Geneseo is a town in Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. It is at the south end of the five-county Rochester Metropolitan Area. The population of the town was 10,483 at the 2010 census. The English name "Geneseo" is an anglicization of the Iroquois name for the earlier Iroquois town there, Gen-nis-he-yo (which means "beautiful valley"). The village of Geneseo lies within the western portion of the town. The village and town are known today mainly as the home of the State University of New York at Geneseo. History Pre-revolution Near Geneseo was the largest Seneca village, Chenussio, a center of power for the Iroquois Confederacy. It was also the confederacy's "bread basket", with orchards, vineyards, and fields of maize and vegetables. During the American Revolution, the Seneca joined the British and the Tories against the colonists who were fighting for independence. The alliance's raids from the west were a major threat to the American cause, and General Washington sent the Sullivan Expedition to neutralize the Iroquois. As Sullivan's army approached Geneseo with their "scorched earth" policy, the Senecas repeatedly fell back. However, a large Seneca party ambushed one of Sullivan's scouting parties, carried them as prisoners to Geneseo and tortured them to death. When Sullivan's troops arrived and found the savagely mutilated bodies, they became enraged and destroyed anything that could support the Iroquois. No longer able to raid from Geneseo and the surrounding area, about 5,000 Seneca fled to British-held Fort Niagara, where they spent one of the coldest winters on record, with much loss of life, in camps outside the fort with only the small amount of supplies the British could spare. Post-revolution The town was established in 1789, before the formation of Livingston County. The settlement of Geneseo by the colonists began shortly after the arrival of James and William Wadsworth in 1790. The brothers came to the Genesee Valley from Connecticut as agents of their uncle, Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, to care for and sell the land he purchased. The Wadsworths were participants in the negotiations of the Treaty of Big Tree between Robert Morris and the Senecas at the site of Geneseo in 1797. Geneseo, as well as nearby Mount Morris, was part of the Morris Reserve that Morris held back from his sale of much of western New York to the Holland Land Company. Geneseo was the birthplace