Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924086340530 3 1924 086 340 530 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1999 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE ANNA ALLEN WRIGHT LIBRARY ENDOWMENT FUND AVFLLtAM F. PKOf^. Ne^v York From tke Earliest Historic Times to the Beginning of 1907 By WILLIAM F. PECK Author oi the Semi-Gentennial History of Rochester STRATED WITH MAPS, PORTRAITS AND V Also Biograpmcal Sketcnes of Some of tke More Prominent Citizens of Rocnester and Monroe County TABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory 6 CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER XVI. Rochester After the War 89 Beneficent Activities 212 CHAPTER I. Ahorigincs of the Connty 7 CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER XVII. The Last Twelve Years 110 Educational 237 CHAPTER II. ... „ , „ CHAPTER X. CHAPTER XVIIl. White Men Come In 20 The Present Time 130 Ecclesiastical 276 CHAPTER III. CHAPTER XI. CHAPTER XIX. Beginning of Rochester 80 Fire and Its Extinguishment 151 The Civil List 342 CHAPTER TV. CHAPTER XII. CHAPTER XX. Settlement of the County 43 Crime and Its Punishment « 165 Courts and Bar 853 CHAPTER V. CHAPTER XIII. CHAPTER XXL Rochester Becomes . Village 51 p^^^j^^. ui^^ji^n, 181 Practice of Medicine 871 CHAPTER VL CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XXII. Rochester Becomes a City 68 -Jlie Press of Rochester 191 How Monroe Became a County 389 CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER XV. CHAPTER XXIIL Monroe County in a Great War 80 Financial 200 Towns of Monroe County 397 HISTORICAL INDEX Aborigines, Tlie 7 Traces in tlie West 8 The Great Mound in Oliio 8 Academy of Science 135 Adams, Myron 118 Adlington, J. A 180 Allan, Indian, Builds the Mills 30 His Crimes ; 31 One Good Deed 38 Allen, Mrs. A. C 18? Allen, F. P isi Allen, Oliver 180 Amsden, Mrs. Mary J 183 Andrews, E. R 118 Andrews, Samuel J., Pioneer 36 Anthony, Susan B 186 Appy, Henri 180 Ashley, Roscoe 118 Ashley, W. J 116 Assessors 346 Asylums 144, 888 Rochester Orphan 888 St. Patrick's 884 St. Mary's 284 St. Joseph's 284 Jewish Orphan 826 Rochester Home for the Aged 886 Church Home 887 St. Ann's Home for the Aged 288 German Home for the Aged 888 Backus, Dr. Azel 119 Bacon, Theodore 118 Baker, C. S 119 Ballot Machines 118, 114 Banks 147, 803 of Rochester 803 of Monroe . . . , 803 Rochester City Bank 803 First National 804 Bank of Western New York 804 Commercial of Rochester 204 Farmers and Mechanics' 804 Exchange 804 Powers 205 The Rochester 204 The Eagle 205 The Union 205 The Manufacturers' 205 The Flour City 205 Clarke National 806 The Second Bank of Monroe 200 The Second Bank of Rochester 806 The Second Commercial 206 The Merchants 206 German-American 806 The Central 206 The Alliance : 207 National Bank of Comraerde 207 The Savings Bank 207 ' Monroe Cou'nty Savings 208 Mechanics Savings 808 East Side Savings 808 Six-Penny Savings 208 Barnard, Jehiel 116 Bartholoiiiay, Henry 189 Baseball 190 Bench 358 Beneficent Activities 818 Benjamin, Gen. W. H 118 Big Tree, Treaty of 88 B'nai B'rith 233 Board of Health 379 Board of Trade 108 Boyd, Captain, ambushed and killed by Indians 83 Last Resting Place 84 Boys' Evening Home 234 Brackett, James 120 Braddock's Bay, Change of Name. ... 28 Brewster, H. A 120 Brewster, H. P 127 Brewster, Simon L 115 Bridges 144 Bridges, Carthage 30 Other Old Ones 40 Present Ones 144 Briggs, C. W 116 Brighton 397 Brown, Matthew and Francis, Pio- neers 36 Brown, V. P 189 Brule, Etienne, Interpreter and Ex- plorer 80 Buell, George C 115 Building in 1905 123 Building Operations of 1906 186 Burglary, the First 166 Canal, Erie 69 Genesee Valley 60 Carroll, Dr. G. G 184 Carthage, Bridge at 36 Settlement of 47 Carthage Road 74 Cartier, Sails up the St. Lawrence... 20 Castleton, Abortive Settlement 47 Celebrations — Semicentennial 104 Cuinctcrics ....,.'. qq Center Market 70 Chamber of Commerce 131 Champlain, His Fight with the Mo- hawks 20 Charity, the Organization of 233 Charlevoix, Observant Traveler 82 Charlotte, Fight with British 40 Settlement of •' • • • 44 Child, Jonathan, First Mayor 68 Children's Aid Society 231 Children's Playground League 233 Cliilds, Timothy, Anti-Masonic Member of Congress OS Chili S98 Cholera 64 Churches -. 136, 276 Presbyterian 276 Episcopal '888 Quaker 899 Methodist Episcopal 299 Baptist 311 Catholic 315 Evangelical Lutheran 324 German United Evangelical 329 Emanuel Reformed 331 Reformed Church of America 332 Congregational 338 Unitarian 333 Universalist 334 Jewish 337 African 338 Other Churches 838 Cily Allorneys 358 City Clerks 846 City Surveyors 346 City Treasurers 345 Civil List 342 Civil Service Reform 100 Civil War 78, 80 Thirteenth Infantry 81 Twenty-fifth Infantry 81 Twenty-sixth Infantry 81 Twcnty-scvcnlli Infantry 81 Twenty-eighth Infantry 82 Thirty-third Infantry 88 Eighty-ninth Infantry 88 One Hundred and Fifth Infantry.. 88 One Hundred and Eighth Infantry. 88 One Hundred and Fortieth Infantry 82 One Hundred and Fifty-first Infan- try 83 Monroe County Sharpshooters 83 Third Cavalry 83 Eighth Cavalry 84 Twenty-first Cavalry 84 Twenty-second Cavalry 84 First Veteran Cavalry 84 Reynolds' Battery 84 Mack's Battery 84 Barnes' Rifle Battery 85 Eleventh Artillery 85 Fourteenth Artillery 86 HISTORY OP ROCHESTBE AND MONROE COUNTY. Fiftieth Engineers 85 Clark, John, tlie Case of 176 Clarkson 398 Clarkson, G. G 124 Clearing House 210 Clubs, Rochester 136 Eureka 136 Rochester Whist 139 Genesee Valley 139 Country 139 Oak Hill 140 Masonic 140 Friars 140 Literary Club 140 Fortnightly Club 140 Humdrum 143 Kent 143 Wednesday Morning 143 Round-about 143 Woman's Ethical 143 Cogswell, W. F 123 Collectors of the Court 343 Common Council 347 Conference of Charities and Correc- tions 126 Constables, Early 1C5 Cook, Frederick 124 Corinthian Hall 188 County Lines 391 County, Settlement of 42 Courts and the Bar 863 C'ou'rt Houses, the Three B5 Crapsey, Rev. Dr. A. S 124 Crime and Its Punishment 165 Crittenden, Dc Lancy 113 Cuban War 112, 113 Dalbey, Rev. Dr. I. N 123 Danby, Augustine G., First Printer. . . 40 Danforth, G. F 116 Daughters of American Revolution; They Bury the Revolutionary Sol- diers 24 Denonville, Invasion of New York. ... 21 Fight at Boughton's Hill 22 Dentistry in Rochester and Vicinity.. 387 Development of the County 395 Dewey, C. P 116 Disease 107 Disputed Territory 389 District Attorneys 358 Dorthy, John F 178 Doty, Rev. Dr. W. D 118 Douglass, Frederick 93 Dugan, Christopher, Caretaker at the Mills 30 Durand, F. L 120 De Reeg, Father Ilippolyte 123 Early Newspapers 191 The I'irst Daily 103 Early Sclllcrs 391 East, Henry 118 ICastman Kodak Company 118 Ecclesiastical 276 Educational . . i 237 Ellwanger, George 129 Ellwanger, G. H 127 Elwood, F. W 1 116 Elwood, G. M 127 Enos, B. F 115 Evangelical Campaign 125 Execution, the First 169 The Last 177 Executive Board 846 Fay, John D 112 Female Charitable Society 212 Finances, City 148 Financial ZOO Fire and Its Extinguishment 151 Volunteer Fire Department 152 Paid Fire Department 155 Notable Fires 158 First Hou'se 35 First Store 40 First School 40 First Church 40 First Newspaper 40 First Directory 59 First Deed Recorded 59 Fish, Henry L Ill Fish, Colonel Josiah, Caretaker at Mills 30 Fisher, George W Ill Fleckenstein, Valentine 123 Floods 89 Foote, Rev. Dr. Israel 115 Fowler, W. J 118 Fox, Louis 108 Fox Sisters 76 Frankfort 86 Fremin, Father, First Jesuit Mission- ary 21 Frost, Edward A 118 Functions of County Government 395 Gamier, Jesuit Missionary 21 Gates 401 Gazette, First Newspaper 40 Genesee, the River and Falls, Differ- ent Names for Each 16, 23 Gibbons, Washington 113 Goetzman, Frederick 116 Goler, G. W 128 Gordon, John H. and James Ill Gorsline, W. H 118 Government, City 147 Government, Good Movement 110 Grand Army 85 Greece 402 Green, Seth 93 Greenleaf, H. S 127 Greenhalgh, English Traveler 16 Gregg, H. W Ill Guernsey, Lucy E 116 Hahnemann School 384 Hall, Basil, Traveler 64 Hall, Miss Elizabeth P Ill Ilalsey, Mrs. Helen M 129 Hamlin 402 Handsome l^ake, the Reform that He Accomplished 19 Hanford's Landing 44 Hardinbrook Trial 170 Harrison, TTcnry 118 Ilart, James C 124 Hawks, Hayward 110 Hays, David 118 Hennepin, Father, His Travels and Observations 16, 20 Henrietta 403 Hiawatha, He Forms the League of the Iroquois 11 His Death 12 High License Law 112 Hill, Dr. D. J Ill Hinds, J. A 120 Ho-de-no-sau-nee, Iroquois Name for Themselves 11 Holland Land Company, Purchase from Robert Morris 28 Holland, Dr. F. W Ill Holland Purchase 890 liomeopathy 383 Honeoye Falls, Indian Village There 16 Hospitals 144, 217 Rochester City 217 St. Mary's 220 Rochester State 221 Infants' Summer 222 Hotels 144 Hovey, Dr. B. L 127 Howard Riot 175 How Monroe Became a County, by Willis K. Gillette 389 Hulbert, L. E 179 Humane Society 231 Humphrey, G. H 120 Hmidred-Acre Tract 32 Hunt, D. T 129 Huntington, Elon 116 Huntington, Henry F 118 Husbands, J. D 118 Hutton, Rev. Dr., Resigned 110 Indians 8 Industrial School of Rochester 229 Industries of Rochester 130 Insurance Companies 210 Irondequoit 403 Irondequoit; Different Forms of Name 16 French Fort at the Bay 22 Iroquois 8 First Knowledge of Them 9 Migration to This State, Their Great Confederacy ' 11 Their Conquering Career 12 Their Number, Their Peculiar Re- lationship 13 Female Inheritance 14 Status of Women, Names of Places 15 Houses and Roads 16 Their Religion 19 Present Condition 29 Jail, the First 166 The Second 167 Jesuits, Their Advent to this Region, Missions Established Here 21 Jones, Reuben 120 Jones, W. M 127 Kavanagh, P. C 128 Keating Murder 178 Keeler, Bartholomew 112 Kelly, J. M 124 Kendrick, A. C 112 Kendrick, Rev. T. R 120 Kcyes, William Ill Kimball, W. S Ill King's Landing 44 Kislingbury, Lieut. F. F 109 Lafayette, His Visit Here 63 La Salle, Western Explorer 21 Latta, James 42 League of the Iroquois, Its Formation 8 Leary, Rev. J. J 118 Leyden, Maurice 127 Libraries 132 Little's Murder 171 Loan Association 98 Lusk, John, Pioneer on East Side.... 42 VI HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. Lutz, Jacob, the Murder of 176 Lyman Murder 169 McLean, Alexander 112 McMuUcn, John 123 McVcan, Alexander ]]8 Mack, Captain A. G ■ 118 Mackenzie, W. L 75 Maude, English Traveler 30 Mayors of Rochester 342 Mechanics' Institute 261 Medical Profession 371 Early Physicians 371 Eminent Physicians as Given by Dr. Moore 375 Other Prominent Physicians 377 Members of the Assembly 344 Members of Congress 343 Mendon 404 Messner, F. J 176 Meteorological 147 Michaels, Henry Ill Military Organizations 70 Millstones, Placed in Court House.... 31 Millard, Rev. Dr. Nelson 117 Minerva Hall 189 Minor Items 108 Moerel, E. M 116 Monroe County Bible Society 234 Montgomery, T. C 129 Moore, Dr. E. M 119 Morgan, Lewis H., Studies in Indian Ethnology, Important Discovery as to Relationship 14 Adopted by the Indians 15, 90 Morgan, William, Abduction of 03 Mormon Bible 64 Morris, Rev. H. W 113 Morris, Robert, His Land Purchases, Sells to Hqlland Land Company. . 28 Morse, Charles C 113 Moss, George 119 Mother Hieronymo 115 Mou'nd-Builders 7 The Great Serpent Mound in Ohio, Traces of Them in This County. 8 Mundy, J. M 113 Murder Record 175 Murphy, Rev. T. C 118 Museum, The Old Rochester 185 Needlework Guild of America 234 Newspapers, The Gazette 40 The Telegraph 52 Others 66 Norton, A. T 118 O'Donoghue, James Ill Ogden 405 Ogden Land Company, Its Design Against the Senecas 29 O'Hare, James 115 One-Hundred-Acre Tract 32 O'Reilly, Byron 112 O'Rorke, Col. P. H 79, 82 Otis, Gen. E. S 117 Palmer, Peter Ill Parker, G. T Ill Parks 103 Park Statistics 144 Parma 405 Parsons, C. R 100, 118 Parsons, Col. E. B 113 Patch, Sam 64 Patriot Hill 83 Pattison, Rev. Dr. T. H WO Patton, George 113 Peart, Thomas • H^ Peck, Everard, Publishes the Telegraph 52 Otherwise 50, 150, 158, 201, 'J07, 208, 217 Penitentiary l'^3 Penfield <06 Perkins, Oilman H H^ Perinton 406 Phelps and Gorman Purchase, Contest Between New York and Massachu- setts 24 Phelps, Oliver, Purchases Western New York from Massachusetts, and from the Indians; His Sale to Robert Morris 87 Pitkin, Mrs. Louisa R 120 Pittsford 407 Pittsford, Settlement of 47 Police 347 Commissioners 347 Chiefs of Police 347 Station 108 Headquarters 168 Department 174 Commissioners 174 The Present Department 179 Pool, Bertha S 118 Popular Diversions 181 Population of Rochester'. 62 Porter, Maria G 112 Portuguese Murder, Maurice Antonio. 170 Post, Mrs. Amy 77 Postmasters, List of 30 Pouchot, Captain, Describes This Re- gion 22 Powers, D. W 113 Press of Rochester 191 Prideaux, General, Expedition Against French 22 Private Schools 237 Public Buildings 143 Public Schools 136 Public School System 245 Pultcuey Estate 28 Purcell, William 124 Races 189 Raffeix, Father, Jesuit Missionary.... 21 Railroads ,73 Red Jacket, at Treaty of Big Tree. ... 27 Redmond, Owen Ill Reid, Mrs. Eliza M Ill Revolutionary IliU 23 Reynolds, Abelard, Pioneer 35 Reynolds, Mortimer F 30 Rhees, Dr. Rush 118 Riga • 408 Riggs, Rev. Dr. H. C 119 Riley, Ashbel W 70 Robertson Trial 172 Rocheponcault, Liancourt, Traveler.... 43 Rochester Historical Society 135 Rochester, John H 12O Rochester, Nathaniel, Life and Public Services, Purchased Land Here... 32, 77 Rochester School for the Deaf 273 Rochester, Settlement of 36 Becomes a Village 51 Becomes a City C8 After the Civil War 89 Rochester Stock Exchange i'210 Rochester Theological Seminary 264 Rochester University — Semi-Centennial Celebration H'' Rodenbeck, A. J 180 Rosenberg, David 118 Rue, F. S IIB Rumsey, William 180 Sabbatarianism *4 Saxe, Rev. Dr. Asa, Resigned HO School Board, Dissatisfaction with 115 Scrantom, E. H 124 Scrantom, First Family Here 36 Edwin 35, 40, 158 Secret Societies 143 Senecas, Their Occupancy of This Re- gion 8 "Keepers of the Western Door" 12 Their Present Condition 29 Sewers 147 Sewer, West Side 118 Shedd, K. P 124 Sheffer, Peter, First Sctllcr on West Side 43 Shuart, W. D 118 Slavery 77 Sloan, Samuel 120 Slocum, G. E 129 Smith, George A 178 Smith, L. Bordman 115 Smith, Silas O., Builds First Store... 40 Smith, Thomas 118 Social Settlement 233 Soft Coal Ordinance 126 Soltliers' Monument 107 Sons of Veterans 86 Spanish War Veterans 86 St. Bernard's Seminary 269 Stafford, Dr. John 124 State Industrial School 173 State Senators 343 Stebbins, Dr. H. H 120 Stebbins, John W 124 Stedman, Mrs. J. II 129 Stewart, Rev. J. P 113 Stillson, Rev. J. B 120 Stone, Enos, Settles in Brighton 35 Storage Dam Project 110 Streets 147 Street Fair 115 Street Railroads 75 Strikes 90, 100 Stronibcrg-Carlson Telephone Manufac- turing Company 118 Struggle for Monroe 302 Subsequent Journals 193 Sullivan, Campaign Against the Sen- ecas 83 Sullivan, Jeremiah Ill Supervisors 413 Sweden 411 Telegraph 75 Telephone, Independent 123 Telephone, Kochester 116 Telephone Strike 89 Theater, the First 181 Other Theaters 186 The Bar 363 Bar Association 358 Chronological Roll 305 Totiakton (Now Iloneoye Falls), In- dian Village There 10 HISTORY OF EOCHESTEE AND MONEOE COUNTY. Vll Towns of Monroe County 397 Trolley Lines 147 True, Rev. Dr. B. 119 Trust 209 Genesee Valley 209 Trust Companies 208 Rochester Safe Deposit 208 Roclicster Trust & Safe Deposit 209 Security Trust 209 Union Trust 299 Fidelity 209 Tryontown, Abortive Settlement 47 Underground Railroad 77 Union Veterans' Union 86 University of Rochester 250 Van Voorliis, John 124 Van Voorhis, Menzo 123 Village of Rochester, Trustees 51 Early Ordinances, Population 52 Village Trustees 342 Wagner Memorial Lutheran College, . . 270 Walker, Mrs. Nancy ' 115 Walter, Dr. L. D 115 Ward, H. A 128 Ward, Mrs. Harriet K 129 Ward Museum 135 Warren, O. F 127 Washburn, Rev. L. C, Resigned 110 Watch, Night 166 New Watch 168 Waterworks 94 Webster 412 Webster, H. E 128 Weigel, Dr. Louis 128 Weston, Edward Payson 108 Wheatland 412 White, Charter 117 White Dog, the Last Sacrifice 19 White, Dr. T. C 116 Whittlesey, Chancellor, His Prize Poem 185 Whittlesey, F. A 123 Wife-Killing, but Not Murder 167 Wilder, Samuel 119 Williams, Rev. Comfort, First Minis- ter 40 Woman's Educational and Indiistrial Union 232 Woman's Relief Corps 86 Worden, S. C Ill Yeoman, G. F 119 Young, Charles 177 Zimmer, Frederick - 114 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX Achilles, C. B 642 Adams, G. R 693 Albright, E. L 576 Alden, John F 658 Allen, G. W '. 686 Allen, John G 076 Almy, W. II 094 Anderson, W. P 690 Archer, G. W 616 Arnoldt, George 679 Autcn, L. G 574 Babcock Family 491 Bacon, Byron H 529 Baker, C. S 621 Baker, W. J 659 Baldwin, Dr. Evelyn 586 Barker, G. II 078 Baum, Isaac A 575 Bausch, J. J 420 Beckley, J. N 503 Bellamy, Dr. A. W 631 Bent, Samuel R 470 Benton, George A 544 Bloch, Leopold 468 Bloss, Joseph B 638 Blossom, P. A 463 Brainard, Chauncey 445 Bresnihan, J. J 680 Brewster, H. C 423 Brooks, Garry 603 Brooks, L. S 557 Brown, S. S 670 Bullinger, Balthasar 457 Bumpus, George A Bll Campbell, E. C 702 Carpenter, L. 11 403 Carttcr, D. K 400 Casburn, George 648 Chamberlain, O. E 467 Cheney, A. C 433 Clarke, Freeman 434 Cleary, J. P 573 Cook, Frederick 440 Cook, Dr. W. C 476 Copeland, David 479 Corwin, M. S 670 Cox, Julia 700 Craig, Oscar 562 Cram, George R 485 Crapsey, A. S 705 Crouch, C. H 660 Culver, M. A 473 Curtice, Edgar N 645 Dailey, William 498 Dake, R. A 497 Davy, John M 429 Defcndorf, F. J 466 Denton, E. C 699 Desmond, John 699 Dickinson, P. P 532 Donnelly, T. W 455 Draper, H. S 689 Duffy, W. B 468 Eastwood, William 464 Eckler, John 550 Eddy, Thomas H 652 Ellwanger, G. H 668 Elwood, C. A 665 Erickson, Aaron 628 Evershed, J. T 5lS Fay, John D 524 Fenner, E. B 702 FilUngham, G. E 675 Fisher, L J 670 Ford, Phinchas 480 Fritszche, Frank 024 Frost, E. A 616 Garnish, John 474 Gibbard, Isaac 612 Goff, Frank M 647 Gould, J. S 623 Goulding, G. P 701 Graham, A. J 689 Graves, L. S ' 680 Crenelle, E. A 644 Guenther, Frederick 499 Haag, John 664 Hallauer, E. G 469 Hallauer, F. A 510 Hamilton, J. B 684 Hannan, J. W 461 Harding, Franklin 666 Harper, C. C 684 Hart, Edward P 663 Hebard, H. S 623 Hebbard, D. C 658 Hendrickson, Dr. F. E 672 Hey, Levi 676 Hill, William 462 Hills, Reuben 676 Hinderland, John 581 Holmes, Daniel 636 Holmes, Mary J 635 Hopkins, Caleb 503 Hopkins, J. W 481 Hotchkiss, J. L 687 Hoy, N. H 467 Hubbell, W. S 600 Hulett, P. B 505 Katz, Abram J 604 Kelly, J. M B81 Kessel, William 668 Knapp, Moses 560 Knowlton, M. D 630 Vlll HISTORY OP ROCHESTER AND MONROE COTJNTY. Lamberton, A. B 45g Lane, George H 4S8 Lauer, F. C 818 Lawyers Co-operative Pub. Co 687 List, Adolph 480 McFarlane, C. T BIO Mclnerney, J. J 636 McMillan, Thomas 639 McQuaid, B. J BOo Malcomb, James 604 Mandeville, W. J 610 Mann, James 439 Martin, John 664 Maselli, F. A '. 697 May, August J 636 Meyer, C. C BS6 Millard, Nelson 483 Miller, A. R 678 Miller, Frederick 666 Miller, W. B 666 Miles, Franklin 549 Miles, W. E 629 Miner, John E 600 Montgomery, G. S 68!) Moore, Wilson H 641 Morey, J. E 464 Morgan, D. S 698 Moulthrop, S. P 664 Munn, Dr. E. G 69S Murphy, D. B 606 Murray, W. H 461 Nichols, C. A 480 Osgoodby, W. W 688 Otis, E. S 487 Pardee, E. S 682 Parsons, C. R 591 Payne, William 686 Paynter, E. R 688 Peck, Everard 446 Peck, H. J 462 Peck, W. F 449 Pengelly, T. B 668 Perkins, G. H 609 Poole, H. 671 Porter, Chauncey 439 Potter, A. B 530 Powers, Daniel W 612 Present, Philip 681 Piitchard, F. E 630 Reynolds, P. C 549 Robeson, G. W 648 Rogers, Hosea 633 Ruggles, G. W 688 Schoeffel, G. B 645 Selden, H. R 460 Selden, S. L 424 Shaller, H. E 640 Shale, J. G 511 Shaw, L. M 606 Sickles, Arthur 474 Siddons, John 469 Silcox, C. W 700 Sloan, Samuel 625 Smith, C. F 677 Smith, C. Walter 670 Smith, G. B 661 Smyth, F. A 449 Snyder, H. N 542 Sours, W. H 686 Spalding, Andrew 456 Spencer, J. A 004 Stace, Stephen 494 Strong, ri. A 643 Swanson, T. 018 Taylor, W. R 861 Thompson, Nathaniel 437 Titus, S. B 504 Trotter, C. W., & Sons 486 Truesdale, George 641 Tubbs, J. N 497 Walder, G. H 683 Warren, E. 426 Washbuiu, L. C 006 Waterstreet, John U30 Webster, Albert 618 Webster, G. Y 096 Webster, H. E 475 West, J. B 64S Whitbeck, Dr. J. F. W 486 White, R. E 696 Whitmore, V. F 611 Whitney, J. M 617 Wild, James H 569 Wilder, Belden 641 Wilson, W. H 6S4 Witney, G. A 676 Wolcott, J. E 61? Wood, Allen L. 444 Wood, Enos B 493 Woodbury, W. E 039 Woodward, IT. II 668 Wray, Henry 647 ■'■ i.i I I I i . ■ I Yates, A. G 667 Yawman, P. H 686 History OF Rochester and Monroe County INTRODUCTORY To tlie gentle reader who may pcnise tliese pages it will be evident that history repeats itself in more ways than one. From one point of view the record of the growth of Eochester may seem to be little different from that of other cities in the western world, the same thing over again with a change in the names, and therefore of no interest except purely local or an- tiquarian. Wliy, then, cumber the shelves of li- braries with a long account of what has no peculiar, characteristics of its own, nothing but its title to differentiate it from other works of a similar na- ture? The answer is that the objection is not well grounded. While the settlers of other places may have had their own obstacles to encountei;. their own trials to be met and overcome, the founders of Eochester certainly had a weary task to struggle through the first few years in the plan- tation of this little hamlet in the wilderness and had to resist more detrimental influences, espec- ially in the foj'in of a climate that was rendered pestilential by malaria until the swamp lands could be cleared and drained, tlian were met with elsewhere. Montaigne's dictum, "Happy the nation that has no annals," is but an attractive generality and may be met by the far truer assertion, "Happy the nation whose annals show the contest of its citizens against adversity and the peaceful victory won by patient industry and rectitude of conduct." Eegarded in this light it will be seen that it was well worth while to prepare a record of the achieve- ments of our forefathers and of their accomplish- ment in laying firmly the foundation of a city that is the source of pride and pleasure to its inhabi- tants. But the criticism may be made that it was a useless repetition to gather up all these details and to offer this new histoiy to the public, whea there were already others on the same subject, one of tliein, at least, by the sanie author. To this is HISTORY OF ROCHESTEK AND MONROE COUNTY. the reply that since the publication of the forme t works many changes have taken place, not so much in the occurrence of important events as in the surprising growth of Rochester within the pa.st few years, less in the increase of population, al- though that has been satisfactory, than in the augmentation of all that goes to make up the life of a great community, of educational facilities, of rapid and ubiquitous transportation and of pro- ductive industries. In many of these last-named features Rochester leads the world, and in still more is it at the head of the cities of this country. All these are set forth in the following pages, per- haps not in the fullest or the best manner possible but in the form that seemed most adapted to the requirements of a comfortable volume and at th? same time most fitted for permanent preservation. In compiling this work the writer has availed hLii- self of all known sources of information and lias spared no labor in the consultation of all manu- script narratives and books of reference bearing on the general subject, in public and in private libraries, and of the local newspapers, weekly and daily, from their earliest publication to the be- ginning of this present year. That no omissions may be noticed, no trifling errors detected, is too much to hope for in any human production, but such defects as may be found will not have been due to lack of industry and care. The author has., as will be seen, been gi-eatly aided by many kind friends in the preparation of sketches of most of our prominent institutions, thereby not only light- ening his labors but, what is far more important, giving to the work the sanction of authoritative utterance in all those cases. Wherever such assist- ance has taken the form of written articles, how- ever brief, full credit has been given in the nin- ning pages, but in many instances information has been imparted of the source of which no specific mention could be made. With this introduetioa the book is offered by the writer to the impartia\ consideration of his fellow-citizens. Rochester, June 1, 1907. W. F. P. CHAPTER I THE ABORIGINES OF THE COUNTY. Forerunners Everywhere — The Mound-Builders — The Great Mottnd — Serpent-Worship — The Iro- ijiiois Indians — Where They Game from — The Different Nations — The Great Confederacy — ■ Hiawatha and the Constitution of the League — Ferocity of the Iroquois — Their Career of De- vastation — Smallness of Their Number — Their System of Consanguinity — Lewis H. Morgan's Discoveries — Inheritance in the Female Line — Tlie Status of Wom,en — Iroquois Names of Places — Their Religion — Reformation under Handsome Lake. THE MOUND BUILDERS. Of no country, of no locality in the world, can it be said with any degree of confidence who were the first human inhabitants. As the Israelites wandered from place to place they always found that some one had been there before them, in some cases with an advanced civilization that could have been the result only of ages of slow development; when the Aryan races pushed out from the an- cestral fields of Ccntriil Asia and spread over the plains of India they forced their pre-historic pre- decessors out of the way; when another sectiou passed over into Greece the Pelasgians were al- ready the ancient inhabitants; when others of the same family penetrated into Italy there were the Etruscans and many other well-settled national- ities, and when, in more recent times, the Romans undertook the subjugation of the western world they encountered populous communities with di- vergent languages that have been found, almost in our own day, to be cognate with their own. No- where was there solitude; that came after the conquest, not before. In every case the earliest known occupnnls of a region had some traditions, more or less vague, of a race that had been there previously in some remote period. Of these legends of prior occupation this con- tinent, this country and this state form as good an example as any other portion of the world. For a long time after the discovery of Columbus and the belated settlement, more than a century later, of the northern part of the mainland, it was gener- ally supposed that the American Indians were the only as well as the immediate predecessors of the Caucasians. But of late years the belief has become general, so much so as to have become practically a conviction, that the red men were not the real aborigines but that long before them, perhaps so long before that they did not come into physical contact with them, was a race that we call by the general name of the mound-builders, from the pe- culiar elevations, in many cases quite symmetrical, that are found in different parts of the country and that bear no resemblance to what we know of any habitations or any other structures designed by the Indians. No intimation whatever has come ■ down to us regarding the habits,, the language, the social organization of these people, and the only suggestion regarding their religion lies in tha shape of many, though not all, of these mounds, which extend in-egularly and at wide intervals through the Ohio valley, along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, reaching out to the Pacific ocean HISTORY OP EOCHBSTEIl AND MONEOB COUNTY. and dotting the shore of the gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida. By I'av the most noteworthy oC tliesc, l)otli fioia its size ivnd from the cxccDciit pvosorviidon ol' its outlines, is in Adams county, Ohio, upon an ele- vated plateau formed by the confluence of three small streams. Upon this ridge, conspicuous from a great distance, is distinctly traced the figure of a huge serpent, not in a straight line but with many graceful coils, and in front of its distended jaws is an oval which may be taken to represent an egg, possibly as showing the supposed manner of reproduction and perpetuation of the species The entire length of the monster, following its sin- uosities, is about a quarter of a mile, and more than a third as much in an air line from end to end; its greatest width is twenty feet; its ut- most height six feet. It was only sixty years ago that this remarkable creation was discovered and, as scientific interest and idle curiosity in the mat- ter steadily increased, the danger of its gradual destruction became evident, to guard against which catastrophe the whole bluff and many acres sur- rounding it were purchased for the Peabody mu- seum of Cambridge, lyj^assachusetts, transferred hy that body to Harvard university and finally turned over to the Ohio State Archeological and Histor- ical society, the last