I think the original settlement of Franklin Co. was indeed due to cheap and/or available land. Various items I have read suggest there were two great periods of emigration into Franklin County, NY, that being pre-1830 and post-1830. For Vermonters, to have their own status stabilized by their little independent Republic of Vermont finally joining the American states in 1791 certainly advanced the notion of stability and westward movement. Therefore by the time the post-1830 emigrants move in, a mixture of Vermonters, French-Canadians and Irish, they occupied the cleared lands that the pre-1830 folks (many Vermonters) had cleared. It was this first group of folks that did not settle so permanently here as the second group, and many moved into the Great Lakes States. The second group was the one who took great advantage of London land agent Edward Ellice and the cheap lands he was selling. I would love to know much more about Edward Ellice. If one actually goes to Malone and peruses the early land records, one would be quite surprised at the land transactions. Unfortunately, this does not always bode well for genealogists for many were also squatters and/or renters, therefore not showing up in the land records, yet do show up in early census returns or other county records such as the state census records or lis pendins, etc, etc. If you read the county histories, one main product out of the lumber industry were masts for the British navy, built of Franklin Co. trees. The soil is reasonably tillable towards the northern part of the country.