of Eliza Emily Chappell Porter in 1807, who was a nurse, teacher, school builder, and Underground Railroad operative during the Civil War. Geneseo was also the birthplace, in 1851, of the swindler Ferdinand Ward. Geneseo was used as a background for tales of the law and small town life by Arthur C. Train, who lived and practiced law in the town for many years before the First World War. He gave it the name of “Pottsville”, and often used it as one of the settings for his stories of the Yankee lawyer, Ephraim Tutt. The village of Geneseo became the county seat of Livingston County in 1821 and was incorporated in 1832. The State Normal School, now SUNY Geneseo, opened in 1871. In 1991, the United States Department of the Interior designated large parts of the village a National Historic Landmark. The botanist Albert Francis Blakeslee (1874–1954) was born in Geneseo. Present day The valley of the Genesee River is wide and fertile, with some of the best agricultural land in New York, but it was very prone to flooding, and Geneseo suffered several bad floods until the United States Army Corps of Engineers' construction of the Mount Morris Dam upstream of the community in the 1950s. Agriculture is now a large contributor to Geneseo's economy. Geneseo is also used by many as a bedroom community for jobs in Rochester, to the north. The village of Geneseo is governed by a mayor and four trustees. The town can be roughly divided into three geographies: the village has a small-town atmosphere, much of Route 20A is commercialized, and the majority of the town's area is farmland. One of the main issues faced by the community today is urban sprawl. The increasing presence of big-box stores on Route 20A has been welcomed by some residents, who appreciate the convenience of nearby retailers, and discouraged by others, who oppose the suburbanization of the small town. The Geneseo Airport (D52) is a general aviation airport west of the village, on the Wadsworth farm. It was established during July 1969, and is used for approximately 20 aircraft operations each day. Since 1980, it has hosted groups restoring and operating historic military aircraft—originally the National Warplane Museum, and now the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum. An airshow is held annually on the field, during the second weekend in July. The Association for the Preservation of Geneseo