conveyance providing for the perpetual care and maintenance of the property. This great relic of the past and lesser structures of a similar character also were undoubtedly connect- ed with the prevailing religion of the people who constructed them, and they go to show in a most interesting manner the kinship of the world, for serpent worship, if not the first form of religion, was at least the second, coming immediately aftei tree worship, which it seems to have soon supplant- ed everyTvhere. Traces of it are found in all lands, and even after it had disappeared as a formal cult it continued to affect the later creeds, so that it ap- pears in the sacred books of the Hindoos, all my- thology is affected by it and . the most ancient sculpture preserves its memory. The eastern states do not contain any sure evi- dences of the mound-builders, although here and there in New York state are to be seen mounds which may be the work of nature or which may have been formed by the hand of man. There are a few of these in Monroe county, most of them in the neighborhood of Irondequoit creek, but even if they are artificial there is nothing so distinctive about them as to preclude the possibility of their having been raised by our Indians within historic times for some unknown purpose. The only thing that would seem to point to a more remote origin is the occasional disclosure in these mounds, even at the present day, of tobacco-pipes (one of which is now in the possession of the Rochester Historical society) that are more elaborately formed, more highly polished than those dispensers of comfort with which we are familiar as the known produc- tions of our immediate predecessors. But thjs does not count for much, and may easily be offset by the supposition that artistic skill had become less prized than the development of warlike in- dustry. So that, as far as we know, and probably ever can know, the Seneca nation of the Iroquois confederacy were the first people who inhabited this region. THE IROQUOIS. The absence of anything like written records renders it impossible to even guess as to the time of the Indian settlement, and their earliest tradi- tions gave no clue to that. They were not interest- ed in statistics, and their legends related only to spectacular events. One of these stories was to the effect that those who were here before them — for, of course, like all other nations, they had tales to tell of the real or imaginary people who preceded them — were all devoured by a great serpent that dwelt near Canandaigua lake. This introduction of the serpent is very interesting, for that reptile plays no part in the religion of the Iroquois, ;-o that it would seem that the myth could not have originated among them. At any rate, when those people, whoever they were, had all disappeared down the throat of their revengeful deity, the Sen- ecas entered and took possession of the desolate land, not springing up out of the ground, as might be supposed, but issuing in a body from the side of some unknown mountain, which obligingly opened for that purpose. Their real advent was probably not very long ago. When Jacques Cartier made his voyage of discovery up the St. Lawrence river, in 1535, he found at Hoehelaga, which is now Montreal, a populous and thriving village, the inhabitants of which spoke the Iroquois language. When, in 1—1 o o M hH W O P 5 W EH IIISTOEY OF KOCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 11 the earJy part of the next century, Champlain penetrated that region, the Iroquois' village and iti: people had disappeared, and in its place were a few scattered dwellings of much ruder construction, filled with red men much lower in savagery, who spoke an Algonquian language known as the Adi- rondack. These people had pushed the former settlers out of tlieir abodes und occupied their places until they were in turn displaced by the Hurons, who spread over Canada and formed a close alliance with the Adirondacks and other Al- gonquin tribes in fighting their common enemj', which had become, from their point of view, a world power, certainly the great conquering power of the western world. These Iroquois, in their forced migration in the middle of the six- teenth century, probably went up the St. Law- rence and crossed Lake Ontario to the mouth of the Oswego river. They found there many of their own kindred, who like themselves were of the populous Dakota stock from the western plains and who had gone through a similar experience in Canada long before, for the white men, in their first intercourse with them,- found a well settled tradition among them that their ancestors had once lived on the St. Lawrence in the neighborhood of Montreal, and that could hardly have applied to so ro(«nt an occurrence as the exodus after Jacques. Carlier visited thcni. Even before this new influx a great expansion of the community had taken place; they had broken up into three distinct nations or tribes, the On- ondagas, the Mohawks and the Senecas. The first- named, who might be considered the parent stock, remained in the central portion of what is now New York state, the Mohawks went to the east and the Senecas spread over the western part, as far as the Niagara river. A little later the Onon- dagas threw off another section of the community, which became the Cayugas, who settled near the lake whose name they adopted as their own, while from the Mohawks the Oneidas became detached and occupied the region between them and the On- ondagas. The name Iroquois has been used in speaking of these people, but it must not be sup- posed that is the name by which they called them- selves. It is simply the name by which the French designated them and it has been the one gener- ally employed of late years on account of its euphony. It is supposed to be derived from the Indian word "hiro," equivalent to "dixi," "I have spoken," a term with which they were wont to close their long discourses in council. The English set- tlers always spoke of them as the Five Nations, until after the Tuscaroras had come up from North Carolina in 1715 and, having proven their kin- ship by the similarity of language, had been ad- milted into the national society und had been wedged in between the Mohawks and the Oneidas, having lands assigned to them from the territory of the latter tribe, so that from that time they were known as the Six Nations and -were always called so in any treaties between them and the Englisn. Their own name for themselves was Ho-de-no-saii- nee, meaning "children of the long house." THE GREAT CONFEDEEACY. This appellation brings us to the consideration of the formation of this great confederacy, to- gether with the constitution, oral of course but just as definite, just as binding, as though it had been written and printed, which bound togeth9r the component parts and welded them into one nationality. This instrument or compact is one of the most remarkable ever produced by the human race, and it is the more wonderful that it was the work, not, like the constitution of the United States, of the assembled wisdom of a number o.f men who had the advantage of previous legisla- tion, but of one man, who thought it all out and gave it to his people. Some time, perhaps less than half a century, before Columbus came to this part of the world, there arose among the Iroquois* — probably among the Onondagas, though that is uncertain — a consummate statesman named Ha- yo-went-ha, or Hiawatha, as Longfellow has fixed it and immortalized it, though the poet has for some reason placed his hero among the Ojibways, an entirely different stock, with which the Iro- quois had no kinship whatever. Perceiving that the weakness of his people lay in their being brok- en up/ into tribes or nations, often indifferent if not unfriendly toward each other, Hiawatha con- ceived the idea of binding them together in a per- manent league,' which should make them as far as possible one nation, as they were originally. It was both a civil and a military union, preserving the integrity of each tribe, limiting the local territory of each and specifying the number of sachems that 13 HISTORY OP ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. each should have at the great council held in the "long house," whence the national name was de- rived. This council or congress, as we should call it, was held, naturally, about the center of the line, at a spot near the present city of Syracuse, and occasionally, even at the present day, it comes together, the fire is lighted, and the delegates sit around it, the mere ghosts of their predecessors, shorn of all power, with no ability to do anything but talk and even that with less effectiveness than might be possessed by the members of a city cau- cus or a town meeting. There were to be fifty sachems, of whoni fourteen were allotted to the Onondagas, as being the most populous tribe, ten to the Cayugas, nine each to the Mohawks and the Oneidas, eight to the Senecas. When the Tuscar- oras joined the confederacy no place was given to them in the council, because the constitution was unchangeable and the veneration for its in- spired author would not permit the alteration of a single clause. HIAWATHA AT THE OOUNOIL. At the head of this gathering sat Hiawatha, with his chief counsellor — or secretary of state, as we might call him — at his right hand. When Hiawa- tha's time for departure from this earth had come he went out on the bosom of tlie lake in a canoe, whereupon a large white bird, descending from the sky, carried him and his boat into tlie ujiper re- gions of the air, so that he was seen no more. His adviser died soon afterward, but the vacancies thus • left in the council were never filled. There have always been, since that day, fifty places about the fire, but only forty-eight of them have ever been occupied by living men; in the other two are the invisible spirits, present though unseen. When it was desired to hold a council to determine some important question, which was almost Jilways that of war or peace, runners were despatched from one end of the line to the other, who ran with almost incredible swiftness until they sank exhausted, when the message was taken up and carried on by others, like the fiery cross in the Scottish high- lands. Any one of the fifty could veto any propo- sition; but there was little danger or hope of that right being exerted pertinaciously, for each tribe voted as a unit and anyone who attempted to stand out against the opinion of his colleagues would be sure to get into very serious trouble, either then or after he returned to his wigwam. The sachems wore different from tbe war cliiefs; one wlio held oitlior office could not possibly hold the otlicr Thus, to. instance some persons of distinction, Joseph Brant, the Mohawk, and Red Jacket, the Seneca, were war chiefs but not sachems, while Ely S. Parker, who resided in Rochester for some time, was a sachem but not a chief. The chiefs had control only over the members of their own respective tribes, but in addition to them there were two principal war chiefs whose command em- braced the whole confederacy, and these were al- ways chosen from among the. Senecas, the "keep- ers of the western door of the long house," as that was the side on which was thought to be the only danger of attack. CONQUESTS OF THE IROQUOIS. This was the famous League of the Iroquois, without which, or something of a similar nature, that confederation of tribes would never have be- come tlie irresistible force ilint terrorized the great- er portion of what are now the United States and Canada. Other Indians were just as ferocious, perhaps just as courageous, but no others had that peculiar combination of bravery, of endurance, of duplicity and of cruelty that enabled them to sub- due and to overawe all with whom they came in contact. The defense of their own territory against invasion occupied but little of their thought and time in more recent years, for long before that they had so completely intimidated their neighbors that they had small dread of at- tack. Their ancient enemies, the Algonquins, b.v whom they were surrounded on the south and thy east — for that family embraced the Powhatan tribes of Virginia, as well as the Pequots, the Narragansetts and other tribes of New England — had yielded complete submission to them, so that the Mohawk heralds had only to cross the Hudson river to receive the tribute that was always cheer- fully paid. Their hatred against the Hurons, though of their own lineage, seems to have been more intense than that toward any other tribe, and by frequent incursions into Canada, generally crossing the lake where it narrowed into the St. Lawrence, they practically destroyed the nation- ality of that unfortunate people. HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 13 Oftentimes their very appearance would fill their foGS with such consternation that a sanguinary conflict was not necessary, as was the case with the Delawares, who were so easily reduced to subjec- tion that petticoats were placed upon them to show that they were nothing but women. The wars in which tlie Iroquois were so incessantly en- gaged were not wars of conquest any more than of defense, for they wisely abstained from any ex- tension of their territory except as they made a few settlements in Canada on the shore of Lake On- tario and in Ohio on that of Lake Erie, but the.^e were intended as outlying posts, to guard the frontier, rather than as any addition to their do- main. They were inspired by a tliirst for blood, a love of slaughter for its own sake, and when they had been seized with this insensate fury they would start out upon their devastating course, to which all obstacles would be opposed in vain. It was noth- ing to thcni to rush westward to tlie lliesissippi, with such speed that there could be no possible precursor of tlicir approach, to attack the lowas and the Illinois with such force that those tribes were almost annihilated and to return homeward before any combination could be formed against them that should overwhelm them. South as well as west they would go; they struck the Cherokees upoti the 'IViiuiessee, the Calawbas in South Caro- lina, niul in every case tlic result would l)c the same; back they would coiuc willi long lines of reeking scalps about their necks and with trains of prisoners to be devoted to adoption, to slavery or to lingering death. This last was that in which they most delighted, for a fiendish cruelty was their predominant characteristic and their va^^t torture chamber extended through the length of the state. But not all of their captives went to the fire; many of them were adopted into the dif- ferent tribes, where they became at once full cit^ izens, and it is remarkable that in very few in- stances, practically none, did they waver in their fidelity to their new government, and in all sub- sequent forays they could be relied upon to be just as merciless in the assaults upon their real kin- dred as though they had never known them before. THE NUMBER OF TUB PEOPLE. This system of adoption, constantly practised and often on a large scale, was necessary to keep up the numbers of the Iroquois, for the natural in- crease of population would not have gone far to repair the losses caused by their incessant fighting and by the epidemics of disease that sometimes raged among them, so that without this artificial growth the nation would have become extinct long ago. Even with that the number of the Iroquois was always surprisingly, almost incredibly small, when one considers the widespread ruin that they wrought. The exact number is, of course, un- knowable, but it is extremely improbable that it ever amounted to as much as 30,000, and it often fell far below that.* This would give a force of not more than 3,000 capable of fighting, and of these it would not do to send more than half far away from home at any one time, for a consider- able number must be retained to guard the long line of wigwams with their female and juvenile occupants; otherwise some wily foe, knowing of their unprotected condition, would pounce down upon them and all would be lost. What they sent into the field was generally no more than what we should consider an advanced guard, and it is known that in that expedition in which they broke the power of the Illinois there were only six hun- dred warriors, as opposed to many times that num- ber of the western Indians. Their matchless du- plicity forestalled all preparations against them, the celerity of their movements anticipated sus- picion, and the impetuosity of their onset, usually at night, bore down all resistance. GENTILE RELATIONSHIP. Their unbroken succession of victories was rend- ered possible only by the cordial co-operation of •This estimate of their numbers is made upon careful com- parison of different authors. With the exception of that of La Hontan, the Frenchman, who lived among them at an early day and whose estimate of 70,000 is nothing but a wild guess, the highest number given is that by Morgan, who thinks that there were at one time 25,000, in which reckoning he is fol- lowed by Fiske, but without any consideration of the evidence. Morgan probably relied upon the information of his Indian friends, who would not hesitate to exaggerate and who cer- tainly were not exact. Greenhalgh, an Englishman, who trav- eled alone through this region in the seventeenth century, thought there were about 26,000, basing his calculation upon the number of tepees and fires that he saw at Totiakton (now Honeoyc Falls, in this county), but he destroys the value of this supposition by the explicit statement that there were only 2,160 warriors in the confederacy, of whom one thousand were Senecas. Bancroft thinks that there were 17,000 after the Tus- caroras joined the league. The lowest estimate is that of Sir William Johnson, the superintendent of Indian affairs for the British government, who calculated that there were 10,000 of them in 1763, which was probably rather low, though they had greatly declined in popul.ntion at that time. Parkman, who is the best authority of all, makes the number between 10,000 and 12,000, which computation he arrives at from the statcmenU in the New Vork Colonial Documents, edited by Dr. O'Callaghan, and Uic frct|ucnt assertions on the subject in the "Jesuit Rela- tions." 14 HISTORY OP ROCHESTER AND ]\[ONROE COUNTY. all the tribes, without regard to which one would be most benefited or which had received some provocation, real or imaginary. But that impreg- nable solidarity could not have existed were it not for the singular custom of gentile relationship which existed among them. Our distinguished townsman, the late Lewis H. Morgan, who became one of the most eminent ethnologists of his time, was interested at an early age in Indian matters and spent a great deal of his time among them, so that at last he became thoroughly versed in theiv history, their language and their mode of life. He noticed that there was a well recognized relation- ship among them that was not apparent from or- dinary observation, that those were considered brothers of each other, or brothers and sisterrf, where there was no kinship whatever from our point of view. Patient and persistent inquiry re- vealed the fact that this idea was not a whim and was not confined to any one tribe but that it was a sociological system extending through the whole confederacy, so that these lines of imaginary rela- tionship stretched transversely across the tribal lines. For instance, there was the clan (or, as Morgan preferred to call it, the gens) of the Wolf, that of the Bear and that of the Turtle, which were found in every tribe ; that of the Beaver and that of the Snipe, which were in four tribes; that of the Deer and that of the Eel, which were in three tribes; of the HaAvk, in two tribes, of the Heron and of the Ball, in one tribe each. No per- son could by any possibility marry or mate with one of the same gensj if it were attempted deat.'i was meted out at once to the offending couple. Thus, while those not thus related could freely in- termarry in the same tribe as well as in different tribes, a Seneca Bear, for instance, could not mar- ry a Mohawk Bear from the other end of the line, hundreds of miles away, even though the ancestors, near and remote, of the one had never seen those of the other. They were brother and sister be- cause they were Bears ; that was enough. This law of consanguinity welded the confederation to- gether as nothing else could have done, for it made it impossible for one tribe to war against another, since in that case brother would have had to fight against brother. It might be supposed that this gentile subdivision was made after the division in- to tribes; on the contrary, it long antedated that. The theory was that all the members of any one gens were descended from a common ancestor, who lived in the distant past, but whether it was really believed that that progenitor was the beast or bird whose name was thus perpetuated, or whether the appellation was recognized as only symbolic, was never clearly made out, for the Indians were al- ways reticent on that point. This remarkable system, so foreign to all our ideas, was thoroughly elaborated and brought out by Morgan in his cel- ebrated work entitled "The League of the Iro- quois," which at once excited the greatest interest among the educated people of the world. FEMALE INHERITANCE. Another point that Morgan brought out in that book was that inheritance Avas in the female line. The Iroquois were not the first pedple to adopt that rule; semi-civilized nations, like the Turks, have always recognized the fact that paternity was a matter of belief, while maternity was a matter of certainty, and it remained for civilized races to assume that parentage on one side was as well settled as that on the other. But the Iroquois car- ried the principle to its very furthest conceivable limit. A man was not only the son of his mother and not of his father, but on that very account he belonged to the gens of his mother, not to that of his father. This led to the strangest conclusions. For instance, all the sachemships in the council were hereditary, but that very nile, so far from caiising a son to succeed his father, made it im- possible for him to do so. Inheritance was un- derstood to be gentile, not personal, in its natur^i, and it was only necessary that the new sachem should belong to the same gens with the deceased. While he could never succeed his father he might easily follow his grandfather, for the son (as we should consider him), belonging, as he did, to the gens of his mother, say that of the Heron, might marry into the gens of the Bear, to which his father belonged, so that the person of the third generation would be a Bear and might without dif- ficulty step into the office of his grandfather on the mother's side. That frequently happened. A more amusing illustration of the workings of the system was in the matter of adoption into the tribe. In the case of captives it would usually be the females who would adopt the male prisoners, but in some instances it might be that a man. HISTOKY OP EOCIIESTBR AND MONROE COUNTY. 15 porliaps cliildisli liimsclf, wished to become a putative father, but it would not be into his gens that the new citissea would enter. After Morgan had ^I'on the confidence and esteem of the Senecas, Jim- my Johnson, a chief, the grandson of Red Jacket, wished to adopt him, and so, at a grand council of the confederacy, held in the "long house" in 1847, the white man was with much ceremony received into the tribe and became a Hawk, because that was the gens of Johnson's squaw, while Johnson himself was a Wolf. To the new-comer was given ian appropriate Indian name signiiying "one lying across," indicating that he would be the means of communication between the two races, an expecta- tion which he well fulfilled in later years. CONDITION OF WOMEN. The status of women among the Iroquois was peculiar. In some ways they had more power than the men. Being considcvQd the sole parents of the family, so that all their property passed ac death to the children, while the belongings of the father all went to his gentile kindred, the mothers were the ones who naturally had to do with what little training of the young there was and they ex- erted through life a preponderating influence over their offspring. They possessed the elective fran- chise and voted on equal terms with the men for sachems and war chiefs. But their supreme power lay in the disposition of prisoners. There their will was absolute, and they meted out death oi* slavery or adoption according to their arbitrary caprice. In neighboring tribes the same rule prevailed, and one instance will serve to show the extent to which that power could be carried. Ths . Eries, who dwelt near the lake of their name, had in some way taken prisoner a young chief of the Onondagas, and it was determined that he should be held nt the disposal of a girl of his own age who had recently lost a brother. No one doubted that she would adopt him, which was usual in such cases, but when she returned from a tempor- ary absence she insisted that he should be put to death; the Iroquois had killed her brother, now let one of that nation pay for it with his life. In vain did the old chiefs, who foresaw the doom that was impending, entreat her to forego her pur- pose ; nothing but blood and torture could appease her thirst for revenge. Rele^+less custom held its course, the victim was slowly burned to death, and a few weeks later the blow fell, when the infuriat- ed Iroquois hurled themselves upon the Eries and exterminated the whole nation, men, women and children. As an offset to all that authority the women were constantly subjected to the most brut- al treatment on the part of their husbands, who were their masters^ the lords of life and death. All the hard work except the fighting was done by them, they were liable to be abandoned without warning, to be beaten unmercifully s i- ment, even to be killed in a fit of pa r which suitable gifts could be made t tions of the murdered woman and that would end the matter. IROQUOIS NOMENCLATUEB. The Indian names of places so thickly scattered over this county and elsewhere in the state have excited much interest and one naturally asks as to the meaning to each term, it being assumed, cor- rectly enough, that each nailie has a distinct sig- nification and is not arbitrary, as with us. But the trouble is that the name, while usually descriptive, is only vaguely so and might apply to a great number of localities or features of the landscape with equal propriety. It was unquestionably often used in that indiscriminate way, but the confusion that might result from the frequent repetition of names has been avoided by the fact that the same word would be differently pronounced by different tribes, and the Dutch, in the eastern part, would reproduce those various sounds in their own way, while the French would understand them in a dif- ferent way and the English in still another, and again, if, as frequently happened, the English re- ceived them through the medium of one of the other European languages, they would be per- verted from that form and a further variety would be created, and all out of one original word. The name of our river, which means, in a general way, "a beautiful open valley," has been spelled in many different styles, from Chin-u-shio, wliich is its proper form, to Genesee. This applied only to the upper part of the stream, above the rapids ; from there down to its mouth it was called Cas- conchiagon, to which several different meanings have been attached, of which Morgan's* "under *My friend Howard L. Osgood, who is well versed in Indian antiquities, contributes the following note, indicating that the IG HISTOEY OP EOCHESTER AND MONEOE COUNTY. the falls" is as good as any. No one name has had so many conformations as that of the bay near the mouth of the river. The late George H. Harris found thirty-one varieties, all of which he gave several years ago. The most cacophonous of the^a is Gerundegut, which was quite commonly used even within the lifetime of the present writer, but which has happily given way entirely to Irondequoit, the best though by no means the oldest of the shapes. The name used by themselves for the tribe that occupied this region was never employed by tha w^hites. The earliest appearance of our word is on a Dutch map of 1614, where it is printed Sennecas. For some reason the English generally altered that to Sinnekees, but for the last hundred year§ it has had its present form of Senecas. The ancient word Tsonnontouans was commonly ap- plied to them by the French, and by no others. Our great lake was mentioned by the pioneer Fa- ther Hennepin more than two centuries ago as Ontario, though he says that it was also "called in the Iroquois language Skanadario (evidently the same word), meaning 'a very pretty lake.'" The English frequently in official documents, like treaties, called it Cadaracqui, but after the Eevo- lution the name went back to the beautiful form of the missionary. THEIR HOUSES AND THEIK ROADS. Although the Senecas became the most popu- lous of all the tribes there were never more than a few thousand of them, so that they had not many villages. There was only one in what is now Monroe county, and that, which was the second in size, was called Totiakton, being on the site of the present Honeoye Falls. Like other villages, it consisted of a number of houses one story in height, made of upright poles with others fastened to them transversely by means of withes, the whole structure, sides and roof, being covered with bark, fastened by strings or splints. These name was applied also to the land in the vicinity of the falls: "La Salle and two companions were the first white men to navigate the south shore of Lake Ontario. In 1669 they found the lower Genesee designated Gaskounchiakons. As with nearly all Indian names, this word specified a peculiarity of the place whereby a traveler could recognize it. Pou'chot, one hundred years later, calls the locality 'Casconchacon, Les Trois Chautes.' The Senecas still give the same name to Rochester. John Maude relates in 1800 that he went behind the sheet of falling water of the highest Genesee fall. Early residents said that the river could nearly be crossed _ behind the lower fall. Gaskonsagon (with French pronunciation) means 'where one can go behind the waterfall.' " dwellings, the forerunners of our modern apart- ment houses, contained several families, each of which occupied only one room, no matter how many members there might be. Between the two rows of these rooms or bunking-places ran a pass- age-way in which fires for warmth and for cook- ing by were kept burning, usually one fire for four families, the smoke escaping through holes in the roof. The nearest approach to a census would 03 by counting the number of fires and computing accordingly; in that way Greenhalgh, the traveler, estimated, in 1677, that the population of Totiak- ton was a little over a thousand. Among the Eomans a public road was always in a straight line, among the Iroquois always in a crooked line. The trail was never more than fifteen inches wide, often only a foot. Any nat- ural obstacle, like a tree, a rock or a stream, would cause it to diverge, while any large open space would completely divert the course, the tangles of the forest being better than exposure. The main trail of the confederacy was from Black Rock, on the Niagara river, to a point on the Hudson a little below Albany, crossing the Genesee near Avon, so that it did not .enter Monroe county at all. This path, which was the principal line of communication for the successors of the Iroquois till it was paralleled by canal and railroad, is stiil traveled and is known as the "old state road." There were many subordinate trails in this imme- diate vicinity, most of them leading to the river. One line came from the east over what is now the Pittsford road, one branch reaching tlie river at the foot of the Ridge road and another being perpet- uated by East avenue and Franklin street. An- other trail went from the ford of the river near Elmwood avenue, over M't. Hope, where its mem- ■ ory, is preserved by the name of Indian Trail ave- nue.