The Castorland Company was organized in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1792 as the Compagnie de New York -- The New York Company -- to invest in lands in north and northwestern New York. Land in

Lewis County, New York Lewis County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,582, making it the fourth-least populous county in New York. Its county seat is Lowville. The county is named after Morgan Lewis, ...

, part of the Macomb's Purchase, was bought from William Constable. Settlers arrived in 1796 and within four years the colony had failed. The transplanted French people, unfit for the vigorous open life and hard work of the

Frontier A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...

, preferred more civilized communities.

References

* Simon Desjardins, Pierre Pharoux. John A. Gallucci (Tr.). Castorland Journal: An Account of the Exploration and Settlement of Northern New York State by French Émigrés in the Years 1793 to 1797. (Cornell University Press, 2010.) * Edith Pilcher. Castorland: French Refugees in the Western Adirondacks, 1793–1814 (Harrison, NY.: Harbor Hills Books, 1985). * Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. French North America History of the Thirteen Colonies Companies established in 1792 French companies established in 1792 {{US-hist-stub

References

Further reading