They abandoned their efforts shortly before the Marquis de Nonville brought a great French army to attack the Seneca villages in the Genesee Country.

During the American Revolution, Seneca warriors and Loyalist Rangers used villages at Canandaigua, Honeoye, Naples, and Geneva as staging areas for frontier raids. General John Sullivan, acting on Washington’s orders, retaliated for those raids by devastating the Indian towns in 1779. In later years many of Sullivan’s troopers returned to live in the fertile Finger Lakes Region.

Susan B. Anthony’s trial for “illegally” voting in the 1872 Presidential election was held in the Ontario County Courthouse. Several Geneva women were also enthusiastic and influential suffragetes.

There were other notable women with ties to Ontario County as well. Caroline Cheseboro, Caroline Cowles Richards Clarke, Mary Jane Holmes and Eleanor Myers Jewett were all successful authors. Eloise Wilkin was a popular children’s illustrator for Golden Books and Mary Clark Thompson was a noted philanthropist, whose generosity extended beyond Ontario County’s borders.

Visitors from Europe arrived in the 1790’s; and the Marquis de Lafayette came in 1824. Dozens of passenger trains came and went each day half a century ago. Half a dozen steamboats once plied Canandaigua and Seneca Lakes. Now the place of the trains and boats has been taken by automobiles and tour buses visiting historic sites and resort hotels. Roseland Amusement Park, closed in 1985, achieved regional prominence for over 60 years.