* On the west side a much-traveled path came to the river by the way of Scottsville and Chili, reaching the stream in the Genesee Valley park, and another came down through Plymouth avenue to arrive at the spring back of where the First Presbyterian church now stands, the natural fountain giving its name to the street till the present day. •Some authorities maintain that this is only a myth, invented to account for the name of that path, holding that the portage must have been by way of Highland avenue,, after leaving Elmwood, and so down to Irondequoit creek, the reason given for that theory being that the Indians never went over a hill if they could find level groutid to take them to their destina- tion, no matter liow ci'— vtous might be the route. ,4«?i*fer'^' Wr- THE LO\Vl<:il FAJ.I.S OF THE GEiNESEE. HISTOEY OP ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 19 THEIR RELIGION. The religion of the Iroquois was primitive and yet more elaborate than might be expected. It was based on a fundamental belief in the immor- tality of the soul, with future rewards and pun- ishments. It was extremely polytheistic, for they had deities for all the forces of nature and for the various products of the earth, a spirit of tobacco, a spirit of the maize and a spirit of the squash. Over all these was the mighty Manitou, to whom they looked up in awe and fear and hope for all the blessings that might come upon them. These they endeavored to obtain by ceremonial observ- ances, by prolonged feasts and sometimes by sol- emn sacrifices, more notably that of a white dog, the last of which rituals among the Senecas took place in Rochester in 1813 on the elevation of ground at the corner of Caledonia avenue and Troup street. On all these occasions the dance formed a prominent feature in the ceremony. Tt was never rapid, usually very slow and always rhythmic in its movement. It had nothing joyous about it, for it was purely a religious ceremony anil never in tlie nature of recreation, their pastimes consisting of ball games, the game of javelins the game of deer buttons and the peach stone game, to all of which they were much addicted. They had a certain code of morality, but they had many vices and after they had acquired the love of drink- ing their degradation was very deep. This habit threatened their utter ruin, from which they were saved by a remarkable reforma- tion or revival that spread among them, at least among the Senecas, about 1800. In that year there arose among them a prophet, named Qa-ne-o-di-yo, or Handsome Lake, a sachem of great influence and of wonderful oratorical power. He preached of righteousness and of .judgment to come, de- nouncing their wickedness, urging upon them the practice of what we call the golden rule and ex- horting them above all things to abstain entirely from the use of liquor. This teaching was pro- ductive of the highest good, then and for long afterward, so that, while the hopes of the great re- former were never fully realized, his people are better to-day for his having lived among them. CHAPTER II THE WHITE MEN COME IN. The Early Explorers — Jacques Cartier, Ohamplain and LaSalle — The Jesuit Missionaries— Inva- sion by Denonville — The English Get Control- Sullivan's Campaign — Burial of Patriotic Re- mains — Phelps and Gorham's Purchase from Massachusetts — And from the Indians — Sale to the Holland Land Company — Claim of the Og- den Land Company — Present Condition of the Senecas. THE EXPLORERS. We have seen, in the preceding pages, that the first contact of the Iroquois with the white men may have heen when Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1535 and met them at what is now called Montreal, then Hochelaga. That is how- ever, only a matter of probability ; what is a matter of certainty is that if that was the first meeting of the races the next contact was far less friendly. Seventy-four years later, Samuel de Cham- plain, who had come over to be the founder of Canada, fearing, rightly enough, that his little colony at Quebec would be menaced by his warlike neighbors on this side of the lake, gathered to- gether a considerable body of Hurons and Algon- quins and crossed into New York. The Mohawks met the invaders with determined courage, on the shore of the lake which still bears the name of the Canadian governor. The conflict was not long in doubt and our Indians had to retreat, not van- quished by their savage foes of their own color, but terrified by the explosive weapons of the white men, the destructive effect of which they then ex- perienced for the first time. Although the victory Avas with the French they had reason to regret it in later years, for it engendered a feeling of vin- dictive animosity in the hearts of the Mohawks through succeeding generations. Champlain's in- terpreter was Etienne Brule, who seems to have been a natural explorer, for after this battle he made his way alone down the Susquehanna river from its source to its mouth. On his return he was held as a prisoner by the Iroquois for two years but finally got away from them and made his way into Canada. It is extremely probable that he passed through this region, as that lay directly in his way, and, if so, he was the first white man who ever set foot within the limits of Monroe county. A more agreeable visit was that of another Frenchman, in 1669, when Eobert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, landed at Irondequoit bay. He, too, was bound on a peaceful and fascinating mission of exploration, for he was determined to find a way to China by journeying in the direction of the setting sun. He was detained in this neighborhood for a month by the lack of guides and it would hav6 been as well if he had not had them at all, for his expedition ended disastrously. Nine years later he tried it again, and though he never found the Celestial empire he opened up to the world the great West before he laid down his life in the dis- tant South. On that second visit here he was ac- compained by Father Hennepin, that acute ob- server who gave us the first description of Niagara falls ever written. HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 21 THE MISSIONARIES. Between these two explorers, Brule and La Salle, the soldiers of the cross had penetrated to this portion of the state. The Franciscan and RecoUet friars had been a little west of here in the early part of the century, but they were peri- patetic and made no settled location. It was in 1656 that the Jesuits established a mission among the Onondagas, and a few months later they plant- ed a sub-station among the Senecas in Ontario county. At the head of this was Father Chau- monot, a devoted priest of great oratorical powers, who traversed this section, coming undoubtedly in- to tliis imuiediate region, for he met with much success wherever he went. While many of the Indians felt the utmost good will toward the strangers, others were so bitter agaiust them that a conspiracy was formed for the simultaneous massacre of all of them, in consequence of which they were suddenly recalled to Canada and were fortunate in escaping with their lives. For the next ten years, as there was iacessant warfare during that time, there were no more of the evangelists, but in 1668 Father Fremin, the superior of the Jesuits, came here and established a mission at what he called Tsonnontouan, though whether he meant that appellation to apply to some particular village, like Totiakton, or to the whole country of the Senecas, as the name was often used by the French, is uncertain. He was much beloved and of great influence, for, during his year's stay, he baptized one hundred and twenty converts, mostly adults, besides strengthening the faith of the numerous Huron captives, who had been previously converted in Canada. Before he left he summoned to his assistance Father Gamier who after the departure of his superior was left in charge of the four Seneca villages, including, besides Totiakton, one where Lima and one where East Bloomfield are now located. Father RafEeix and Father Pierron also came, the former re- maining for ten years, alter which Father flaruicr remained alone till 1684, when he was recalled and the sheep were again left without a shepherd. The last one may be called emphatically the missionary to the Senecas, while Father Raffeix belongs more pecu]iai-]y to M(mroe county, as lie was stalioaed at Toliaktou, now Iloneoyc Falls. Soon after that the colonial legislature at Albany passed a law ex- cluding Catholic priests from the state, and in 1708 the last of the missionaries of that faith de- parted. For our knowledge of their labors, of their patient endurance and of the heroic death of many of them, as well as for a thousand valuable details of the life and customs of the Indians, botli in this state and in Canada, we are indebted to the "Jesuit Relations," a series of voluminous re- ports, written and sent over, during a period of sixty years, to the general of the society in Eu- rope and fully translated into English only a few years ago. denonville's expedition. We have noted the deep resentment inspired among the Iroquois by Champlain's victory over them in 1609, and this was reinforced by the grow- ing conviction that in the struggle for supremacy over the northern part of this continent, which was constantly going on between France and Eng- land, the latter would eventually succeed. Self- interest prompted their inelinations, with the re- sult that there was always hostility, with mutual invasions of territory, between the powers on dif- ferent sides of the St. Lawrence and Lake On- tario. De le Barre, one of the governors of Can- ada, had made a somewhat humiliating peace with the Iroquois, and with a view to retrieve that dis- grace, as well as to provide security for the fu- ture, his successor, the Marquis de Denonville,* in vaded the Seneca country in 1687. For that pur- pose he collected a force of nearly three thousand men, most of them being Canadian militia, with more than eight hundred French regulars, together with a large number of redskins — Huron, Al- gonquin, Ottawa, Sioux and Illinois — and som^ two hundred coureurs des hois ("runners of the woods"), French by birth, but Indian in their habits, their dress, their independence of all au- thority, and really the most efective fighters in a campaign of this sort. Landing at Irondequoit bay on the 10th of July, Denonville erected some palisades to protect a small rear guard with the boats and army supplies. •This name has been so often given incorrectly by American authors, who have persisted in calling it De NonviUe, that the present writer feels justified in directing attention to its true form, which is as given above and as used by Parkman, one of the few who have had it right. ^ In the archives still preserved in Paris the governor alWays sigrts his name in that manner, and Louis XIV. invariably addresses him as Monsieur de De- nonville or Marquis de Denonville. 22 HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. Pushing on into the interior, he found only sol- itude.' which ought to liave warned him though i1^ did not, and when ho had got to what is now Bough ton's Hill, noar the village of Victor, On- tario county, the army fell into an ambush of three hundred Senecas. The blood-curdling yells of the savages threw the European veterans into a paniC; and it was mainly the courage of the Hurons in resisting the attack that prevented a disastrous rout. The Senecas were finally driven back, car- rying their wounded and many of their dead, aftei which Denonville spent ten days in killing the animals and destroying the growing crops of the Indians; then he read aloud at Totiakton a proc- lamation by which he took possession of the whole country in the name of Prance, and after that per- formance he went back to Canada the way he came. The losses of the two sides, by death, were about equal, but to avenge the insult the Iroquois crossed the lake a year later, slaughtered a thousand of the French and brought the whole colony to the very brink of ruin. THE BRITISH SUPREMAOT. For some time the English colonial governors were content with assuming, though not exercising, jurisdiction as far west as Irondequoit bay. On the west side of that inlet the French had erected a structure which they called Fort des Sables (Fort of the Sands), a name still borne in part by the sand-bar of the present day. It was little more than a trading-post, for the reception of goods on the one side and furs on the other, for it was occupied, in the winter season at least, by only two soldiers and a trader. It was the name, rather than tlie thing itself, that excited resent- ment among the English authorities, by whom n message was sent to the French fort a.t Niagara, protesting against encroachments on the lands of the Senecas, who were then considered as being under British protection. Little attention wa^: paid to this, and things went on as before. As an offset to this building a fort was erected on the east side of Irondequoit creek, which was occu- pied for a time by Captain Peter Schuyler and a company of volunteers. "Various inter-racial coun- cils were held at Albany, with treaties drawn up and signed by many Indians of the three western- most tribes, but they were bo vague in their terms as to be of little value. The only one worth any- thing was the latest, in 1741, signed by three Sen- oca snchoms, by which, in consideration of the payment of one hundred pounds, a grant of land was conveyed to King George the Second, begin- ning six miles east of "Tierondequat," running thirty miles along the lake shore and then extend- ing thirty miles inland, so that it included the greater part of what is now Monroe county. Shortly after this began the Seven Years' war— - the Old French war, as we denominate that part of it which was fought in this country — and in July, 1759, an army passed this way, comprising British troops, New York militia and IroquoiS; nearly four thousand in all, under the command of General Prideaux. Having encamped one night at Irondequoit and another at Braddock's bay* they proceeded on their way to Fort Niagara. They soon reduced that little stronghold of the French and on their return march, this time under the command of Sir William Johnson, in place of their foi-mer leader, who had fallen in the siege, they brought with them six hundred prisoners, among whom was Captain Pouchot, the command- er of the fort, who, after he got back to his native land, wrote out his reminiscences of the war, to- gether with quite a full account of this immediate region, in which the topographical features are described very accurately. His narrative is illus- trated with several maps, and the translation of it, made in 186G, is further embellished with two en- gravings of the Genesee falls, executed after draw- ings made on the spot by Captain Davies, of the English regiment of artillery, who was on that march. Those are the earliest representations that we have of our cataracts, and they show that con- siderable change must have taken place in the natural features of the landscape since the draw- ings were made. Pouchot follows quite closely the nomenclature of Father Charlevoix, who came along here in 1731, not as a missionary, not ex- actly as an explorer, but as a traveler, and who in a series of most interesting letters describing his journeyings in North America gives us quite a full account of the Genesee river (the Cascon- *The difference between this name and tiiat of tlie general is so great ttiat they might not be supposed to be the same, which they are. The name of the commander was probably pronounced in some barbarous manner, and after it had been given to tlie body of water where his camp lay it was grad- ually transformed into its present shape, perhaps through some supposed connection with the unfortunate General Braddock. HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 23 diiiigou, 08 lio culls it) with it.s four talis, lUo last being at Portage. Charlevoix's is the earliest ac- count that we have of our watercourse, and it ii by no means the least valuable. Two months after Prideaux's expedition Quebec fell before the con- quering arms of Wolfe, by the treaty which fol- lowed the French abandoned all claims to sov- ereignty on this continent and the English suprem- acy was complete. Sullivan's campaign. Monroe county saw none of the warfare of the American Revolution, but it has close relations with one of the episodes in that great struggle. Strenuous eiforts were made by the English to in- duce the Iroquois to enter the war upon their side, and the arguments in favor of that course were strengthened by the ferocious disposition of the Mohawks, who saw an alluring opportunity to wash their hands in the blood of their white neighbors. The Senecas, at this end of the line, were but little less vindictive than the Mohawks, while the Oneidas, for some reason, were more in- clined to the colonists, and the other tribes were opposed to committing themselves to either party. The result was that, at a great council held in the "long house," it was decided that the con- federacy, as such, should not enter the war, but that any of the tribes, and even individuals, might' do as they pleased. Consequently the whole Mo- hawk nation took up the hatchet for the British, while the Senecas, though not so unanimous, put a much larger force into the field. The colonists sullered frightfully at the hands of the Mohawks, but it seomod impossible to make reprisals direct- ly against them, so it was determined by General Washington to chastise the western tribe. Being fully authorized by Congress to undertake this he dispatched General John Sullivan in the summer of 1779 with the following instructions: "The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of the settlements and the capture of as many prisoners, of every age and sex, as pos- sible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent them planting more. Parties should be detached to lay waste all the snttlomnnts, with instructions to do it in the most olTcetual manner, that the country bo not merely overrun but destroyed." To carry out these wliolcsonio directions Sul- livan advanced up the Chemung river with an army of about four thousand men. At Newton, near the present city of Elmira, he encountered a small force composed of Indians, British regu- lars and loyalists, but they were easily dispersed with small loss on eitlier side. After this engage- ment, which was the only encounter aproaching to a battle during the campaign, Sullivan kept on and carried out his instructions by destroying hun- dreds of acres of corn, beans and potatoes, and a prodigious number of fruit trees, besides obliterat- ing forty-one villages, which doubtless consisted of but a few houses each. Reaching the Geneses river and fording it at Ijittle Beard's Town, now Cuylerville, in Livingston county, Sullivan came to a halt and dispatched Captain Thomas Boyd with a detachment of twenty-six men, besides an Oneida named Hanyerry, who acted as guide, to serve as a scouting party and discover whether or not there was any force of Indians in the vicinity. Boyd fell into an ambush and was taken prisoner, together with a sergeant named Michael Parker, the rest being killed at once, except four who es- caped. After a vain attempt to extort informa- tion from the captives Parker was beheaded, while Boyd was subjected to the most inhuman tortures till death relieved him. After this tragedy Sulli- van took his homeward way, his work accom- plished, but with little permanent good result- ing from it, for but very few of the Senecas had been killed and the tribe was practically as strong as ever, in spite of all the misery inflicted upon it. The bodies of Boyd and his men, having been buried where they fell, remained there till ISil wlicn they were' disinterred,, the bones of Boyd and Parker being placed in a white urn, while those of the others were deposited in a large box. The next day, August 31st, the remains were brought to Rochester with much pomp and cere- mony and the two receptacles were placed on an eminence in Mt. Hope cemetery, which was called Patriot hill, or Revolutionary hill, for it was in- tended to devote it in perpetuity to those who had fallen for their country. The addresses at Cuylerville were made by Judge Samuel Treat and Major Moses Van Campen; the oration at Mr. Hope was delivered by William H. Seward, then governor of the state, who cnme on hero for the purpose. A few years later the um was over- 24 HISTOEY OF ROCHESTBE AN15 MONROE COUNTY. turned in a violent storm and the bones were scac- tered, after which .they were buried in the earth, together with the other remains. Unfortunately no one had the foresight to pro- vide a legal conveyance of this ground, and so it was that in 1864, when the Civil war was raging, and lots were scarce and the city felt too poor to buy any more land for the cemetery, the com- mon council, to its lasting disgrace, ordered the hill to be leveled, sold the lots to purchasers and removed the remains to the public burying-place. There they remained, unhonored, unmarked, for- gotten till a few years ago, when the Irondequoit chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution took up the matter. The bones were found, were fully identified and were conveyed to a lot in another part of the cemetery, which had been deeded by the commissioners for , the purpose. There, for what is undoubtedly the last time, they were laid in the ground on the 1st of November, 1903, in the midst of a large concourse, with an address by Rev. Murray Bartlett, of St. Paul's church, followed by the beautiful committal serv- ice of the Grand Army of the Republic, closing with three volleys from the Eighth Separate com- pany and the sounding of "taps" by the buglers. A granite boulder has recently been placed upon the spot, with a suitable inscription. THE PHELPS AND QORHAM PURCHASE. The Stuart family had many unpleasant characteristics, and among them was their utter indifference to their own promises or to the en- gagements of their predecessors. Jling James the First granted in 1606 to the London company and the Virginia company, two English corporations, about all the land on this continent between Can- ada and the Spanish possessions in the far south. To be sure, one grant overlapped the other by three degrees, but that did not seem to worry anybody. In 1620 James gave to the council in Plymouth. England, a grant of land "extending from sea to sea," taken directly out of the property belonging to the London company. The Plymouth council then gave a subgrant to the Mayflower people and another to the Boston colony. The Stuart kings ignored entirely the Mayflower colony, which for seventy years was practically independent, but Charles the First gave a charter to the Boston colony, calling it "the governor and company of the Massachusetts bay in New England." These charters were eventually superseded by that of William and Mary, in 1691, which united all the colonies of New England and New York under one government. Before that time Charles the Second had takesi a hand in the business. The Dutch had come over and settled New Amsterdam in 1614 without opposition on the part of the English government and, although there was a good deal of friction between them and tliuir Yankee neighbors aftjr the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut had been established, the right of Holland over this domain was never seriously questioned. The only uncertainty was as to how far west their claim reached, and that the Dutch never cared much about, as they were in this country mainly for trading purposes and did not intend to settle far away from the line of the Hudson river. Their influence, however, extended among all the Iro- quois nation and was recognized by the Indians. In 1664 Charles the Second gave to his brother, then duke of York, in England, and of Albany, in Scotland, all the land held by the Dutch on thia continent. This presentation would have been simply ridiculous if it had not been reinforced by the capture, a year later, of New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, the names of which wero •promptly changed to New York and Albany. Some time afterward Holland reconquered the province, but held it for only one year, when it was finally turned over to England and the deed to the royal duke, who subsequently became King James the Second, was re-issued and delivered to him. It then became a question, even if only an academic one, as to which colony could claim this western part, which then meant not only what is now this portion of the state but a vast territory still further west; if it had really been a part of the Dutch possessions it was a part of New York, which had succeeded to the title of Holland ; if it had never been Dutch at all it belonged to Massa- chusetts by reason of the grant of 1620. The matter did not become of importance till the close of the Revolutionary war, but then it became one of momentous consequence. In the last year of that conflict the scope of the disputed tract Avas greatly lessened by the magnanimous action of New Yorlc in ceding to the general government M o t/2 < I— I Eh HISTORY OF ROCHESTBE AND MONROE COUNTY. 