara Barton, volunteer nurse during the Civil War, organized the first chapter of the American Red Cross at Dansville, Livingston County, in 1881.
- Francis Bellamy, author of the "Pledge of Allegiance," was born in the village of Mt. Morris in 1855 and lived there until 1859.
- James G. Birney, abolitionist and politician, is buried at Williamsburg Cemetery, Groveland.
- Sarah Hopkins Bradford, writer and historian, was born in Mt. Morris.
- Claude Fayette Bragdon, important architect, lived in Dansville for about four years beginning in 1877, where his father was a newspaper editor.
- William A. Brodie, Grand Master of Mason in New York, laid the foundation stone of the Statue of Liberty in 1884. He was Livingston County treasurer and spent most of his life in Geneseo.
- Charles R. Cameron, consul in Brazil, Chile, and Cuba, and consul-general in Japan, spent over forty years in the United States Foreign Service. He was born in York.
- Rev. Augusta Jane Chapin, born in Lakeville, Livonia, was the first woman in America to receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.
- Emma Lampert Cooper, a prominent oil and watercolor artist, was born in Nunda.
- Cornplanter, Seneca war chief, diplomat, and veteran of the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War, was born at Canawaugus, now Caledonia.
- Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States, apprenticed for four months as a teenager at a wool-carding and cloth-dressing mill in West Sparta.
- Clinton Bowen Fisk, American Civil War brigadier general, banker, 1888 US presidential candidate for the Prohibition Party, and person whom Fisk University is named; born in York.
- James W. Gerard, American Ambassador to Germany, was born at Geneseo.
- Seth Green, the "Father of Fish Culture," established the first North American fish hatchery at Caledonia in 1864; it is now also the oldest in the country.
- Handsome Lake, a Seneca religious leader, was born at Canawaugus, now Caledonia
- Vivika Heino, noted ceramicist, was born at Caledonia
- Eben Norton Horsford, scientist and inventor, developed a new formula for baking powder, eventually producing Rumford Baking Powder. He was born in Leicester.
- William H. C. Hosmer, poet, was native of Avon.
- Mary Seymour Howell, native of Mt. Morris, was an educator and fought for woman suffrage. She was a colleague of Susan B. Anthony and wrote the equal suffrage bill for the New York State Assembly, passed in 1892.
- Washington Hunt, United States Congressman, New York State Comptroller, and New York State Governor from 1851 to 1852, lived in Portage as a boy and was educated at the Geneseo Academy.
- Helen Hunt Jackson, a writer and advocate for western Native American groups, married into the Hunt family of Portage
- Mary Jemison, the "White Woman of the Genesee," taken captive by Native Americans, lived much of her life among the Seneca at Little Beard's Town, near present-day Cuylerville. After 1797, she resided on her 18,000-acre reservation, today at the site of Letchworth State Park.
- Tom Keene / George Duryea, American actor, was likely native of Oakland in the town of Portage
- Belva Ann Lockwood, women's rights activist, educator, and politician, was educated at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary.
- Sara Jane McBride, entomologist and early woman fly tyer, was born in Caledonia.
- Elizabeth Smith Miller, women's suffrage advocate and dress reformer, was born at Groveland and designed the "Bloomer Outfit," popularized by Amelia Bloomer.
- Annetta Thompson Mills, born in Portage, founded the first formal school for the Deaf in China.
- Henry Jarvis Raymond, United States Congressmen and founder of the New York Times, was from Lima and attended the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary there.
- Jessie Belle Rittenhouse, American poet and critic, was born at Mt. Morris, and received the first Robert Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 1930.
- Anne Graham Rockfellow, architect, was born in Mt. Morris and was the first woman to graduate from MIT with a degree in architecture in 1887.
- John Samuel Rowell (1825–1907), agricultural inventor and manufacturing industrialist, was a resident of Springwater
- Emily Maria Scott (1832–1915), artist and founder of the New York Water Color Club, was born in Springwater
- Daniel Shays, Revolutionary War soldier and leader of Shays' Rebellion, is buried in Scottsburg Union Cemetery in Conesus.
- Curt Smith, author and political speechwriter, was born in Caledonia and graduated from SUNY Geneseo in 1973.
- Annie D. Fraser Tallent, pioneer, was the first white woman to enter the territory of the Lakota people in South Dakota in 1874. She was originally from York.
- Alice Hay Wadsworth, national anti-suffrage leader, was wife of Senator James W. Wadsworth Jr. and was president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage from 1917 to 1920.
- James Wadsworth, pioneer, land speculator, and education advocate, settled the Geneseo area and later helped to fund New York State common school libraries. His brother William also was a pioneer and officer in the War of 1812.
- James Jeremiah Wadsworth, American politician and diplomat, was native of Geneseo.
- James S. Wadsworth, American Civil War general who was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness, had his hometown in Geneseo.
- Ferdinand Ward, American swindler, was native of Geneseo.
- Henry I. Weed, Wisconsin state senator and lawyer, was born in Livingston County.
- Julia Ann Wilbur (1815–1895) resided on the northern edge of Avon and was an abolitionist and suffragist
- Frances E. Willard, suffrage and temperance leader, began an early career of teaching at Lima's Genesee Wesleyan Seminary before becoming the national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and influencing the passage of the 19th Amendment.
- John Young, New York State Governor, was born in Conesus and opened a law office in Geneseo before embarking on his state and federal legislative career.
Images for kids
See also
In Spanish: Condado de Livingston (Nueva York) para niños