For thousands of years, Native Americans dwelt here, most notably the Seneca nation, keepers of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Western Door. When European settlers arrived in the late 1700s and set claim to the land Native Americans lived on, Ontario County comprised a third of the state. Pioneers poured in from New England and the Mid-Atlantic to buy land from Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham. The richest man in Great Britain, Sir William Pulteney, sent Captain Charles Williamson to buy and sell land, build roads and mills, and establish villages (Bath, Penn Yan, Geneva, Palmyra, Sodus).
In 1789, Deacon John Adams with his party of 23 established Bloomfield’s first settlement on Mud Creek near today’s Co. Rd #30. Within a decade, a sizeable village of settlers grew on the highest nearby hill along the new State Road—today’s Bloomfield. Mills, distilleries, cooperages, and smithies sprang up to serve the farmers. “Genesee wheat” became famous worldwide. By the early 1800s, the Bloomfield valley bloomed with thousands of acres of apple trees.
Colonel Nathaniel Rochester lived here while he staged his plan to erect a city 20 miles north at the Genesee Falls. His son-in-law, Jonathan Child, set up a store, then became Rochesterville’s first mayor. In 1812, Victor and Mendon split off from Bloomfield town. In 1833, West Bloomfield split off. East Bloomfield became known far and wide for prosperous farms.