27 all its claims to lauds west of Lake Ontario, which patriotic example was somewhat reluctantly fol- lowed by Massachusetts four years later. That left what is now called Western New York as the bone of contention. After much wrangling over it, which at one time threatened to take the form of an armed conflict, the two states appointed commissioners, who met at Hartford, Conn., in 1786, and agreed upon a compromise, as might have been expected. It was determined that New York should have the government, sovereignty and jurisdiction over all the lands claimed by it, but that Massachusetts should have the right of pre- emption (which really meant the title and owner- sliip) of all the land between a north and souUi line running from the Pennsylvania boundary and passing by the western edge of Seneca lake and a north and south line one mile east of the Ni- agara river. In the following year this immense tract of six and a quarter million acres was soU by Massachusetts to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham with the condition that they should ex- tinguish the Indian title by compensating ths savages for the loss of their rights in the prem- ises. The price to be paid was £300,000 in con- solidated securities of the commonwealth, which at the current value of those bonds made it a little more than three cents an acre, of which one-third was to be paid at once, the remainder in two an- nual installments. THE PURCHASE PROM THE INDIANS. Oliver Phelps was a man of boundless activity, consummately adroit, not overburdened with con- science and more than a match for the Iroquois, with all the cunning which they had used so ef- fectively in former times against those of their own color. Putting his surveyors at once into tht: field and brushing aside all obstacles that were interposed by rival companies he proceeded to ob- tain verbal agreements f rorh the Indians and found little difficulty in inducing them to consent to the alienation of their ancestral territory, until the Genesee river was reached as a line of considera- tion. Beyond that they refused to go, for all west of it must be kept by them as a hunting-ground oi "tlio great spirit" would be displeased. Then Phelps's peculiar abilities came into play. He would not give up his idea of getting possession of the land on both sides of the Genesee falls, and by some means which need not be inquired into too closely he induced them to agree that he might have a strip on the west side twelve miles wide by twenty miles long, beginning near Avon and extending to Lake Ontario. In consideration for this particular gift he was to build for their bene- fit a saw-mill and a grist-mill near the falls, though how those adjuncts of civilization would be of any particular advantage to them no one but Phelps could explain. As the land was not held in severalty by the Indians, so there was no individual ownership, and even the tribal distinctions were rather vague, it was necessary to call a council of the confed- eracy for the purpose of making a formal con- veyance of the whole territory. This document, surrendering the aboriginal right to all the land be- tween Seneca lake and the western line just men- tioned, was signed on July 8th, 1788, by Red Jacket, Little Beard, Farmer's Brother and twenty other Senecas, twenty-two Cayugas, eight Onon- dagas, three Mohawks and seven squaws, who were styled "governesses." It might be supposed that the price to be paid for a tract of land larger than many European states would be explicitly stated, but, on the contrary, it seems to have been omitted, with the result that might have been expected. When the first payment came to be made, at Canan- daigua, the Indians insisted that they were being cheated, that they were to receive in all $10,000. while Phelps claimed that he had agreed to pay $5,000 in two installments, besides a continuous annuity of $500, half in cash, half in cattle. And that was all that he ever did pay to them, though they complained in vain to the superintendent of Indian affairs and even to President Washington himself. Before he had got rid of the Indians Phelps be- gan to sell off his property, but he could not find! individual purchasers rapidly enough to suit him, so he sold to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, all that he had not previously dis- posed of, besides reserving for himself and Gor- ham two townships — one including the site of Can- andaigua, the other that of Geneseo — receiving therefor, as far as can be ascertained, $150,000. That transfer embraced about one half of tho territory to which he had acquired the title. He then turned his attention to settling up with 28 HISTOEY OP EOCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. Massachusetts. For some reason payment of the first installment had never been made, and now the securities of the commonwealth had increased four- fold in value by reason of the United States gov- ernment having assumed the debts of all the states. Phelps used that as an argument in plead- ing for a lowering of his obligationSj and after prolonged negotiations he induced Massachusetts to confirm his title to what he had obtained from the Indians, to take back the remainder, which amounted to about two-thirds of the whole, and to accept $100,000 in full payment, so that he made a good profit out of it. Massachusetts soon afterward sold to Robert Morris the tract that had been relinquished by Phelps, for $333,000, and that speculator succeeded in extinguishing the In- dian title. As to the land that he bought from Phelps, which included Monroe county, he sold i^ within a year for $350,000 to an English syndi- cate, at the head of which was Sir William Pult- eney. As foreigners could not at time hold the title to land in the United States, Charles "Wil- liamson, a Scotchman, came over as manager of the "Pulteney estate," as it has always been called, which had been deeded to him in trust for the real owners. He established the office at Bath and it has been located there ever since, Robert Troup succeeding Williamson in the agency, then Joseph Fellows, then Benjamin F. Young, then H. J. Wynkoop, who recently closed up the es- tate, there remaining then unsold only two thou- sand acres, the owner of which at the time was Sir Frederick Johnstone. The tract embraced originally seven million acres, f ^om the successive sales of which, many of them in small pieces, some six million dollars in all had been received. SALE TO THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY. Though not directly connected with Monroe county, the transactions covering the ownership of the western end of the state, to which Oliver Phelps abandoned all claim, are of sufficient im- portance to warrant some description here, thj more especially as they involve the subsequent ca- reer of our old friends, the Senecas. Almost imme- diately on its reversion to Massachusetts that state sold the land to Eobert Morris — nearly four million acres — for $333,000, the conveyance being made May 11th, 1791, and within two years the owner had sold it all — with the exception of a strip on the east, mainly twelve miles wide, known as the "Morris Reserve" — to a syndicate of Dutchmen in Amsterdam, generally called tlic Holland Land company. Morris agreed, in passing the title to the American agents of these new owners, to ex- tinguish the Indian claim, and a part of the pur- chase price was to be withheld till that was done. That part of the contract was not carried out till four years later, the delay being caused by Morris's unwillingness to take any steps while Fort Niagara was occupied by British troops, the officers of which would be likely to interfere with his opera- tions, and, although that obstacle was withdrawn by the Jay treaty of 1795, it was August, 1797, when the various parties in interest were assem- bled at Big Tree, near the present site of Geneseo. THE TREATY OF BIG TREE. On one side were the principal chiefs and sachems of the Seneca nation — Red Jacket, Hand- some Lake, Farmer's Brother, Blacksnake, Little Beard, Cornplantcr and the others — who realized that the ground was slipping away from beneath their feet and that this was the last chance of ob- taining any compensation for it. Opposing them were the whites, Thomas Morris (afterward mem- ber of Congress from this district while it was still a part of Ontario county), who appeared with full authority as the representative of his father; Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth and General Shep- herd, representing the United States and Massa- chusetts, respectively; Israel Chapin, superintend- ent of Indian affairs; representatives of the Hol- land company, surveyors and interpreters. After the council fire had been lighted, the pipe smoked and the credentials examined, Thomas Morris de- livered to the Indians a carefully prepared speech, setting forth the great benefits that they would derive from the sale of the land. Then followed the customary negotiations, each side trying to force a proposal from the other, until finally Morris, after several days of evasion, offered $100,000, to be invested in stock of the United States bank, sv-^ that they would receive six thousand dollars an- nually for all time; if that offer were refused his father would have nothing more to do with them. Instantly Red Jacket seized the opportunity for a display of his oratorical powers ; springing to his HISTORY OF EOCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 29 feet he poured forth an eloquent harangue filled ■with a recital of the wrongs of the red men and ending with the declaration that they would never sell their land; then, with impressive gestures, he scattered the burning brands, stamped out the glowing embers and raked together the ashes; the council was closed. But there was a way to re- open it; the next day presents were showered upon the Seneca squaws, who insisted upon a resumption of the negotiations, and it was decided that Corn- planter, who had lighted the fire, had the right to rekindle it as he had not himself extinguished it. This was done and the deed of sale was signed September 17th, 1797, the consideration being the same that Morris had previously olfered. While this was all that appeared upon the record there is written evidence which shows conclusively that two hundred and fifty dollars a year was paid to Cornplanter for the rest of his life, one hundred to Red Jacket and smaller annuities to other chiefs and sachems, who were thus bribed to sell their country — a shameful transaction, in which the blame falls equally on both sides. Out of all the land eleven reservations were excepted, three hundred and eighty-seven square miles in all, some of which had been already given or sold, but the most of which was to serve as th.? future home of the Sonccas and such others of the Iroquois as might choose to live among them. Since that time the Indian title has been extin- guished in all but four reservations — the Tusca- rora, the Tonawanda, the Allegany and the Cat- taraugus — on the last two of which, comprising 52,000 acres, the surviving Senecas still reside to the number of twenty-seven hundred, according to the cciisiig of 1901. They are the wards of the state and of the nation; New York distributes an- nuities among them of a few hundred dollars, be- sides supporting their fifteen schools at an ex- pense of several thousand dollars, and the state board of charities disburses on their behalf almost ns mucli as is paid for tlicir education ; the United States has hitherto distributed among them everj' year nearly twelve thousand dollars in cash, be- sides a quarter of that amount in goods. Besides these reservations in this state a large tract of land »n what is now Kansas was set apart by the fed- eral government for the New York Indians, but only a few of them were willing to go so far from their ancestral homes. That land was sold some years ago and the proceeds, amounting to nearly two million dollars, are still in the United States treasury, awaiting distribution, which will givs about three hundred dollars to each of the Senecas. THE OGDEN LAND COMPANY. One cloud still hangs heavy over these unfor- tunate people. It is the Ogden Land company. That association, which is practically the successor of the Holland Land company, has the same right of pre-emption to those reservations that was ob- tained by Robert Morris over the whole tract. A few years ago the Indians on the Allegany reser- vation parted with the occupancy of a portion of their land to settlers on ninety-nine year leases, the result being that the city of Salamanca and several thriving villages have sprung up on land really owned by the Senecas. A few years ago the Vreeland bill, so-called, was introduced in Con- gress, which proposed to compel the Indians to pay to the Ogden Land company $200,000 for the extinguishment of its claim. That provision was so iniquitous that the bill was finally defeated, partly through the efl:orts of the Rochester His- torical society and the arguments of the late John Van Voorhis, then the representative from this district. Another provision, which was not so bad. as it had for its object the welfare of Salamanca by preventing it from falling into the hands of speculators, was that the land should be divided in severalty among the Indians and that all who held leases of them should acquire a perfect title by the payment of a small amount of money. This claim seems to be in danger of being enforced with* out any bill on the subject, for Justice Kenefick, of the Supreme court of this state, has recently given a decision, in a suit brought to decide this ques- tion, to the effect that a right of pre-emption is equivalent to a title in fee simple, subject to the right of occupancy as long as the Indians main- tained their tribal relations. An appeal will doubt- less be taken from this decision, with what result is purely conjectural. CHAPTER III THE BEGINNING OE ROCHESTER. The First Buildings.— The Mills at the Falls— The Mill Stones— Indian Allans— His Career of Blood and Grime— The Maryland Proprietors — Purchase of the Hundred-Acre Tract— Set- tlers at Other Spots— The First Dwelling in Rochester— The Mail and the Postmasters— The First and Other Bridges— Increasing Ac- tivity—The First Newspaper-War ivith the British at Charlotte. THE MILLS AND THE STONES. It has been seen that Oliver Phelps got his millyard on the west side of the falls, in spite of the original opposition of the Indians, and he kept his promise to them bv causing to be erected, in 1789, a saw-mill and a grist-mill close to the river, on the south side of the present Race street, between Aqueduct and Graves street, near to where there was a per- pendicular fall fourteen feet high, which then descended about where the aqueduct now stands. It was then called the "upper fall," but since its disappearance that name has been applied to the more lofty cataract, which in those early days was known as the "middle fall" and is thus given upon some old maps. As these were the first buildings erected in Monroe county, it is worth while to note their history. They were put up by Indian Allan, who will be alluded to more particularly hereafter, who invited all the residents of the Genesee valley to come to the raising. Allan's farm was in Scottsville, and the mill irons were floated down the river in canoes from there, having been brought to that place from Conhocton. The timber for both mills was hewed on the spot. The compensation for this work has generally been sup- posed to be one hundred acres of land located just here, but, as that would really have been of in- commensurate value, it is probable that Allan also received the -farm on the creek that bears his name, some live or six hundred acres in extent, the deed to which shows evident incorrectness of date. Allan and his family lived in the grist-mill for a year or two, so that they were the first residents of what is now Rochester. The mills were then left in charge of Christopher Dugan and his wife, who was a sister of Allan. A man named Sprague was the next occiipant, and then came Col. Josiah Fish, who lived there for some time, being engaged by Col. Williamson, the agent of the Pulteney es- tate, to become the manager of the mills in 1796. Three sides of a log house were put up against the native rock, which formed the back wall, so that they were quite comfortable, and several chil- dren were born there, who were the first of the white race to come into the world in what is no'» Rochester, though that name was not then thought of. The accommodations were, however, not suf- ficient to entertain visitors, for when John Maude, an observant English traveler, came through this part of the country in 1800 he could not stable his horse there, so he went down to Mr. King's, at Hanford's Landing, where, as he writes in his account of his journey, he "made a good breakfast of wild pigeons." Col. Pish moved back to his farm on Black creek in 1802, after which there was no regular resident there, and, although some outlying settler would occasionally come and grind niSTOEY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 31 his corn there free of cost, the mills soon fell into a state of dilapidation. The saw-mill was swept away by a freshet in 1803, and the grist-mill was destroyed by fire in 1807. The millstones underwent several removals after that, being used in a mill on Irondequoit creek, then in one in Henrietta, then in a mill near East avenue, after which they served the ignoble pur- pose of door steps at the residence of Isaac Barnes, who was public-spirited enough to present them, on being appealed to, to the Junior Pioneer so- ciety in 1860. That association moved them to the rear of the court-house where they remained until 1874, when they were placed as the foundations for lamp-posts in front of the city hall, whicli had been completed in the previous year. When the present court-house was erected, in 1896, the Rochester Historical society caused the stones to be imbedded conspicuously in the wall of one of the corridors and placed beneath them a mural tablet indicating their significance. A WHITE RUFFIAN. This Indian Allan, who has been mentioned, was one of the most remarkable figures in this part of the country. He had the distinction, and probably enjoyed it, of being, on the whole, the wickedest man who ever lived in this region. From sheer depravity he took up arms while he was quite young against his patriot neighbors iu the early part of the Revolution, but instead of connecting himself with the British army, as so many did, he allied himself with the Indian^. With them he remained, except for a short time when he was with Butler's Rangers, which corps he left on account of his unwillingness to submit to restraint, till after the struggle for independ- ence was over. But it was not only on account oi! his association with them that he was generally known by the name that he bears, but because he became one of them in every way possible and not only equaled the savages, but surpassed them in ferocity and cruelty. He began his career by scouting with a party of them on the Susquehanna, where he entered a house where the owner, with wife and child, was asleep in the early morning. 'J'lie man sprang up to defend his family, but Allan killed him with a single blow, cut off his head, threw it into the bed where the wife lay, then seized tlie baby from her arms and swung it by the legs against the door until its brains were dashed out. HIS MANY WIVES. After the war he lived for twenty years upon the banks of our river, the name of which, in the form of Genushio, was usually applied to him by the Indians. He had married a squaw named ' Sally, by whom he had two children, Mary and Chloe, but in spite of that he had no difficulty in inducing a white girl named Lucy Chapman to marry him, with the full consent of her father, who probably was ignorant of the existence of Al- lan's family. There was a good deal of friction between the two wives, and perhaps it was co procure a counter-irritant that Allan then took to himself a third helpmate, whose previous hus- band he disposed of by pushing him into the wa- ter while the three were taking a walk together. This third consort having left him he filled hev place with a colored woman, whom he subse- quently discarded after having swindled her father out of all his money. Finally he moved to Mt. Morris and having set- tled down there he married once more, this time Millie McGregor, a daughter of one of Butlcr'p Rangers, but Sally and Lucy objected to this latest intrusion into the family circle, so that her husband had to install her in a separate domicile near by. Allan seems to have had less affection for Millie than for any other one of his wives, for he hired two men to put her out of the way by drowning, who took her in a boat and ran .'t over what was then the upper falls, but the in- tended victim swam ashore and rejoined her spouse, who made no further attempts to get rid of her. Perhaps as an offset to this unkindness he left at his death to her and her six children all his property, which was quite considerable, while his other descendants received nothing. His soa by Lucy he sent to school at Philadelphia, while his Indian daughters by Sally he caused to be edu- cated at Trenton, N. J., but his evil disposition found vent by robbing those girls of all their property. The sachems of the Senecas had given to them four acres of land near Mt. Morris, statf ing in the. deed that they did so out of their lov-5 for the children and because they considered them 32 HISTORY OP ROCHESTEE AND MONROE COUNTY. members of the tribe, but their unnatural father got hold of the document and in some way swin- dled his own daughters out of the land, so that they and their mother were left penniless. Having committed a number of cold-blooded murders, for which he was never punished, though they are perfectly well authenticated, Allan con- cluded to move to Canada, where he settled at Delawaretown, with his two white wives, Lucy and Millie, Sally having been turned adrift. Strange as it may seem, the Canadian authorities gave no sign of disapproval of his polygamous ar- rangements, and Governor Simcoe gave him three thousand acres of the public land on condition that he should build a church, a saw-mill and a grist-mill. This powerful criminal, all his life beyond the reach of the law, died in 1814, leaving his memory, like that of Byron's hero, "linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes." The only good thing that he ever did was just after the close of the Revolutionary war. The Senecas, who after Sullivan's campaign were living near Port Niagara, then occupied by the British troops, were so full of resentment against the Americans that they planned a murderous raid, with whole- sale massacre, upon the white settlements in this part of the state. Allan became aware of it and forestalled the plot by sending, surreptitiously, a belt of wampum to the commandant of the near- est American post. The officer sent back word to Niagara that the wampum was accepted and that peace should prevail. The Indians were furious when they learned of the trick that had been played, but the sacredness of the pledge prevented its retraction and the outbreak did not take place. Por this isolated act of benevolence, which may have saved a thousand lives, Allan was hunted down and imprisoned and narrowly escaped with his life. THE HUNDRED-ACRE TRACT. In September, 1800, three landed proprietors from Hagerstown, Maryland, came riding up into this region of combined fertility and wildernesi?, followed by a mounted negro slave and a pack horse to carry their luggage. The foremost of these was Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, a dis- tinguished citizen, who was born in Westmore- land county, Virginia, on the 31st of February, 1752. Having removed to North Carolina in early life he became prominent as a member of different state conventions, justice of the peace, lieutenant- colonel of militia and, in 1776, deputy commis- sary general of military stores for the Continental army in North Carolina, with the rank of colonel ; after the Revolutionary war he moved to Hagers- town, where he became postmaster, sheriff, county judge, president of the bank, member of the ]\Iary- land legislature and presidential elector; in 1810- he moved to Dansville, N. Y., in 1815 to East Bloomfield and in 1818 to Rocliester, having in the meantime been a presidential elector from this state; he was the first clerk of Monroe county, a member of the legislature and president of the- Bank of Rochester, the first in the village; he died May 17th, 1831, universally respected. The other members of the party were Colonel William Pitz- hugh and Major Charles Carroll. They were men of great influence in the different places where they lived, but as they never resided in Rochester, or even in this county, it will not be necessary to give here any sketch of their lives. All three of those persons made quite extensive purchases of lands on the Genesee flats, and three years later, having come up here for the pur- pose of making payments, , they were induced by the land agent to visit this locality. A more dis- mal and dreary spot could not have been found. The mills were in ruins, which added to the scene of desolation, and the only living things among the tangle of briars and underbrush were rattle- snakes and porcupines. But the prospectors, un- deterred by these revolting features of the land- scape, were attracted by what they readily per- ceived to be the advantages of the upper falls and purchased one hundred acres that had been given to Indian Allan for his work mentioned above. The contract was signed by all the parties in in- terest November 8th, 1803 (not 1803, as has been incorrectly stated by some writers) and the Hun- dred-Acre tract became the nucleus of what was to be the city of Rochester. The price agreed upon was $1,750, to be paid in five annual installments. The original source of title, and therefore the foundation of all titles to land within that space, was not a deed itself, for no such document was ever recorded and it is evident that Phelps made only a verbal agreement with the mill-builder, which would be in accordance with his usual aVC.* -TRACT- *^*e, HISTOEY OF EOCHESTER AND MONEOE COUNTY. 