BATAVIA, a city in north-west New York, U.S.A., midway between Buffalo and Rochester, on Tonawanda creek, at an ele vation of 9ooft. ; the county seat of Genesee county. It is served by the New York Central, the Erie and the Lehigh Valley rail ways. The area is 5.7sq.m., and the population in 193o was Batavia is the trade centre of a prosperous farming and fruit growing region. Hydro-electric power is available from Niagara, and there are important manufactures, especially of harvesting machinery, die castings and ploughs. The 39 factories within the city limits in 1927 had an output valued at $11,424,647. The public school system is noted for a plan of tutorial instruction, supplementing class-room teaching, which was introduced in 1898 by the superintendent, John Kennedy (b. 1846). Batavia is the headquarters for Troop A of the State police. The State school for the blind (opened 1868) is here, and 13m. N.W. lies the Tonawanda Indian reservation of 7,548 acres.
There had long been an Indian town (Deo-on-go-wa) at this point, and two main trails crossed where the courthouse now stands. Batavia was laid out by Joseph Ellicott (176o-1826), agent and surveyor-general of the Holland Land Company, in 1801, while Holland was a part of the Batavian republic. He made it, rather than Buffalo, the capital of the "Holland purchase," saying "the Almighty will look out for Buffalo." From the beautiful stone "office" which he built in 1804, now preserved as an historical museum, issued the titles to most of the land in New York west of the Genesee river. Several fine old mansions are still standing, one of which is the present city hall. During the War of 1812, Batavia was a camp for soldiers and a haven for refugees and wounded from Buffalo and other frontier towns. The village was incorporated in 1823, and secured a city charter in 1914.