35 practice in leaving a loopliole for himself. The instrument . is simply an assignment by Allan, in 1792, of his interest to Benjamin Barton, with power given to the assignee to demand the execu- tion of a regular deed from Phelps and Gorham. The document, which is now in the possession of the Eeynolds Library, beara the signature, "E. Al- lan," as though the writer was ashamed to employ his full Christian name of Ebenezer, by which no- body ever knew him. Barton seems to have found no difficulty in obtaining his deed, and he prompt- ly sold the land to Samuel B. Ogden, by whom it was soon transferred to Charles Williamson, as agent for Sir William Pulteney, so that it became absorbed in tlmt great estate and was a part of it till the puruliasc of Rochester, Fitzhugh and Carroll. The river was the eastern boundary, its southern line began at a point about four hundred feet south of Court street (or near the foot of th"? Erie railroad train shed) and ran due west to a point near the corner of Spring street and Cale- donia avenue, its west line ran thence to a point near the corner of Center and Prank streets, and 'its. ;north line ran due east to the river, which it . reached a little north of where the foot of Market street would be if extended. EARLY SETTLERS. Before any lots were sold in the Hundred-Acre tract a few settlers had located within the limits of what is now the city. About 1797 a man named Farewell built ia cabin on Lake avenue, near tlio present State Industrial school, which he sold two years later to Jeremiah Olmstead, who moved in and raised crops . there, so that he may be con- sidered, in one sense, the first permanent settler in Rochester. In 1807 Charles Harford, an English- man, erected a block-house on State street, near Lyell avenue, and built a mill in the next year on the same side of the river, just south of the high falls, so that for a few years he did all the grind- ing for this neighborhood. On the west side of the river Enos Stone, junior, of Lenox, Mass., had built, in 1810, a log cabin, and later in the same year a larger house on what became South St. Paul street and is now South avenue, near Court, in wlial. was then the township of Boyle, afterward Briglilon, though not n part of Roches- ter till many years afterward. That house, which was probably the first frame dwelling erected with- in the present city limits, was subsequently re- moved to Elm street, where it remained till five years ago, when it was torn down. In the same year Isaac W. Stone purchased of Enos Stone (no relation) a lot on the corner of South avenue and Main street and built a frame house, in which be lived with his family for several years. THE PLANTING OE ROCHESTER. Colonel Eochester, after moving' to Dansville, rode down here very frequently, surveying, and laying . out the lots himself, one-quarter of an acre in each. The title having finally passed from . Sir William Pulteney, the first lot was sold No- vember 20th, 1811, to Enos Stone, for fifty dol- lars, though the ruling price for other pieces was a little less, and all with the condition that the purchaser should erect a house on his land vnih- in a year. The highest price obtained was two hundred dollars, which exceptional amount, paid by Henry Skinner of Geneseo, was due to the fact that the lot was on the line of the "new state road," being on the side of the present Powers block, at the corner of Main and State streets. On this lot Mr. Skinner built a house — only a log cabin, it might be called, but it was well con- structed, roofed with slabs from Enos Stone's saw- mill oil the east side of the river and sufficiently commodious for a large and growing family — for Hamlet Scrantom of Durham, Conn., who moved into it in May, 1812. That was the first house erected in what was then Rochester, for by that time the proprietors of the tract had agreed to name the place after the real pioneer. One of the sons of this first family was Edwin Scrantom, who throughout his adult life was a frequent writer for the local press, so that much of the information relating to those early times is still derived from those communications; another son was Hamlet D., who became mayor of the city, and the descendants of other children still reside here. THE POST-OFFICE. Anotlicr family came near to getting ahead of lliu Scniiitonia. Abchinl Reynolds caino liero from Pittsficld, Mass., in April, lSl2, bouglit two lots 36 in STORY OF EOCIIESTER AND JfONJiOE COUNTY. where the Arcade now stands, contracted with car- penters to put him up a two-story frame house, went back home, came hero again in the autumn, put up a smaller house on his other lot, and final- ly moved here in February, 1813, bringing with him his family, consisting of his wife, young son, William A., and his sister-in-law, Huldah M. Strong. In their new home another son was add- ed, Mortimer F., on December 2d, 1814, and he was the first white child to be born in what was then Rochester. For several years the head of the family carried on the business of a saddler, to- gether with that of a tavern-keeper, all in the same house, while one room of it was used as the post- office. Before his final migration hither he had been appointed postmaster through the influence of Colonel Rochester, who foresaw that, though there was only one family here then, there would be plenty of others in time. For a short period after that the mail came regularly once a week, being brought from Canandaigua on horseback, a part of the time by a woman. The post-office has not seen many changes of location. The Arcade was erected in 1833 and the post-office was in the front part; about ten years later it was removed to the northwest end of the hall and in 1859 to the northeast corner, where it remained till the erection of the government building in 1886. Mr. Reynolds held the position of postmaster for sev- enteen years, and was succeeded by the following- named officials: John B. Elwood, 1829; Henry O'Reilly, 1838 ; Samuel G. Andrews, 1842 ; Henry Campbell, 1845 ; Darius Perrin, 1849 ; Hubbard S Allis, 1853; Nicholas B. Paine, 1858; Scott W. Updike, 1861; John W. Stebbins, 1867; Edward M. Smith, 1871; Daniel T. Hunt, 1875; Valen- tine Fleckenstein, 1887; Henry S. Hebard, 1890; John A. Reynolds, 1890; George H. Perkins, 1894; James S. Graham, 1898; W. Seward Whit- tlesey, the present incumbent, 1907. A SLOW GROWTH. tivities, free to all comers, on the corner of East Main and St. Paul streets, one person brought bread, another a roasted pig, another a lamb, an- other vegetables, another pics, another a supply of whisky, but even all that magnificence did not at- tract more than twenty persons, including some travelers who were passing by. On the Rochester side the stagnation was far more complete, the reason for which is not hard to find. The whole region was malarial to the last degree, so that fever and ague abounded, everybody having one or the- other most of the time, the mosquitoes and the rattlesnakes made life iniserable, and the roads when they were not dusty were lanes of mud. In spite of those obstacles, which deterred people from settling here, several village lots were bought and laid out by Francis Brown, Matthew Brown, junior, and Samuel J. Andrews, to which was given, in honor of the first of the three, the name of Frankfort, by which the northern part of the city was generally called up to within a few years. But the thing that did more than anything else to insure the future and speedy growth of the place was the construction, in this year of 1813. of the bridge across the river at Main street. Be- fore that time the only way to get from one side of the Genesee to the other was to go up to Avon or to ford the river at this point if the person chose to run the imminent risk of drowning. The "new state road," which was always more popularly known as "the Bxiffalo I'oad," had, however, recent- ly been opened, and after much importunity the legislature was made to perceive . that a bridge at this point was a necessary link in the chain of communication over that highway It was built at n cost of $12,000, divided equally between the counties of Ontario and Gcncseo, but it could not liiivo been well consti'uetcd, for it was taken down in 1824 and replaced by another, built by Elisha Johnson, at a cost of $6,000, paid by the county. That stood, with buildings erected upon it, till 1857, when it made way for the present structure. The little hamlet did not grow much in its first year. The Scrantom family had a Fourth of July celebration all by themselves in front of their log cabin, while on the other side of the river the nation's birthday was observed in a more luxuri- ous manner, under the auspices of Enos Stone, tha pioneer settler of Brighton. To the open-air fes- TIIE CAKTHAQE BRIDGE. One famous bridge was built in 1819, which, though then outside the limits of Rochester, has long been within those bounds, and which, from its great notoriety, deserves more than a passing mention. The settlement that went by the name EOCHESTEE IN 1812. HISTORY OP ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 39 of Carthage was on tlie east side of the river, near the lower falls, and that advantage, together with the proximity of the Ridge road, which was then much traveled by westward bound emigrants, was supposed, or lioped, to insure the establishment of Ihc future city at that point instead of at the higher catnnicl above. To jtroniotc that laudable object the bridge was built by a stock company, begun in May, 1818, and finished nine months later. No better description of it can be given than the following, taken from the Rochester Tele- graph of February 16th, 1819 : "It is with pleasure that we announce to the public that the Carthage bridge is completed and that its strength has been successfully tested. It consists of an entire arch thrown across the Gene- see river, the chord of which is 353 and 7-12 feet and the versed sine fifty-four feet. The summit of the arch is 196 feet above the surface of the water. It is 718 feet in length and thirty feet in width, besides four large elbow braces placed at the ex- tremities of the arch and projecting fifteen feet on each side of it, thereby presenting a resistance to any lateral pressure or casualty equal to a width of sixty feet. The travel passes upon the crown of the arch, which consists of nine ribs, two feet and four inches thick, connected by braced levelers above and below and secured by nearly 800 strong bolts. The feet of the arch rest upon solid rock about sixty feet below tlic surface of the upper bank, and the whole structure is braced and bound together in a manner so compact as to disarm cavil of its doubts. The arch contains more than 200 tons and can sustain any weight that ordinary travel may bring upon it. Loaded teams of more than thirteen tons passed over it a few days ago and produced very little perceptible tremor. Great credit is due to the contractors, Messrs. Brainerd and Chapman, for their efforts in accomplishing this stupendous work. It was erected upon a frame called the supporter or false bridge. The Genesee flows under the bridge in an impetuous current and is compressed to the width of about 120 feet. This width was crossed by commencing a frame on each side near the margin and causing the weight behind to sustain the bents progressive- ly bending over the water, which meeting at the top formed a Gothic arch over the stream, the vertex of which was about twenty feet below he present floor of the bridge. Though now purpose- ly disconnected from the bridge, the Gothic arch still stands underneath the Roman and is esteemed by architects, in point of mechanical ingenuity, as great a curiosity ns the bridge itself. The bridge contains 69,513 feet of timber, running measure, in addition to 20,806 feet of timber contained in the false bridge. All this has been effected by the labor of somewhat less (on an average) than twen- ty-two workmen, within the short space of nine months. Were this fact told in Europe it would only excite a smile of incredulity. The bridge at Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, which for almost half a century was regarded as the pride of the eastern hemisphere, was built in a little less than three years and was the longest arch in Europe. It was but twelve feet longer than the bridge at Carthage (admitting that it derived no support from a pier in the center), was only eighteen feet wide and of ordinary height. It was destroyed during the French revolution and no entire arch is known at present in the old world to exceed 240 feet in span. The most lofty single arch in Europe is in England, over the river Wear, at Sunderland, which falls short of the bridge at Carthage 116 feet in the span and ninety-six feet in the height of the arch. The bridge at Carthage may there- fore be pronounced unrivaled in its combined di- mensions, strength and beauty, by any structure of the kind in Europe or America. The scenery around it is picturesque and sublime; within view from it are three waterfalls of the Genesee, one of which has 105 feet perpendicular descent. The stupendous banks, the mills and machinery, the forest yielding to the industry of a rising village, and the navigable waters not 100 yards below it are calculated to fill the mind of a beholder with surprise and satisfaction. Particularly is this the case when the utility of the bridge is regarded. It presents the nearest route from Canandaigua to Lewiston; it connects the points at the great Ridge road; it opens to the counties of Genesee and Niagara a direct communication with the wa- ter privileges of the lower falls and the head of navigation on the river and renders the village of Carthage accessible and convenient as a thorough- fare from the east, the west and the north." The pleasing anticipations of the previous sen- tence were not fulfilled. The contractors had guaranteed the bridge to stand for a year and a day. It lasted just three months longer than that, giving way on the 22d of May, 1820, not be- cause there was any weight upon it but by reason of the springing upward of the arch, which was not BufTiciently braced to prevent it. The disap- pointment was great, but the disaster did not pro- duce apathy. Another bridge was at once built upon piers, on a lower level and a little south of the former one. A few years later still another was put up, which lasted till 1835. By that time Carthage had lost its identity by absorption and took no fiirilicr interest in Die matter, so that for more than a score of years the river, with its gorge, was a barrier at that point. The city erected in 40 HISTORY OF EOCHESTBR AND MONROE COUNTY. 1856 another suspension bridge on the site of tho first at a cost of $35,000, which in April, 1857, was carried down by tlio great weight of snow upon it. Tlio present bridge is moiitioued else- where, as well as others in the city that are now standing. OTHER BRIDGES. Of those besides the ones already alluded to thai had their day and have passed away there was one put up by Andrews, Atwater and Mumford, a toll bridge, a little south of the present Central ave- nue, at what was then called Bridge street, but the street was closed up on both sides about ten years later and of course the bridge, which never amounted to much, went with it. The first aque- duct for the Erie canal was completed in 1833, two years before the water was turned in through- out its whole length, at a cost of $83,000; its east- ern end was a few rods north of where the present viaduct turns southward, the western termination wns on tho site of this one; it was oonstruolod of red sandstone, witli coping and pilasters of gray limestone ; the blocks at the bases of the piers were trenailed to the solid rock, in which they were sunk, and each column was so cramped and ce- mented as to present the strength of a single piece ; it was 804 feet long, built on eleven arches. Pri- vate enterprise put iip a bridge at Court street, cutting the street through to the Pitts ford road at the same time and also erecting the Rochester House on the southwest corner of Exchange street and the canal, so as to draw travel in that direc- tion ; another bridge was built there in 1858, at a cost of $12,000, which was partly torn away by the flood of 1865, but was repaired and remained till the present one took its place. In 1838 the first Andrews street bridge was put there by private capital; it was succeeded by one of iron in 1857, which cost $13,000 and stood for thirty-six years. The first Clarissa street bridge was built in 1840 to serve as an avenue to Mt. Hope cemetery, which had been dedicated two years before; it was built of wood, with high walls on the outside and parti- tion walls between the roadway and the footpaths, ;. a much better bridge, costing $15,000, was laid down in 1863. LIFE SPRINGS UP. After the first year, which was mainly one of expectation, tho new setLloJiient began to grow and it expanded rapidly. The year 1813 saw the open- ing of the first store, built by Silas 0. Smith and conducted by Ira West; of the first school in the neighborhood, taught by Huldah M. Strong, who afterward married Dr. Jonah Brown, and of the Fitzhugh and Carroll mill-race, back of the pres- ent I'h'ie railway station, which, with Brown's race, at the head of the high falls, three years later, and the Johnson and Seymour race on thi? east side, with the dam across the river — both be- ing constructed in 1817 at a cost of $13,000— in- sured the prosperity of Rochester with its un- equaled water privileges. These improvements were fitly succeeded by the building of the "old red mill" by the Elys and Josiah Bissell and the cotton factory in Frankfort, both in 1815, and the 'yellow mill" on the east side by William Atkin- son two years later. In 1815 the mailing facilities were greatly increased by tho substitution of a Hl.ago from this plucc to Ciinundaigiia, driven l)y Samuel Ilildreth of Pittsford, for the old horse- back conveyance, and that twice a week instead of only once. On October 8th of that year the first wedding occurred, that of Delia, daughter of Ham- let Scrantom, to Jehiel Barnard, who had previ- ously opened the first tailor shop. The first cen- sus was taken in December, showing a population of 331. In 181G Rev. Comfort Williams was in- stalled as pastor of the First Presbyterian church, the society having been organized the year before that and the building for worship erected in 1817 on the west side of Carroll (now State) street, o'l the present site of the small gray stone building that was used by several successive banking cor- porations and is now occupied by an express com- pany. In 1816 also the first newspaper was estab- listed here, a weekly named the Rochester Gazette iniblished by Dauby and Sheldon and afterward by Edwin Scrantom, who called it the Monroe Re- piihTiean ; it was subsequently merged in another journal. THE AFFAIR AT CHARLOTTE. Before this time an incident occurred, not in Rochester but verv near it and alwavs considered HISTOKY OF EOCHESTEll AND MONROE COUNTY. 41 as connected with the place, so that it excited the greatest interest and formed the absorbing topic of conversation^ besides being frequently repro- duced in narration, poetical, historical and dra- matic. The war of 1812 did not cause much alarm in the first year, but in June, 1813, Sir James Yeo, the British admiral, came to the mouth of the river with his fleet, landed at Charlotte and seized some provisions without resistance. This caused a fear that worse might happen in the future, and so, by direction of General Peter B. Porter, the commander of the forces in Western New York, a company of dragoons was raised in this locality linden- (he coinniand of Major Isane W. Stoiio of Brighton, with Francis Brown and Elisha Ely of Rochester as captains, rather a disproportionate number of officers, since the total enlistment num- bered only fifty men. At Charlotte they found awaiting them a part of a regiment from some- where under Colonel Atkinson and also a company from the towns of Gates and Greece under Cap- tain Rowe. These others seem to have gone away or to have retired into the background, for when the British landed under a flag of truce two days later it was our little squad by which they were confronted and with the chiefs of which the parley was licld. A demand was made for a surrender of all the provisions and military stores at Charlotte, witli the promise that if this were done there would be no attack upon any of the settlements. As to the leply that was made, authorities differ, the more prosaic saying that Major Stone answered that the public property was in the hands of those who would defend it, while other writers, of a more lurid temperament, have it that it was the bold Captain Brown who made the laconic response: "Blood knee deep first." It is, of course, the latter version that has always been imbedded in popular tradition, which does not prevent it from being the true one. If so, the English officer must have had a fine sense of liimior, for lie retired without more words. The next day General Porter, having arrived, took command and had an opportunity to make a similar refusal to a second demand. Then the fleet sailed away, after firing a few harmless caiinon balls into the village as a parting salute. Why a landing in force was not made by Admiral Yeo is a matter of conjecture, for he could easily have overpowered and captured that little hand- ful of volunteers. Probably he thought that they were but the mask for some larger body. It is now time to turn to the growth of the surrounding region, which had been rapidly fill- ing up. CHAPTER IV THE SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY. The First Deed Recorded — The Twenty-Thousand- Acre Tract — The First Settlers — Visits of Trav- elers — The Tory Walker — King's Landing and Hanford's Landing — Charlotte and Pittsford — ■ Unsuccessful Experiments — Development of the County. EBOORDING OF EARLT DEEDS. The primacy of Eochester and its predominance as a commercial center did not begin and were not even anticipated till long after several settlements had been made at different points in what is now Monroe county, and even those did not take place till after Canandaigua had become quite populous and other villages in adjoining counties were thrifty and prosperous. A land office having been opened by Oliver Phelps at Cananadaigua in 1789 (which is said to have been the very earliest of- fice opened in America for the sale of her forest lands to settlers), the first deed of our land was recorded there, as the seat of Ontario county (ad all other deeds were till Monroe was established), on September 16th, 1790. It did not run from either Phelps or Gorham, but it stated that the title of the grantor rested on a conveyance from the first-named, which, for some reason, was never put on record. This deed, from Joseph Smith to James Latta, conveyed, for the sum of one luiudred and seventy-five dollars, practically what is now the village of Charlotte, though the terms of the instrument are not so precise as they ought to have been. The second deed recorded, a month later, was from Phelps and Gorham to Ebenezer Hunt, Eobert Breck, Quartus Pomeroy, Samuel Heii- shaw, Samuel Hinckley, Moses Kingsley and Jus- tin Ely. It conveyed, for the sum of six hundred pounds, 20,100 acres, less the hundred acres pre- viously given to Indian Allan, which were ex- pressly reserved in this document. This was the "Twenty-Thousand-Acre tract," as it has always been called, and it embraces most of the west half of Eochester and of Gates as well as a small part of Greece. Beginning from a point on the river bank between the Holy Sepulcher and Eiverside cemeteries, the northern boundary runs due west about seven miles, thence south about five miles along the western edge of the towns named, thence east to the river, which it strikes a little north of Clarissa street bridge, the stream being the east- em boundary of the tract. The deed to Eobert Morris, mentioned in a preceding chapter, was recorded on the following day. THE LUSKS AND THE SHEFFERS. In that same year of 1789 the permanent set- tlement of Monroe county was begun. Caleb Hyde and others, of Lenox, Massachusetts, made the fifth purchase from Phelps and Gorham, and of their new possession fifteen hundred acres near the head of Irondequoit bay, were' set off for John Lusk, though just how he obtained his title is not ascertainable. At any rate he came here in the summer of that year, accompanied by his son Stephen, fifteen years old, and a hired man, all of them crossing Cayuga lake on a raft, while their cattle got across by swimming. Having reached HISTORY OF ROCHBSTEE AND MONROE COUNTY. 43 their domain they settled down in the southern part of it, which is now Pittsford, built a log cabin and sowed twenty acres with wheat. They got the seed from Ebenezer Allan, having, for its transportation, to cut a road through the woods to Red creek, to which point it was carried in a canoe. Their only visitors were a few friendly Indians, but after the natives came the inevitable fever and ague, which disabled them for several weeks sc that the whole party returned to Massachusetts be- fore the winter set in, though they came bacK here in the hext spring, bringing the entire Lusk household with them for good. Having deposited tlio Liisk family on tlie east side, we will iiini to tlic west. Toward tlic close of 1789 .I'etcr Shelfer, tlien eighty years old, came up here from Ijancaster, Pennsylvania, together with his two sous, Peter and Jacob. He bought In- dian Allan's well-cleared farm, of nearly iive hun- dred acres, at what is now Scottsville, for two dol- lars and a half an acre, and settled down at once, so that he may be considered the pioneer of the west side, for Allan was too nomadic to count as a real resident. Peter ShefEer, junior, married, in 1790, Elizabeth Schoonhover, whose family had settled at Dugan's creek in the spring of that year ; on the 30th of January, 1793, their first child was born, Nancy, who became the wife of Philip Garbutt; in 1795 Jacob Shefler died; in 1797 Peter put up the first frame dwelling-house in all that region, getting the nails and other iron from Geneva, while the lumber was procured from Al- lan's saw-mill. In that house and in that year the first town meeting on the west side of the river was held, Josiah Fish being elected supervisor. Soon after the sale of the Twenty-Thousand-Acre tract, in 1790, the whole of the state of New York between the Genesee and the Niagara had been made into the town of Northampton, so called be- cause six of the seven grantees of that land lived in Northampton, Mass. In 1803 the whole terri- tory, which had previously been a part of Ontario county, was made, into Genesee county and Northampton was divided into four towns, but it was not till 1808 that it had shrunk, by further subdivisions, inside of what is now Monroe county. IfOnEJGN 81GIIT-SMKBS. It is pleasing to note that about this time several distinguished travelers, most of them French, passed through this region, attracted mainly by the fame of the tremendous cataract at Niagara, and two of them at least gave to the world in their published works their impressions of the new country. Chateaubriand, poet and philosopher, came along in 1790, and Talleyrand three years later, when he was self-exiled for his own safety during the Reign of Terror, but there is no reason to suppose that he came any nearer than Mt. Mor- ris, where he stayed for some time. In 1795 the Duke de la Rochefoucault-Liancourt journeyed up here from Bath on horseback, and his mind, acute and observing, was filled with admiration at the progress that had been made in the development of the Pulteney estate. In his "Travels through the United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois and Canada" he describes minutely the manners^ customs and mode of life of the in- habitants, and the following extract from that book, though previously given by the present writer some years ago, may well be repeated in this place : "The dwellings of the new settlers are commonly at first set up in a very slight manner ; they consist of huts, the roofs and walls of which are made of bark, and in which the husband, wife and children pass the winter, wrapped up in blankets. They also frequently construct houses of trees laid upon each other, the intersections of which are either filled up with loam or left open, according as there is more or less time to fill them up. In such buildings as have attained some degree of perfec- tion there is a chimney of brick or clay, but very often there is only an aperture in the roof to, let out the smoke, and the fire is replenished with the trunks of trees. At a little distance from the house stands a small oven, built sometimes of brick, but more frequently of clay. Salt pork and beef are the usual food of the new settlers: their drink is water and whisky, but there are few families un- provided with coffee and chocolate." For the sole purpose of seeing the Genesee falls the duke of Orleans (afterward King Louis Philippe), with his brothers the duke of Mont- pensier and Count Beaujolais, came here in 1797, escorted from Canandaigua by Thomas Morris, the son of Robert. The whole party was entertained at the house of Orange Stone, who, as well as his brother Enos, had come out here from Lenox in 1790, located and built a tavern near the "big rock and tree" on East avenue in the town of Brighton. That ancient landmark, the site of Indian councils 44 HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. in former days, continued in a state of preserva- tion till three or four years ago, when the tree,, already weakened by age, was blown down in a gale of wind and the rock was in imminent danger of being broken up for macadam, which desecration was averted by the patriotic efforts of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution. William Hencher was the next settler on the west side after the Sheffers (with the possible ex- ception of the Schoonhovers), though there was an interval of four years between them. Having par, ticipated in Shays's rebellion in Massachusetts he fled from that state, coming here in August, 1791. Stopping for a few days in the hut of the tory Walker* at the month of the Genesee, he crossed the river, kept on to Long pond and there built some kind of a habitation, the first dwelling on the shore of the lake between the Genesee and the Ni- agara. There he resided with his family, but for three years he lived in fear of the Senecas, who had gone west to fight on the side of their fellow- savages, and who, if their crushing defeat by Gen- eral Wayne had not broken their spirit, might have returned and massacred many of our people. It was not till then that Hencher made up his mind to pay the second time for his six hundred acres, the mortgage on which, made by the pre- vious owner, had been foreclosed by Oliver Phelps king's and hanfoed's landing. The shadow of Phelps continued to be pro- jected over this region, and therefore it continues to darken these pages. In some way not clearly explained he managed to get back one half of the Twenty-Thousand-Acre tract and then he induced several of his old townspeople in Suffield, Con- necticut, to come on here and look about. Two oi them, Gideon King and Zadock Granger, pur- chased of him three thousand acres each on the west side, about half way between Rochester and Charlotte, on a spot that seemed an ideal place for a settlement, with a large plateau slightly above the river and with depth of water sufficient for 'This William Walker had served on the British side during the Revolutionary war, not as a regular soldier, but as a spy. He was with the Senecas during Sullivan's campaign, but noth- ing is known of him after that till the close of the war, when he wandered into this locality and for some years lived alone on the Irondequoit side of the river, supporting himself by fish- ing and hunting, until, having got into some difficulty, he moved away to Canada. Too insignificant to be molested, he was generally despised and no one had any intercourse with him. He was in no true sense either a pioneer or a settler of Monroe county. large lake vessels to come up and land there. Early in 1797 Gideon King put up a large house there for himself and his family, near the top of the high bank, and graded the roadway down to the lower level, where he began the construction of n dock. He died in the following year, a grandchild of his was born there in 1799 and a year later one to Zadock Granger. The place was known as King's Landing for some time, but in 1809 all the members of the original families who had survived the incessant attacks of fever and ague — the Gen- esee fever, as it was commonly called — moved away. Seven Hanford brothers from Rome, N. Y., tutu came to the place, bought a large part of the land, built several warehouses near the dock and erected, on the bank above, the Steamboat Hotel, a well- known stopping-place for many years for travelers by the Ridge road. These improvements gave to the place the name of Hanford's Landing, an ap- pellation that remained long after the second set of settlers had passed away and every evidence ol human occupation had been obliterated. OHAULOTl'E. No villages were incorporated in the county till a long time after this, but the settlement at the mouth of the river on the west side was the one that from the beginning gave evidence of perma- nence and importance that was not disappointed. Samuel Latta, the son of James, mentioned above, located there soon after his father's purchase, one of his first acts being the erection of a warehouse, and he was soon joined by others who contrib- tited to the prosperity of the community. It was early perceived that the lake traffic with Canada must be eventually of considerable magnitude and that stimulated the building of many vessels there, of which the first was the schooner Experi- ment, in 1809, after which there were maby othera. both sailing vessels and river steamers. When Robert Troup became the agent for the Pulteney estate, in 1801, this settlement was named after his daughter, Charlotte, and that name, after some temporary changes, it still bears. In 1805 the harbor was made, by act of Congress, a port of entry, under the title of the port of Genesee, Mr. Latta being properly appointed collector, and thp light-house was built a few years later, though au- thorities differ as to the date. CLIFFS OF THE GENESEE— SENEGA PAEK. HISTOEY OF EOCIIESTBR AND MONROE COUNTY. 47 SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES. Pittsford was in every way the leading town on the east side. Most of what is now the eastern part of Monroe county was organized into the dis- trict of Northfield in 1789 ; five years later it was made a town without change of name, the first town meeting being held in what is now Pittsford 'in 1796, when Silas Nye was chosen supervisor. Two years before that the first school in the county had been established there, taught by Mr. Bur- rows; in 1802 a school-house was built at Ironde- quoit landing, and in 1804 Miss Willey taught some classes in Ogden, that being probably the first pedagogical instruction , on the ^wost side, of the :iiver. - 'As'rto (tlie::llVsfc;chm;ch-inTtlie! cOuuty,' thai is:a matter .of; uncertainty-but the? likelihood- is 'that ■this-horior; also, 'should' be', given- to Pittsford, where-ia-log -house was built in "179 9, that was used as a town hall and a place of worship. Rev. J. H. Hotchkin preaching there for some time. A Con- gregational church was organized there fn 1809, wijh Rev. Samuel Allen as pastor. The west sid* of the river had to depend for a long time iipon the circuit-ridevs of the Methodist church, who generally used the log house of George W. Willey in Ogden for that purpose, and one of those preachers. Rev. lilbniiozer r*;verolt, bocainc ihc first settled' minister ol' that region. Scottsviile, on the west side, had as steady a growth as Pittsford on"- the ' east. - Oliver Allen built there at a very early day a woolen mill, wliicli was run successfully by his descendants till a few years ago. TRTONTOWN AND CASTLETON. More than one spot had been thought of, before Rochester came into being, as the center of grav- ity for the metropolis of the Genesee valley that was sure to arise in the future. Many looked with favor upon a location on Irondequoit creek, about three miles from the bay, and there Judge Tryon, of Lebanon Springs, built in 1799 a store, which was stocked with goods brought from Schenectady and which is said to have been the first emporium of that kind opened within the present limits of the county, though it is rather hard to see how the many settlers could have got along before that without something of the sort. Shortly after that a public house was erected, kept by Asa Dayton, a tannery was put up and a local court was estab- lished which seems to have acknowledged no sili perior jurisdiction. But the decline was almost as rapid as the rise, the lake trafiBc went to the river instead of the bay, stagnation ensued, the storehouse was torn down in 1818 and that was the end of "Tryontown." A little later another abortive venture was made, this time on the west side, where the rapids are still rippling and where Colonel Isaac Castle had built a tavern, whence the prospective city was called Castleton, or "Castle Town." It was at the foot of navigation on the upper Genesee and at the head of the long portage from the lower falls, but those advantages could ' not: overcome the inclination of people to go some- - where else and the end of the matter came soon.:- CARTHAGE. A more ambitious experiment, one that lasted much longer and that seemed much more likely oi ' success was that at Carthage, the site of the famous bridge described in the foregoing pages. Its origin was much later than that of the places just men- tioned, but as it is the only other one, with the exception of Hanford's Landing, that ever bade fair to be the rival of Rochester, it may as well be mentioned in this connection. Elisha B. Strong may be considered as the real pioneer, though Caleb Lyon and indeed several others had been there before that, but their residence was only temporary. Mr. Strong, who came there from Windsor, Connecticut, in 1816 and in company with Elisha Beach purchased a thousand acres, made every effort to establish a real village. To this end not only were houses erected, but a tavern was built, kept by Ebenezer Spear; several stores were started; a school was opened, kept by Jedu- thun Dimick, in 1818 ; one lawyer, Levi H. Clark, had his office there; Strong and Albright put up a flour mill with four run of stones at the upper step of the lower falls, and FrankliA street was laid out at that peculiar angle simply for the pur- pose of diverting traffic from the Pittsford road and preventing its going to the Four Comers. One thing more was necessary to complete success, which was to join together the broken ends of the Ridge road and span the gorge of the river, so Strong, Beach and Albright, with Heman Norton, built the great bridge and the others which fol- 48 I-IISTOEY OF EOCHESTEE AND MONEOB COUNTY. lowed it. It was only the Erie canal, which was put through a few years later, that determined the question in favor of Rochester, but even then a horse railroad, operated by gravity from the top of the high bank at Carthage to the level below, con- nected the two places and supplied the extensive warehouses of Judge Hooker and others. Finally the New York Central railroad, taking just the line that it did, showed that there was no room for Carthage, even as an appendix of Eochester, and that ended it. The county at large had before this mani- fested signs of progress. Eoads originally Indian trails were gradually widened, straightened and leveled in every direction. In 1813 the legislature granted $5,000 for bridging the streams and clear- ing the path on the Eidge road from here to Lew- iston. Dr. Levi Ward had the contract for carry- ing the mail from Caledonia to Charlotte, before there was a house in Eochester. After an office wafc established here the service was, as we have seen, weddy at first, after that twice as often. In 181 fi it bocimio tri-weckly, the contract being given by the department to an enterprising company con- sisting of John G. Bond and Captain Elisha Ely to transport the mail from Canandaigua to Lew- iston by way of this village. At first one four- horse coach was used for the purpose, but the travel soon began to increase so greatly that several other similar vehicles had to be added, then the tavern- keepers along the road became interested in the matter and after 1817 for several years the coaches were so numerous that some one of them was al- ways in sight at every mile on the Ridge. The subject of the formation of Monroe county might well be treated at this point, but a chapter on that topic has been kindly contributed by another writer and will be found furtlier on in the volume. CHAPTER V KOCHESTER BECOMES A VILLAGE. Its Names and Its Charter — Its First Officers — Ordinances Adopted — The Population — The Second Newspfiper — Early Publications — The Three Court Houses — The First Directory — Movements in Real Estate — The Erie Canal — And the Oenesee Valley — The Morgan Affair — Lafayette and Basil Ilaill — Sam Patch and Joseph Smith — A Spasm of Morality — The Cholera Years. THE VILLAGE GOVERNMENT. The act of incorporation was passed by the legis- lature on the Zlet of March, 1817. The name was Rochesterville, though that appellation was never used by the inhabitants and no one has ever been able to iind out wlio suggested so cimibersomt) a term. For five years that form stood, wholly disregarded, and it was not till April 13th, 1832, that it was changed by legislative enactment to Rochester, which it had always been by custom. Although the interests of both sides of the river were almost identical, the new village was entirely on the west side and lay wholly within the town of Gates until 1833, when it was expanded on the east side -by annexation, and that portion of the village remained within the town of Brighton till the incorporation of the city in 1834. The act seems to have been rather paternal in its character, for it begins by saying that it "shall be, and the same is hereby declared to be, a public act and shall be construed in all courts of Justice within this state benignly and liberally to effect the bene- ficial purpose therein mentioned and contained." Great care was taken to preserve to the people themselves, rather than to the officials whom they might elect, the right of local self-government, for it was "the freeholders and inhabitants" who liad the power at their annual meetings to levy taxes — which should never exceed one thousand dollars in one year ; to make all the appropriations, however small, even for the most necessary ex- penses, and to elect all the village oflBeers — ^the trustees, the assessors, the treasurer, the collector, the pound keeper, the fire wardens and the con- stable. At the same time the trustees were not wholly powerless, or merely ornamental, for they were authorized to make laws, to regulate piiblic markets, streets and highways, to pass ordinances relative to "taverns, gin shops and huckster shops" and to the lighting of the streets, to impose rea- sonable fines and penalties, which should not, however, exceed twenty-five dollars for any one oilense, and to do many other things. Five trustees were provided for in the charter, and at the first meeting of freeholders and inhabi- tants, held at the school-house on the 5th of May in that year, the following named were chosen: Daniel Made, William Cobb, Everard Peck, Fran- cis Brown (afterward elected as president of the board) and Jehiel Barnard. The other officers, elected at the same time, were Isaac Colvin. Hast- ings Vi. Bender and Daniel D. Hatch, assessors; Ralph Lester, collector and constable; Roswell Hart, Willis Kempshall, John G. Bond, Abner Wakelee and Francis Brown, fire wardens. The trustees were authorized a month later to raise by taxation the sum of $350, for the purpose of 52 HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. defrajring the expenses of the corporation for stationery, of procuring fire hooks and ladders and of cutting two ditches to drain the swamp lands near private residences, the last named provision indicating that malaria was still prevalent. The next year the tax levy was $1,000, out of which a good fire engine was to he purchased, and from that time it steadily increased, of course. In 1826 the powers of the trustees were greatly enlarged, as they ought to have been before that, so that they had full control of village affairs and cou.d do whatever they thought necessary for the preser- vation of good order. By the ordinances then adopted no person was to keep above twelve pounds of gunpowder in any house within the village, nor even that quantity except in close canisters, under a penalty of twenty dollars; a fine of ten dollars was imposed for constructing insecure chimneys to any house or manufactory, or for failing to obey the directions of fire wardens in things re- lating to security against fire or for failing to keep fireplaces in good repair so as to be safe, the same amount being levied on each of the fire- men for each neglect of duty at a conflagration, while five dollars had to be paid for every viola- tion of the rules that each house should have a scuttle in the roof and stairs to the sa^me, that fire buckets should be kept in each house, that fireplaces, should be cleaned every three months that no candle or fire should be kept or carried in an exposed manner in any livery stable, that no person should burn shavings, chips or straw within fifty feet of any building, that all bell-ringers were bound to ring on an alarm of fire, that the inhabitants must obey the orders of the chief en- gineer and fire wardens at fires and that no one but those officials must give any orders at such times. When the village was incorporated it contained probably about eight hundred people, for the cen- sus of 1815 gave 331, while that of 1818 showed 1,049. Subsequent enumerations have been as follows: 1820, 1,502; 1822, 2,700; 1825, 4,274 in February, 5,273 in August; 1826, 7,669; 1830, 10,863; 1834, 12,252; 1835, 14,404; 1840, 20,191; 1845, 26,965; 1850, 36,403; 1855, 43,877; 1860, 48,204; 1865, 59,940; 1870, 62,386; 1875, 81,722; 1880, 89,363; 1890, 133,896; 1900, 162,608; 1905, 181,666. The census of the decimal years was that of the United States, and it shows that dur- ing the last half century the greatest increase in any decade was between 1880 and 1890, about fifty per cent. The population is now, undoubtedly, nearly, if not quite, 200,000. HENEVfED PROSPERITY. Within the first year of its corporate existence, the little village entered upon a new era of pros- perity. Much of this was owing to traffic that was not entirely local. The whole valley of the Genesee was known as the greatest wheat produc- ing section of the United States, but all the grain that was brought here by a constant succession of teams from every direction was readily bought by our millers, the price for it reaching $2.25 a bushel, and ground up at once. Even then the supply was not sufficient, for Rochester flour had acquired such a reputation thai there was a grow- ing demand for it, and great quantities of wheat were imported from Canada, some of it being sent back almost immediately in the shape of the fin- ished product. In 1818 the exports down the Genesee river across the lake to that market dur- ing the season of navigation amounted to 26,000 barrels of flour, 3,653 barrels of pot and pearl ashes, 1,173 barrels of pork, 190 barrels of whisky iiiid 214,000 butt staves, making a total valuation of $380,000, which was raised the next year to $400,000. All kinds of activity increased cor- respondingly. Flouring mills and manufactories multiplied rapidly and churches were erected which are described elsewhere. The Manaion House, the first three-story building erected here, was built in 1818 by D. K. Cartter and Abner Hollister; in 1819 the Royal Arch Chapter of Free Masons was installed, and the corner lot on West Main street, between Exchange and Aqueduct streets, running back to the canal, was sold for $1,175; the first court of record was held in 1820, when Hon. Roger Skinner presided at a session of the United States district court. NEWSPAPERS AND BOOKS. On July 7th, 1818, the second weekly newspaper was issued, by Everard Peck & Co., the Rochester Telegraph, the material for which and for its predecessor, the Gazette, was manufactured by Gilman & Sibley in the paper mill which they built o W Eh W O o Eh m M I— I I— I o W {» j> I— I Eh CO w a o w HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 55 for the purpose on the east side. The first daily, the Daily Advertiser, published by Luther Tucker & Co., appeared in October, 1836. An account of the career of that as well as of the two other journals will be found in another chapter. From the press room of the Telegraph issued a number of volumes at different times, the earliest being one printed in 1830, which, from its being the first book published here, deserves that its title- page should be reproduced in Cull, as follows : "Tiie Life and Adventures of James R. Durand. Dur- ing a Period of Fifteen years, from 1801 to 1816 ; iu which time he was imprisoned on board the British fleet and held in detestable bondage for more than seven years. Including an account of a voyage to the Mediterranean. Written by himself. Rochester, N. Y. Printed for the author by B. Peck & Co., 1820." The next book as far as is known was Vought's "Medical Treatise," put forth in 1833. It is remarkable that a portion of the first translation of the New Testament into the Hawaiian language should have been printed here, in 1838. The gospel according to Matthew had been translated by Rev. Dr. Bingham, that of Mark by Rev. Mr. Richards, and that of John by Rev. Mr. Thurston (three early missionaries to the Sandwich islands), and the manuscript was sent here to bo printed, after which a Rochester man named Loomis carried a printing press to Honolulu to complete the work. THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE. The county having been created in 1821, the first thing to be done, of course, was to make for it a building, the court-house, as it was invariably called, and so was its immediate successor, though in each case the court room occupied only an up- per story; in this edifice the basement was oc- cupied by the clerk's office, and afterward the police office also, the first floor being taken up by the jury room and the supervisors' room, the latter being also used by the common council after the city was incorporated. Rochester, Pitz- hugh and Carroll gave the land (one hundred and sixty-six feet on Main street by two hundred and sixty-four feet on Pitzhugh), which is still used for the same purpose, and the corner-stone was laid on the 4th of September, 1821, the build- ing being completed a year later at a cost of $6,- 715.66 It takes a pretty old inhabitant to remem- ber, that first court-house, but there are still a few who can do it, and they will be pleased, while the younger generation will be informed, by the fol- lowing description, even though that has been already given by the present writer before this, from the little directory of 1837: "The natural declivity of the ground is reduced to two platforms — the first on the level of Buffalo street, forming a neat yard in front of the building, which recedes seventy-five feet from the true line of the street, the other raised about six feet above the former and divided from it by the building itself and two wing walls of uniform appearance, presenting, toward Buifalo street, the aspect of an elevated terrace, but on a level with the streets immediately adjoining. This last, to- gether with the yard of the First Presbyterian church, now comprehended within the same inclosure, forms a small squ'are, laid out in grass lots and gravel walks, and needs only the further attention of the citizens, in planting it with sharli; trees and shrubbery, to render it a very pleasant and valuable accommodation as a public walk. This is now known by the name of Court square. The court-house building is fifty-four ■ feet long, forty-four feet wide, and forty high. It presents two fronts, the one facing Court square showing two stories and a full basement. Each front is finished with a projecting por- tico, thirty feet long and ten feet wide, supported by four Ionic columns surmounted bjr a regular entablature and balus- trade, which returns and continues along the whole front. From the center of the building rises an octagonal belfry, covered with a cupola. The basement affords convenient oifices for county and village purposes. The court room is in the second story, extending the entire length and breadth of tht building, and IS a remarkably well lighted and airy apartment." Some years later two one-story structures were erected on the front corners of the plaza, in the form of Grecian temples of the Doric order of architecture, with porch and pillars and pedi- ment. Doctors Elwood and Coleman built the one on the Pitzhugh street corner and occupied it •as their office for some time until it come into use for the county clerk till the second court-house was built, in 18C0, and then it was torn down. The other temple, on the corner of Irving place, was raised by Vincent and Selah Matthews, who had their law offices there for many years, after which it was the surrogate's office for several years, then again became a private law office and was at last obliterated during the CivU war be- cause it was in the way of the recruiting tents that covered the square. THE SEOOND OOURT-HOUSE. Although out of place chronologically it seems as well to describe here the successors of this court and county building. That was expected at the time of its erection to last for a century, but it stood for less than thirty years, as the corner- stone for the second was laid on the 30th of June, 1850. This was done with much ceremony. At half past ten in the morning the city and county 56 HISTOEY OP ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. oflBcials, together with the pioneers of Rochester then living, were escorted from the city clerk's office to the rendezvous on Clinton street, where they were joined by the Grays, the Light Guards, the German Grenadiers, the German Union Guards and Hibernia fire company number 1. Thence, headed by General Lansing B. Swan, the marshal of the day, the procession moved to the ancient corner, where a prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. A. G. Hall of the Third Presbyterian church, a short address was made by Lyman B. Langworthy, the stone was laid, an eloquent ora- tion was delivered by Judge Moses Chapin and the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Mr. Smith. The erection of the building took a year and a half,, for it was opened by a session of the Supreme court on December 2d, 1851, and when it was finished it had cost seventy-two thousand dollars. It was quite a creditable affair; the foundation, the steps and the pavement of the portico were of Onondaga limestone, ~ the superstructure was of brick,, three stories above the basement; four mas- sive stone columns upheld the roof of the portico and gave an air of dignity to the whole; the wef-1 half of the first floor, containing the clerk'a rec- ords, was made fire-proof twenty years later; the edifice was surmounted by a wooden dome and that by another, the two being so proportioned that the effect was quite pleasing and was rendered still more so by the imposition of a figure of Justice upon the upper dome. When the building was taken down, nearly forty-four years after- ward, the corner-stone was opened and it was found that those of its contents the material of which was paper, whether books or manuscript, were badly injured, even reduced to pulp, both paper and binding, by the moisture that must have penetrated the solid stone, the ink on many documents being wholly effaced and the likeness of the faces on the daguerreotypes obliterated, while many of the articles which had been placed in the foundation of the first court-house and afterward transferred to this, one, including .i parchment containing statistics of the village, were admirably preserved. Tliis ancient docu- ment, an old map of Monroe county, a few city directories and several articles relating to the then present time, were put into an aluminum box and that into a copper receptacle, which was deposited in a cavity hewn in the cornei'-stoiie of THE THIRD COURT-HOUSE. This, too, was laid amid impressive surround- ings, on the Fourth of July, 1894. That patriotic occasion gave opportunity for a revival of the old- fashioned celebration of the anniversary in the morning, with fire companies, military and all that; in the afternoon, an address having been made by Mayor Aldridge, an invocation pro- nounced by the chaplain, Rev. W. 0. Hubbard, an oration delivered by George Raines and appro- priate pieces sung by tlie public school children, the stone was carefully placed, with the full Ma- sonic ritual used on such occasions, under the direction of John Hodge, the grand master of the grand lodge. The contract called for the com- pletion of the building by April 1st, 1896, but there was the customary delay and it was June 27th of that year when the surrogate, George A Benton, formally opened it for occupancy by mov- ing into his office. The cost of construction was $719,945.02, the fixtures and furniture came to $110,212.48, making $830,157.50, to which should be added $40,533.33 that was paid for rent for the various public oflices while the building was go- ing on and enough incidental expenses to run the bill up to $881,560.86 to be paid by the county. The structure, which is fire-proof throughout, is much larger than either of its precedessors, though lack of room is beginning to be felt already; it has a frontage of one hundred and forty feet and a depth of one hundred and sixty feet, coming al- most flush with the sidewalk on West Main street and leaving but little open space in the rear, be- tween it and the city hall; with a high basement and four stories on the Main street front, eighty-, seven feet of altitude in all ; built of New Hamp- shire granite, all smooth dressed, and with a heavy cornice of the same stone. In general design it is Romanesque, with four polished columns on the north front, guarding a vestibule that opens into a central court covered by a skylight ninet)'- two feet above the level of the ground floor; it is finished inside with marble throughout; the first floor is used by the county clerk, the county treas- urer and the surrogate ; the trial courts occupy the second floor; the third is taken up with the gen- eral and special term and the law library, and the fourth is devoted to the supervisors, the district attorney, the grand jury and the jury commis- sioner. "v--?-"^***'rfSaai'iiS%7^<:|g^^ HECONi) MOiNliOE COUNTY C()in?T HOUSE. HISTOEY OF ROCHESTEE AND MONEOE COUNTY. 59 THE FIRST DIRECTORY. The year 1827 was rendered memorable, at least for old book lovers, by the publication of the first village directory. It is, however, much more tlian its name implies, for although it is a vej-y small volume, easily carried in the pocket, and contains only one hundred and forty-one pages, it is a gazetteer and a local history as well. The title page does not indicate the author, but says that the book is published by Elisha Ely and printed by Bverard Peck. Prefaced by a well-executed map drawn by Elisha Johnson, the directory proper fol- lows, in which the names of the householders, of whom there arc 1,123, are given alphabetically, but divided into the live wards under cacli initial letter oE the surname, followed by a list of the boarders, who arc almost equally numerous, with tlic names of those whom they favored with their company. In fill cases the occupation of the person is given, from which it appears that there were three hun- dred and four carpenters, one hundred and twen- ty-four slioe-makers, twenty-five physicians, twen- ty-eight lawyers, thirty-one printers, seven clergy- men, and so on. After this comes a description of the county of Monroe and of Eochester, followed by a yearly record of events from the beginning of the 'settlement. It is this last which gives to the work its real value, for the facts therein presented could not be obtained from amy other source, and the book therefore forms the foundation for every history of the city that ever has been or ever will be written. The work became out of print imme- diately, and for the last fifty years the few copies in existence have been in the hands of those who prize tliem so highly that the book is prac- tically unobtainable. The first deed recorded here, which was imme- diately after the formation of the county, was dated March 21st, 1821, and put on record April 6th. It conveyed, from Elisha Johnson and Bet- sey, his wife, to Andrew V. T. Leavitt, for the consideration of one hundred dollars, thirty-seven feet and four inches of land on St. Paul (then Canal) street at the corner of Mortimer (then Mechanic street. The purchaser sold the lot in 1850 to George G. Clarkson, aifterward mayor, who had his residence there for many years, till the house gave way to a business block, Charles J. Hill built the first brick house in the village in 1821, on the west side of Pitzhugh street, be- tween Spring and Troup, and from that time there was a steady increase in the construction of all kinds of buildings. The second church, St. Luke's (Episcopal), was erected in 1820, the socie- ty having been organized three years previously; the first court-house was begun in 1831, the first bank was established in 1824, the last of which is more fully treated of in another chap- ter. When Brighton was annexed, in 1823, the act made the provision that the street im- provements on each side of the river should be paid for by the taxes imposed only on that side. Perhaps that worked inharmoniously ; at any rate, for some reason a new act was passed in 1826, in- corporating the village of Eochester, just as though there had never been any such thing be- fore, extending its boundaries on the west and much more on the east and dividing it into five wards, the first three being on the west side, as now, the other two. on the east, divided by the river. THE ERIE CANAL. To no other one thing was Eochester so much indebted for its prosperity ars to the Brie canal. The paternity of this enterprise cannot be dis- tinctly established, but the floating ideas on the subject of a connecting waterway were crystallized in a series of articles by Jesse Hawley, published in a Pittsburg and a Canandaigua paper in 1807- 08. They aroused sufficient interest to cause the appropriation by the legislature in the latter year of $600 to pay for an accurate survey to be made for a canal that should connect Lake Erie with the tide-waters of the Hudson river. James Geddes, who was appointed to do the work, did it in the most foolish manner possible. In a long report he discussed every conceivable plan but the right one, and ended by recommending the very worst of all, in which Mud creek. Black creek, Tonawanda swamp and other sluggish waters, as well as a portion of Lake Ontario, were to consti- tute a great part of the channel. This was too ridiculous to be seriously discussed, and so the matter slumbered for two or three years, till De Witt Clinton made in the state Senate a powerful speech in favor of the original project, which earned for him the enduring title of "the father 60 rilSTOEY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. of the Erie Canal." The matter was agitated fre- quently after that, but the war with Great Britain delayed all internal improvements, and it was not till 1817 that the next decisive step was taken. On the 8th of January of that year a meeting of the citizens of Ontario county was held at Can- andaigua, at which Robert Troup presided. Col- onel Rochester was secretary and the opening ad- dress was made by Gideon Granger, lately post- master-general. John Greig then offered a series of resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, written by Myron lloUey, in which the arguments' in favor of a canal were presented in a most clear and convincing manner. It was these reso- lutions, with their cogent reasoning, that pre- pared the way for final success, so that Myron llolley may share with De Witt Clinton the honor of promoting the great work and particularly of bringing about, by subsequent efforts, the line of route that was adopted. An act was passed by the legislature in April of that year, authorizing the construction of a canal from the Mohawk to the Seneca river, and on the 4th of July, 1817, the work was begun, run- ning west from Utica. By succeeding legislatures the limits were extended as the work progressed, and in October, 1819, the commissioners — who were Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Joseph Ellicott, Samuel Young and Myron Hol- ley — gave out the contracts from Rochester to Palmyra. As each section was fmislied the water was let into it from streams that it traversed, and Rochester was one of the first places to use the channel for transportation, so that from April 26th to May" 6th, 1823, 10,000 barrels of flour were shipped from here to Albany. The hardest part of the labor was in cutting through the moun- tain ridge at Loekport and constructing the splen- did locks at that place, which used up all of 1824 and much of the next year; finally, on October 24th, 1825, the guardgates there were raised, the last section was filled with water and the canal was finished in all its length, the greatest work on the continent up to that time. The celebration lasted more than a week, for it involved the pas- sage of the official party— headed by De Witt Clin- ton, who before that time had been elected gover- nor of the state — from Buffalo to New York, the latter place being reached on the 4th of November, after stops of several hours had been made at dif- ferent places for speeches and banquets. As the telegraph was still unknown, the news of the act- ual departure of the flotilla of boats was conveyed from the western terminus to the metropolis in a novel manner. Cannons were stationed at frequent intervals along the route, as fast as one gun was fired the next gave the signal, so that New York heard the last report in one hour and twenty min- utes after the first explosion. Contrary to expectations the canal was soon found to be inadequate to the deiiumds upon it, and its original dimensions of f9rty feet in width by four feet in depth were quite insufficient. .Tu 1838 the legislature appropriated $4,000,000 an- nually for its enlargement, whereby its width wao increased to seventy feet, its depth to seven, sev- eral locks were added, making seventy-two in all : by straightening the line twelve and a half miles were taken off from the original three hundred and sixty-three, while the cost was increased from $7,143,789 to $51,609,203. Of the nine engineers engaged in building it three lived here, then or afterward; of the tolls taken about one-eighth were received here; the income derived from it by the state increased steadily for twenty-five years, declining as steadily afterward, so that tolls were abolished in 1883, to the great satisfaction of all. This work, which has been of incalculable benefit to our community, has, in its present form at least, outlived its usefulness and is to be superseded by a barge canal, of greater dimensions and of far greater cost; whether the new will accomplish more than the old, time will show. While we are on this subject, mention may as well be made of the Genesee Valley canal, de- signed to furnish transportation through this fer- tile portion of the state from north to south. Though begun in 1837 it was not finished, from Rochester to Clean, till 1856, and even then its volume of business did not come up to expecta- tions, so it was abandoned in 1878 and three years later was sold to a company which laid through its bed what was at first the Genesee Val- ley Canal railroad, afterward the AVestern New York and Pennsylvania, and is now a branch of the Pennsylvania railroad. The Delaware, Lacka- wanna & Western also runs its trains in on those tracks. In 1837 a short canal was constructed from Scottsville to the Genesee, and tor several years it was of great service in getting grain and •i.'i'isi'ix'r MoNiJor; coun'I'y coim."!' iioi'sk. HISTORY OF EOCHBSTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 63 Hour to market from tlie southwestern part of the county. THE MORGAN AFFAIR. A luysterious affair, with which Rochester was only incidentally connected, but which stirred the whole community to its lowest depths for a long time afterward, took place at this period. The Masonic order had acquired great popularity here. Wells lodge having been instituted in 1817, Ham- ilton Royal Arch Chapter in 1819 and Monroe en- campment of Knights Templars in 1836. One of tlie members of the order, in which he never rose to any eminence, was William Morgan, who fol- lowed the trade of a printer. He seems to have been a most undesirable person, somewhat intem- perate, with the persistent habit of not paying hi? debts and of forgetting to return anything that he had borrowed, which last defect contributed to his undoing. After he had removed from here to Batavia it became known tliat he was writing a book to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry, prob- ably to avenge some fancied slight at the hands of the fraternity. There was intense excitement over this and every effort was made to defeat his intention, even am unsuccessful effort to burn down the printing office in which the book was being put in type. Every other expedient failing, Mor- gan was finally arrested, in September, 1826, and taken to Canandaigua on a charge of petty larceny committed there; the accusation was soon shown to be ill-grounded and he was discharged but was immediately re-arrested and imprisoned for a debt of two dollars, which he acknowledged; four men came to the jail the next night, paid the debt, with the costs, and, as Morgan was about to leave the building, seized him and threw him into a carriage which drove off rapidly; he was never seen again as a free man. The grand jury of Ontario county found indict- ments for abduction against four persons, and, al- though they appeared in court with a' formidable array of eminent counsel, three of them pleaded guilty and all four were sentenced to terms of confinement. It was not difficult to trace the car- riage to Rochester, where it was driven down to the old Steamboat Hotel at Hanford's Landing, whence it took the Ridge road for Lewiston. Ac- cording to the evidence brought out at subsequent judicial trials, Morgan was carried from Lewiston into Canada, but all the efforts of Governor Clin- ton, liimself a Mason of the highest degree, to get on the track of him through the earl of Dal- housie, the governor of Lower Canada, were un- availing. What eventfully became of Morgan was never known, except to those who disposed of him, but the most prevalent, and probably the best- founded, belief always was that he was brought back from Canada, concealed for some time in an old fort, then taken out and drowned in the Niagara river. No one now has the slightest doubt that the Masonic body, a-s a whole, was innocent of the crime, and even ignorant of the existence of the plot, but at that time the responsibility of the fraternity was generally credited, the anti- Masonic fury raged around Rochester as its center and Timothy Childs was twice elected to Congress from this district as an anti-Mason; finally, to al- lay the excitement, all the lodges in Western New York took the commendable step of surrendering their charters to the grand lodge; not till 1845 was the order revived here, after which it becanfie stronger than ever. MORE FOREIGN VISITORS. Rochester was still so small that it delighted to receive distinguished visitors, particularly if they were foreigners. Lafayette came here in June, 1835, arriving on a canal boat from Lockport, though the waterway was not completed till four months later. Of course, there were receptions and speeches and a grand banquet at the Mansion House, then kept by John G. Christopher, after which the guest departed for Canandaigua. Cap- tain Basil Hall, an eminent officer in the British navy, came here in 1837, and the following ex- tract from his charming book descriptive of his travels in North America will show how he was impressed with the village:* "Everything in this bustling place appeared to be in motion. The very streets seemed to be start- ing up of their own accord, ready made and look- ing as fresh and new as if they had been turned out of the workmen's hands but an hour before, or that a great boxful of new houses had been •After Captain Hall had returned to England he published, in a volume separate from his narrative, as many as forty etchings from views which he had taken in this country by means of an ingenious mechanism called the camera lucida, the ancestor of the photographic camera. As the edition was very limited, the work is extremely rare. The picture representing our village, with the first court-house and the Presbyterian church in the rear, is reproduced in this volume. u HISTORY OF KOCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. sent by steam from New York and tumbled out on the half-cleared land. The canal banks were at some places still unturfed; the lime seemed hardly dry in the masonry of the aqueduct, in the bridges and in the numberless groat saw-mills and manufactories. In many of these buildings the people were at work below stairs, while at the top the carpenters were busy nailing on the planks of the roof. Some dwellings were half painted, while the foundations of others, within five yards' distance, were only beginning. I cannot say how many churches, court-houses, jails and hotels I counted, creeping u))ward. Several streets were nearly iinisliod, l)ut had not ns yet received their names, and many others were in the reverse pre- dicament, being named but not commenced, their local habitation being merely signified by lines of stakes. Here and there we saw great ware- houses without window sashes but half filled with goods, and furnished with hoisting cranes, ready to fish up the huge pyramids of flour barrels, bales and boxes lying in the streets. In the center of the town the spire of a Presbyterian church rose to a great height, and on each side of the sup- porting tower was 'to be seen the dial-plate of a clock, of which the machinery, in the hurry-scurry, had been left in New York. I need not say that these half-finished whole-finished and embryo streets were crowded with people, carts, stages, cattle, pigs, far beyond the reach of numbers, and as all these were lifting up their voices together, in keeping with the clatter of hammers, the ring- ing of axes and the creaking of machinery, there was a fine concert." TWO SKNSATIONS. In 1829 two events occurred that were much talked of, one exciting temporary interest, the other having far-reaching consequences. A wan- dering fellow named Sam Patch, who had acquired some celebrity by jumping from lofty places, not- ably into the Niagara river from a rock projecting from the bank more than half the height of the cataract, leaped the precipice here and then an- nounced that he would do it again on the 13th of November. Handbills liberally distributed at- tracted an immense crowd on thai day and Sam, true to his promise, sprang from a scaffolding which had been built twenty feet above the brink of the falls. If he had been sober he might have been successful; as it was, his limbs were broken by the awful plunge when he struck the water; his mangled body was found in the following spring at the mouth of the river and was buried in the cemetery at Charlotte. The other incident was not immediately fatal, but it produced greater misery in the end. A young man named Joseph Smith professed to have found in the woods in Wayne county a number of golden tablets, the miraculous writing on which he had copied. Offering the manuscript for publication to Thurlow Weed, who was then issuing the Tele- graph, and meeting with a positive refusal by him, he carried it to Palmyra, where it was printed by E. R. Orandin as the Hook ol' Alorinon, in 1830. It is interesting to note that the old press on which this Mormon IMlilo was slnick oil' was sold in June, 1906, for five hundred dollars, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at Salt Lake City. A copy of the first edition of the work is in the possession of the ITistorical society of this city. SABBATAUIANISir. The fundamental American principle of the separation of church and state was not so well un- derstood in those days as it is now, and the bonrd of trustees, while it would probably not have un- dertaken to interfere with the theological viewi- of anyone, considered that it had charge of the morals of the people. So the blowing of the bugle on canal boats as they passed through the village on Sundays was absolutely prohibited, and this oflficial action seemed to stir a certain class of the inhabitants almost to frenzy over the wick- edness of traveling on that day, whether by ho;U or by singe coach, hiirgc and excited muetiiigs were held, in which that form of vice was de- nounced in unmeasured terms, a kind of religious boj'Gott was established and three strict construc- tionists, Aristarchus Champion, Josiah Bissell and Ashbel W. Riley, put their convictions into prac- . ticc by setting up the Pioneer line of stages, to run on secular days only, an experiment which was abandoned after the projectors had lost sixty thousand dollars in it. The feeling was not all on one side, for the "friends of liberal principles and equal rights" held a large meeting on January 14th, 1831, to protest vigorously against some Sab- batuiian laws that had been proposed and against the religious test then used in courts of justice. THE CHOLERA. Asiatic cholera, to give it the full title universal- ly bestowed ujjon it until recently, appeared here for the first time in 1832 ; long in advance its ap- THE KEMPSHALL MILL IN 1838. HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. pioacli was kuuwn and a board of liealtli was ap- pointed, consisting of Dr. Coleman, Dr. Ward, Dr. Reid, Everard Peck and Aslibel W. Riley, the first named being sent to Montreal, where the disease Avas then raging, to study its symptoms and find out the most efficacious mode of treatment. All possible precautions were taken to prevent its appearance, but in vain, and after it had come all the efforts to arrest its progress were equally futile, in spite of the efforts of the local physicians, including Dr. McPherson, who came in from Scottsville to give himself wholly to the work. Nothing did any good; those who were smitten died, one hundred and eighteen were car- ried off by the scourge during the summer, and General Eiley, who had devoted himself to the cause, put eighty of them into their coffins with his own hands; the contagion did not touch him and he lived for more than fifty years after that. The destroyer came again in 1834, and had fifty- Cour victims; once more in 1849, with one hun- dred and sixty deaths, and for the last time in 1852, which was worse than all the other years combined, for, though the exact number cannot be ascertained, it is known that more than four hundred were swept away by the pestilence. CHAPTER VI IT BECOMES A CITY. The Boundaries — The .Municipal .Government — High-Minded, Mayors — Mt. Hope and Othei. Cemeteries — Center Market — Old Military Com-' panies — The New YorTc Central and Other Rail- roads — The Old Carthage Road — Street Rail- ways — The Telegraph — Disastrous Speculations — The Rochester KnocJcings — Anti-Slavery Sen- timent — The Underground Railroad — The War ' Time. THE CHARTER. On the 28th of April, 1834, the legislature passed the act incorporating the city of Roches- ter, and containing its charter. It was full time, for the place then contained over twelve thousand inhabitants; there were thirteen hundred houses, fourteen churches or meeting- liouses, nine hotels — the Eagle, the Eoehester, the Clinton, the Mansion, the Monroe, tlie Arcade, the City, the Eranklin and the Eensselaer — ten news- papers (counting all grades) and two banks; the amount of business done was then very great, and in the previous year one-sixth of all the canal tolls in the state had been taken here. The city limits embraced about four thousand acres but they were slightly enlarged two years later, partly for" the purpose of straightening to some extent the east- ern boundary, which at first was very crooked. The section of the act making that addition gives, singularly enough, no metes and bounds or dis- tances from one point to another, but simply says : "The boundaries of the city of Rochester are here- by extended so as to include within the limita thereof the farm of William Pitkin, situate in the town of Brighton, and also all the land lying be- tween said Pitkin's farm- and the eastern boundary of said city." So distant was the prospect that that farm would be built up that Mr. Pitkin exchanged its hundred acres for an ordinary lot on South Washington street. About a quarter of it is now comprised in the university grounds. In 1874 the city limits were so extended as to more than double its size; the lines were somewhat irregular but that furthest west was the Thurston road, that furthest east was the Culver road, these large additions of area constituting the iifteenth and sixteenth wards, rospcetivcly. In 18i)4 Uic western line was run out to Lincoln avenue. The latest extension was made in 190-4, when the whole village of Brighton (with a small strip from Irondcquoit) was an- nexed, becoming the twenty-first ward. THE GOVERNMENT. The municipal government, as created by the first election, consisted of Jonathan Child, mayor; Vincent Mathews, attorney and counsel; Samuel AVorks, superintendent; E. P. Marshall, treasurer; Jolm C. Nash, clerk; William H. Ward, chief en- gineer; aldermen — first ward, Lewis Brooks and John Jones; second ward, Thomas Kempshall and Elijah P. Smith; third ward, Frederick P. Backus and Jacob Thorn; fourth ward, Ashbel W. Riley and Lansing B. Swan; fifth ward, Jacob Graves and Henry Kennedy. The names of the successors of all these officials will appear in another part oi the volume. The number of wards was increased to nine in 1845, to ten in 1853, to eleven in 1858. HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 69 to twelve in 1859, to thirteen in 1864, to fourteen in 18G(), to sixteen in 1874, to twenty in 1893 (bo as to overcome the preponderance of the nineteen towns in the board of supervisors), to twenty-one in 1904 and to twenty-two in 1906, the last being without any addition of territory. There were two iildcrmen from each ward till 1877, when the num- ber was reduced to one, which has been found to be quite sufficient. MAGNANIMITY IN OFFICE. Mayor Child did not hold his office for the full term of a year and a half, which had been made a provision of the charter in order that the exec- utive and the common council should not enter upon office at the same time. Even throughout the first year there had been much difference of opin- ion on the subject of licenses between the council and the mayor, who was a consistent temperance man of strong convictions, but the board was on the whole discriminating and Mr. Child waived hit. objections. In June of the following year a new council was elected, and soon after their taking office it became evident that there was to be a good deal more laxity than before. The mayor was not long in making up his mind, and he soon sent in a message saying that the former board, al- though opposed to licensing in general, had given four licenses to grocers to sell ardent spirits bo- cause they supposed that a gradual reform on their part would meet the general sentiment better than a plenary refusal; that on that occasion he had sacrificed his judgment to the desires of the ma- jority, but that as an individual, both then and since, he had constantly objected to that measure and to every approach to it in tlie issuing of groc- ers' licenses. Mentioning the fact that the new board had issued numerous licenses he concluded by saying: "It becomes incumbent on me in my official character to sanction and sign these papers. Under these circumstances it seems to me equally the claim of moral duty and self-respect, of a consistent regard for my former associates, of just deference to the present board and of submission to the supposed will of the people, that I should no longer retain the responsible situation with which T have been honored. I therefore now most re- spectfully resign into your hands the office of mayor of the city of Rochester." The resignation was accepted at once and General Jacob Gould, who was elected mayor a week later, was more complaisant than Jonathan Child. A corresponding instance of magnanimity was shown in 1845, when Mayor John Allen was the candidate for re-election on the Whig ticket and Rufus Keeler was his opponent on the Locofoco platform. They came within two votes of each other, and the common council, acting as a board of canvassers, was tied on the question of allowing three imperfect votes to John Allen, which would have elected him; Mr. Allen, having as mayor the casting vote in the council, decided against himself; Mr. Keeler was then declared elected, but he declined to serve; Mr. Allen would then have held over, but he immediately sent in his resignation and William Pitlrin was appointed mayor by the council. THE OEMF/rEUIES. One of the first duties of the new common coun- cil was to provide a suitable resting-place for the dead. The early settlers had used for that purpo.^e a half -acre lot on the corner of Plymouth avenue and Spring streets, by permission of its owners,. Rochester, Fitzhugh and Carroll, who finally deeded it, as a free gift, to the village corporation in 1821. Three months later it was exchanged for a lot of three and a half acres on West Main street, where the City hospital now stands, and all the bodies were removed thither. This was always known as the Buffalo street burying- ground, while a smaller one on the east side of the river was called the Monroe street burying-ground. But both together were too circumscribed and too near to a growing population, so in 1836 the com- mon council, approving a selection unofficially made by a committee of citizens, purchased of Silas Andrus a piece of ground comprising the first fifty-three acres of what is now Mt. Hope. Fortunately for posterity Silas Cornell was the surveyor of the city at that time, to whose rare skill as a landscape architect, and equally perhaps to his wise forbearance in altering as little as pos- sible the undulations of the ground, it was owing that Mt. Hope has always been one of the most beautiful rosling-plncca Tor the dopactcd in nil tlie land, 'i'he spirit of the original design has been adhered to by successive superintendents. 70 HISTOEY OP EOCI-IESTEE AND MONROE COUNTY. notably by George D. Stillson, who held the posi- tion for sixteen years. Additions were made to the necropolis from time to time, the largest being in 18G5, when seventy-eight acres were purchased, so that it now contains about one hundred and eighty-eight acres. The first interment, that of William Carter, was made on August 18th, 1838 ; on the 1st of June, 1894, the fifty thousandth burial took place and up to this time some sixty thousand have been laid away there, a veritabla city of the dead, a silent city. While there were some few Catholics intei-red at Mt. Hope in early days, the great majority ol that communion, practically all of them, preferred to bury their dead in ground consecrated by their church, and so the trustees of St. Patrick's bought an extensive tract on the Pinnacle hills, southeast of the city, in 1838, and for the next thirty-three years the interment of English-speaking Catholics was made in the Pinnacle burying-ground, as it was always called, since which time much of the light, sandy soil of that eminence has been re- moved for building purposes. The German Cath- olics have had three cemeteries — that of St. Jos- eph, on Lyell avenue; of Sts. Peter and Paul, on Maple street, and of St. Boniface, on South Clin- ton street — but almost all the bodies have been re- moved from these and deposited in the Holy Sepulcher cemetery. This comprises about one hundred and forty acres, situated on Lake avenue, north of the city line, in the town of Greece, and extending to the bank of the river. The location is a most desirable one, and since it was opened, in 1871, it has been increasingly beautified, so that it has become very attractive to all visitors. Perceiving the advantage that the Holy Sepul- cher had over Mt. Hope in being located so far from the dwellings of the living, several persons formed themselves into a corporation in 1893 and bought one hundred acres of land just north of the former, where the grounds were at once laid out in a suitable manner and were tastefully decorated, the result being that lots were speedily purchased and interments are very frequent in the lovely Riverside cemetery. One other place of the dead might have been mentioned before, on account of its antiquity. Although within the city limits, near the southern end of Genesee street, it was doubtless intended for the use of the dwellers in Scottsville and Chili, for it is said to have been established in 1813, when there were no residents here. It has always been known as the Rapids burying-ground. CENTER MARKET. One does not need to be a very old resident to jemember the Center market, one of the landmarks of Rochester, which stood where a city building de- voted to various municipal purposes is now. It must have been built in 183G or 1837, for O'Reil- ly's "Sketches of Rochester," published in 1838, calls it "the new market," and says of it : "This edifice is creditable to the city. There is but one mar- ket-house in the Union, and that is in Boston, which can be compared with this market in its general arrangements. It is about two hundred feet long, extending along the west bank of the Genesee river, the water washing its' basement and affording facilities for cleansing the building. The wings extend about eighty feet from either end on the "west side, thus forming three sides of a squ'are facing on Front street and having a new street called Market street opened in front of it up to State street. The edifice is substantially as well as tastefully con- structed, the basement story being of cut stone and the super- structure of brick. The parts of the main building fronting on the square are supported by stone columns, with large doors and windows with green blinds, presenting an appearance unsur- passed by the lower part of any ran^e of stores in the city. The stalls are arranged on the east side of the main building and on the north and south sides of the wings, which arc all connected." The edifice was rendered conspicuous from a distance by the well-carved wooden image of an ox, on the central point of the roof, and the interior of the market justified all the praise bestowed upon it, for the stalls were kept in the best of order, the marble counters were always spotlessly clean, and for the twenty years of its use for that pur- pose no householders except those living in a re- mote quarter of the city ever thought of purchas- ing their meat elsewhere. MILITARY COMPANIES. This brings us to a mention of the military com- panies of that period, before the organization of the Fifty-fourth regiment of New York state mil- itia, most of which occupied the different rooms of the basement of the city market for their respective armories, the two brass bands of that day, Adams's and Holloway's, having their quarters tiiere also. The earliest organization in this region was a com- pany of riflemen that was formed in Penfield as far back as 1818, which attracted enlistments from Rochester as our little community increased in number. Ashbel W. Riley, mentioned elsewhere in this volume for his heroic exertions at the time of the cholera, was early connected with this com- OLD CENTER MARKET. TTTSTOT]Y OF ROCHESTEll AND JIONEOE COUNTY. 73 pauy, which uikIlt ]iis I'oiimiiiiul as capbiiii. at thy tinio of Lafayette's visit here in 1835, escorted the distinguished Frenchman from Rochester to Can- andaigua; other formations of a similar character afterward associated themselves with this one and all were united together as the "^Pwenty-second reg- iment of viflomcn ; Colonel IJilcv, wlio had then risen to the command of it, offered its services, with the consent of the whole body, to President Jackson in 1832 to quell the nullification disturb- ance in South Carolina, but the tender was not accepted, as the assistance of state militia was not required ; the next year Colonel Riley became bri • gadier-general of riflemen, and then major-general, a position whicli he held till tlie dissolution of tli'? brigade a few years later. The Irish Volunteer's came into existence in November, 1828, a very creditable organization whose commandant for some time was Captain P. J. McNamara; it was rttached to the One Hundred and Seventy-eighth regiment of infantry, with headquarters at Buf- falo. Then came "Van Rensselaer's cavalry, in 1834, named after the landlord of the Eagle Holel and commanded by him, and the next year the Rochester Pioneer Rifles, under George Dawson, the "fighting editor," which was a part of General Riley's regiment. In 1838 two crack companies were formed — Williams's Light Infantry, under Major John Williams, afterward mayor, and the Eochestei Union Grays, whose first captain was Lansing B Swan, afterward general, who, with General Bur- roughs, codified the military laws of the state; it was originally infantry but later became an ar- tillery company. Eight of the members were still surviving at the beginning of this year, with the average age of eighty-six. The next year the Rochester City Cadets came into existence, with James Elwood as captain; a few years later, some time boforo 1819, it was roorgnniznd ns the Rochester Light Guards, with H. S. Fairchild as captain ; it was this company that furnished sixty- five men to company A of the Old Thirteenth on the very day after President Lincoln's first call for troops, and many of its remaining members after- ward joined others of our fighting regiments. The German Grenadiers, the first of our Teutonic com- panies, and the Rochester Artillery were organized in 1840, the Rochester City Guards in 1844, the German Union Guards in 1847 and the Rochester City Dragoons in 1850. The Fifty-fourth regi. mcnt of New York state militia, organized in 1849, was at first confincil to the western half of the county, but in 1855 it embraced the whole of it at which time H. S. Fairchild became its colonel; although it did not go to the front during the Civil war it performed excellent service by doing guard duty over the Confederate prisoners at El- mira in 1864; it was disbanded in December, 1880, in accordance with a sweeping change in the militia system of the state, only one company, known as the Eighth Separate, being retained. The First Separate company and its military services are described elsewhere. While not connected with tlie period of time over which we have been going, it is as well to mention in this place the Rochester Union Blues, a fine volunteer company of patriotic citizens, formed in 1863, with Charles B. Hill as captain, for the express purpose of doing duty as a home guard during the war, though it continued its organization for some years after the conflict was over. THE NEW YORK CENTRAL. The first steam railroad operated in the United States was the Baltimore & Ohio, in 1831, and the first one that had Rochester for a station was the Tonawanda railroad, which started at the western corner of Main and Elizabeth streets, where a business block now stands. The company was chartered in 1832 for fifty years, with a capital of $500,000; the president was Daniel Evans, the vice-president Jonathan Child, the secretary A. M. Schermerhorn and the treasurer Frederick Whittlesey. Being quite experimental the road was built by slow degrees, Elisha Johnson survey- ing the route and doing the construction, for it was completed only to South Byron in 1834, .to Batavia two years later, and to Attica, forty-three miles in all, in 1842. The first train was run out a little way, with L. B. Van Dyke as conductor, on April 4th, 1837, but it was not till May 3d of that year that the first regular passenger train left for Ba- tavia, the event being celebrated here on May 11th. Ground was broken for the Auburn & Rochester railroad in 1838, and in 1840 the work was suf- ficiently advanced to allow the first eastward bound train to run from here to Canandaigua on Sep- tember 10th; the road was completed to Auburn a 74 HISTORY OF EOCHESTBE AND MONEOB COUNTY. year later, and, as the eastern connections had been laid long before that, the first train from hero to Albany ran through in October, 1841. On all these connecting roads the construction was very crude; a "strap rail" was used, merely a strip oi iron two inches wide and three-fourths of an inch thick, which was spiked to a six-by-six scantling, • and the ends of the rails frequently turned up, producing the dangerous "snake-heads ;" it was noi till 1848 that decent iron rails were substituted. In 1850 work was begun on the direct line from here to Syracuse; in the same year a small road from Lockport to Niagara Palls was purchased and extended to this city, and in the same year tfie Tonawanda railroad was consolidated with the At- tica & Buffalo, though it was not till 1852 that the first through train was run from here to the last- named place, the line being then straightened from there to Batavia. The Eochester & Charlotte railroad was built in 1853, and on May 17th, 1853, all the roads that have been mentioned, together with others in the eastern part of the state, were consolidated under the title of the New York Cen- tral Eailroad company, with a capital stock of $23,085,600. For thirty years the station was lo- cated on Mill street, where Central avenue now crosses it, but in 1883 the present building, extend- ing from St. Paul to North Clinton street, was erected. That completed, at a total cost of $925,- 301.25, one of the most important works ever done in this city, when the tracks were elevated and there was an end to the useless sacrifice of life, oe- sides innumerable minor casualties and the inflic- tion of almost intolerable inconvenience at the street crossings. OTHER RAILROADS. The sucpessful and profitable operation of these roads running east and west stimulated the desir'3 to push one down into the southern part of the state, and in September, 1852, a line was begun from here to Avon, which was finished in 1854. It was originally called the Genesee Valley railroad and that name clung to it for a long time subse- quent to its practical absorption by the Brie, shortly after its completion, on a ninety-nine years' lease. The Eochester & State Line compaay was formed in 1869 and work was begun two years later, but it was 1878 before the road was finished to its original terminus at Salamanca. It was in- volved in financial difficulties from the beginning and in 1880, being unable to pay the interest on its first mortgage bonds, it was sold out to New York parties, by whom the name was changed to the Eochester & Pittsburg (the word Buffalo being for some unaccountable reason prefixed afterward) and the line was extended to Punxsutawny, in Pennsylvania. In recent years it has been pushed' on to Pittsburg, and is now exceedingly prosper- ous as a coal-carrying road. The Genesee Valley, Canal railroad, now a branch of the Pennsylvania, which was intended to do the same service for thc! villages on the west side of the river that the Erie was doing for those on the east — for the latter, though starting on the west, crosses the Genesee opposite Mt. Hope cemetery — has been mentioned in the preceding chapter. The West Shore rail- road, which is practically a branch of the New York Central, sends its trains into and out of that station, as does the Northern Central, running to Elmira. The Eochester & Lake Ontario railway was opened in 1883, a little later it became a branch of the Eome, Watertown & Ogdensburg and for some years past it has had its station on Lake avenue, its trains running up from Charlotte. The Lehigh Valley railroad got into the city in 1892, entering under the name of the Eochester & Honc- oye Valley railroad. Within the past year it has built a fine station on the south side of Court street bridge. THE CARTHAGE EGAD. The street-car system is usually considered a modern institution, but it had its forerunner here three quarters of a century ago. In January, 1833, a horse railroad, which had been constructed in the previous year by a small company consisting of Blisha Johnson, Josiah Bissell, Everard Peck and a few others, with a capital of $30,000, went into operation. Its object, as stated in its charter, was to connect the Erie canal with the head of ship navigation on the Genesee river, so the line started from the aqueduct, which it touched at the south end of Water street, then crossed Main street and continued north along the edge of the river bank, with a total descent of two hundred and fifty-four feet, till it reached Carthage, where it made di- rect connection with the gravity railroad men- HISTOEY or KOCHESTBR AND MONROE COUNTY. 75 tioned in a precediug chapter. Tha coaches used for those excursions were open at the sides and were drawn hy two horses, driven tandem, the driver being seated on the top of the car. The road was very popular at first, but the novelty soon wore off, after which it was operated for traffic more than for passengers, but even that became uuremuncrative, and the line was abandoned after ten years of service. STEEET RAILROADS. Just twenty years after that was given up th? first line of the Rochester street railway system was opened, in July, 1863, on the Mt. Hope avenue route, from State street to the cemetery, and, sing- ularly enough, a part of that original line, the piece between the end of South avenue and Clarissa street, was taken up shortly afterward and has never since been relaid. The West Main street branch, the Lake avenue line and the Bast Main, Alexander and Monroe streets routes were com- pleted in the same year, but after that there was a lull in the business, so that it was not till 1873 that the St. Paul street and Clinton street lines were opened, from which time additions and ex- tensions were continually made. The cars to Charlotte, an independent concern, were first run by electricity on the 30th of July, 1889, and per- haps it was that which stimulated a syndicate of capitalists to buy out the old horse car company for $2,175,000 in November of that year and change the motive power from equine to electric, though the substitution was not completed till 1893. TWO SMALL V7ARS. A slight war scare — for it was nothing more, as far as we were concerned — disturbed the peace of tlio community in 1837. A fooling of discontent on the Canadian side of the lake, against what some considered the encroachments of the British government, had been fanned into flame by the efforts, principally in the shape of editorial articles, of William Lyon Mackenzie, a restless demagogue who owned a small newspaper at the time. Some- thing like a miniature rebellion broke out, and, for some inexplicable reason, our people, who had nothing whatever in common with the insurgents, chose to work themselves into a sympathetic excite- ment. Large sums of money were raised here, and a mob of persons from this vicinity rushed to the frontier and seized possession of Navy island, in the Niagara river, with the avowed purpose of using it as a base for the invasion of Canada. This insensate act would soon have produced a war be- tween the two countries had not General Scott been ordered to the island, who with a few troops cleared out the intruders at once. Mackenzie, the cause of the whole disturbance, escaped to New York and two years later worked his way up to Rochester, where he started a weekly paper called the Gazette, for the purpose of renewing the foolish struggle; being tried at Canandaigua for violation of the neutrality laws he was sentenced, to imprisonment in our jail for eighteen months, but was pardoned within a year and disappeared. That was the final scene in what was sometimes styled the "Patriot war" but generally and more correctly called the "Navy island raid." About ten years later a real war occurred, though we had not much to do with it. The troubles with Mexico having culminated in the invasion of that country in 1846, a full company was raised and enlisted here the next year, with Caleb Wilder as captain and Edward McGarry as first lieutenant. There was no occasion for them to do much fighting, but they remained in Mexico for eighteen months as part of the army of oc- cupation. THE TELEGRAPH. Rochester has the distinction of being, on the whole, the foremost city of the Union in the matter of the telegraph. The Morse system of telegraphy came into operation in 1844, but no one then dreamed that the wire would ever be carried across the Alleghany mountains, if indeed it ever reached as far as that. It was one of our citizens, the late Henry O'Reilly, who by his tireless energy project- ed, organized and constructed the longest range of connected linos in the world. These extended from the eastern seacoast to the distant South and were commonly known as the "O'Reilly lines," though their more formal title was the "Atlantic, Lake and Mississippi range." Most of them were constructed in 1846 and 1847, and, while they were connected, they were independent of each other, so that the business was unprofitable to many of them. Consolidation was the only way out of the 76 HISTOEY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. difficulty, and that was effected by the persever- ance of another Rochester man, the late Hiram Sibley, who after years of strenuous effort succeed- ed in buying up, witli llic nssistaneo ol' others, all those small lines and forming them into one whole, which, later became that gigantic monopoly, the Western Union. The consolidation was practically perfected in 1860, and from that time for sixteen years he was the president of the company, the office and headquarters of which were in this city; under his management the line was built across the continent to the Pacific, while the number of telegraphic offices was increased from one hundred and thirty-two to over four thousand and the value of the property from $220,000 to $48,000,000. The first telegraphic office here was not connecr- ed with one of the O'Reilly lines, but with that of the New York, Albany & Buffalo company, which was merged in the Western Union in 1860. It was opened for messages in the winter of 1844-45, but the first press dispatch did not come here till June 1st, 1846, which appeared in the Dsmocrat of the next day and was the report of the constitutional convention then in session at Albany. The of- fice was originally in the basement of Congress Hall but was soon removed to the Reynolds arcade, where it is still located; the first operator was George E. Allen, and the one who was in charge for the longest time was A. Cole Cheney, from 1852 to 1881, though his term of service has been almost equaled by the present incumbent, George D. Butler, who has held the position since 1883. As the Western Union lines extended, the stock, which was largely held in this city, increased in value and the local interest felt in the matter caused the price to advance far beyond its real worth; the speculative excitement was felt by all classes, until the stock, after having been doubled and then watered to the extent of one third more, reached two hundred and thirty in April, 1864; that broke the market and the stock fell almost out of sight, to the ruin of many. Some of those who had a little money left were foolish enough to put it into the oil wells of Pennsylvania, where the petroleum fields were opened about that time. A few fortunes were made there, but the losses far exceeded the gains, and Rochester felt the effects for a long time. One might have supposed that those calamities would teach a profitable lesson, but tlie present generation seems just as eager for speculative investments as its predecessors, and the disasters of forty years ago have been repeated within very recent times. THE ROOHESTEK KNOOKINGS. A singular phenomenon appeared here in 1847, which carried into foreign countries the name of our city by association in the title. In the year be- fore that John D. Fox lived with his family in Hydeville, Wayne county. The house which they occupied became the scene of mysterious noises, not loud at first but eventually so violent as to disturb the neighbors, and these manifestations were fi- nally traced to the instrumentality of the two little girls— Margaretta, aged twelve, and Kate, aged nine. Neither the parents nor any of the visitors were able to solve the mystery as to how these sounds, which had now taken the form of knock- ings or rappings on the walls, floors and ceilings of the dwelling, were produced. To prevent the possible collusion of the two children, they were separated, first one and then the other coming to Rochester to live with their elder sister, Mrs. Leah Fish. As long as either remained at home the noises continued there; when the last one had de- parted they ceased entirely. Mrs. Fish, originally skeptical, soon became as expert a medium as either of her little sisters, and the sounds soon came to be announced as messages from the depart- ed spirits in another world. Seances were given at the residence of the Pox family, who had by this time removed to Rochester, and in the houses of persons whose intelligent interest or morbid curi- osity impelled them to witness the manifestations, and in almost every instance the presence of any one of the three sisters was sufficient to obtain responses more or less satisfactory. The usual method was for some one in the group to call out slowly the letters of the alphabet and when the right one was reached there would be a rap or knock of approval, by which laborious process the entire sentence would have to be spelled out. The whole city became greatly excited, and while most people were incredulous many became pro- found believers in the truth of the alleged revela- tions. At last a public demonstration was given in Corinthian hall on November 9th, 1849, after which a committee of five citizens was agreed upon by those present to make a thorough investigation inSTOEY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 77 and report at a subsequent meeting. A few days later they reported that they had been unable to discover the means by which the noises were pro- duced. This did not satisfy the general expecta- tion; the people wanted exposure, and they must have it ; so another committee was appointed, with the same result, and finally a third. All the fif- teen members of these different committees were men of the very highest standing in the com- munity, of unblemished character and all of them, without exception, absolute disbelievers in the new system. This last committee, determined to suc- ceed where the others had failed, made a more thorough investigation than their predecessora, subjecting the mediums to the most rigorous tests and having their clothing examined by trust- worthy women, selected for the purpose, to see if any artificial appliances were concealed. On the appointed evening Corinthian hall was crowded, but unfortunately the audience comprised a large number of lawless rowdies who went there for the purpose of creating a disturbance, and equal- ly unfortunately the mediums were present on the stage to hear what they felt confident would be their vindication. The committee reported that all their tests had been futile and that the rap- pings had been plainly audible when the girls were standing on feather pillows or on glaSiS, without shoes, and when placed in other positions. A moment of stillness and then a mad rush for the platform. Blood would have been shed despite all the efforts of the police and the lives of the girls might have been sacrificed had it not been that S. W. D. Moore, then police justice and after- ward mayor of the city, a man of unusual size and strength, sprang forward and with his powerful arm beat back the foremost of the mob until their intended victims had been taken out by a back door and conveyed to a place of safety. After that outbreak the Fox sisters were allowed to pursui; their activities without molestation and all the various phases of modern spiritualism were event- ually evolved from the "llochester knockings." SLAVERY AND rilEEDOM. To many of the readers of this book African slavery in America is only historical, but to many others, although that system never existed in our midst, the recollections of its blighting influence still remain. Perhaps in no other community of the North was there a more intense feeling of hos- tility to slavery and of indignation over the wrongs inflicted upon the negro. Colonel Rochester, the founder of the city, was the first emancipationist here, for, though he brought up ten slaves with him from Maryland in 1810, he freed them all after reaching Dansville, as ho would do nothing to perpetuate tlie institution even in its mildest form. At a later day Myron Holley, co-parent with De Witt Clinton of the Erie canal, was most active in that field of philanthropy. In 1839 he started the Rochester Freeman, in which hi' urged the policy of independent political action on the part of those opposed to slavery; in Sep- tember of that year the Monroe county convention, which was the first to be held for that purpose in the country, adopted an address and a series of resolutions prepared by Mr. Holley, who thereby became, more than any other one person, the founder of the Liberty party, for from this con- vention sprang that of the state, held in the suc- ceeding January at Arcade, Wyoming county, and from that the national convention held in the fol- lowing April at Albany, which nominated James G. Birney for the presidency; after Mr. Holley's death, in 1841, the party acknowledged his serv- ices by putting up to his memory an imposing monument in Mt. Hope cemetery. From that time on, anti-slavci'y conventions frequently met hero, and in the early fifties many popular fairs were held in Corinthian hall, from the platform of which, on the 35th of October, 1858, William H. Seward uttered his memorable prediction about "the irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces." Still more was Rochester distinguished as one of the principal stations of the "underground rail- road," that mysterious route of travel from the bondage of the South to freedom beyond the border. For a great many years between one hun- dred and two hundred fugitives passed througli here annually, and, while there were half a dozen houses, not many more, if any, ready to shelter them temporarily, they most frequently found their way to the residence of Mrs. Amy Post, on Sophia street, guided thither by the same recondite sys- tem of information that liad directed them as far as this city. There they would lie hidden, some- times one at a time, once as many as fifteen in 78 HISTORY OF EOGHESTEE AND MONEOE COUNTY. the party, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for several days, until the watchfulness of govern- ment spies was relaxed and a peculiarly dark night had fallen, when they would be driven in a closed vehicle down to the foot of Buell avenue, from which point the regular steamer, sailing under th?. British flag, would carry them across the lake to Canada. It ie remarkable that although these facts of concealment were known to many people, black and white, there was never any betrayal of the secret, and the warrants, of which there were many in the pockets of the officers, were never served. Scarcely less remarkable is it that the only rendi- tion that ever took place here was in 1823, long before there was any agitation on the subject or anything like a general migration had set in. A young woman who had escaped was living hero in fancied security with her husband, but the human bloodhounds got after her, she was ar- rested, taken to Buffalo and put on a boat io: Cleveland, whence she was to be carried to Wheel- ing, Virginia; knowing the fate that awaited hev she gained her freedom at a stroke by cutting her throat. No other arrest was ever attempted in this city. The infamous fugitive slave law was passed in 1851, but that instead of helping the South only served to increase the ill feeling at the North, until before a decade had passed the great war broke out. THE CIVIL WAR. When Abraham Lincoln passed through here on the way to his first inauguration in 1861 the thousands who poured down to the old Central station in the gray dawn of the morning to catci a glimpse of him on the rear platform of hia train were not actuated by mere curiosity, but felt that it was the prelude to a coming struggle, aad when his proclamation was issued on the 15th of April, calling for 75,000 volunteers to put down the southern rebellion, there was no surprise, but rather a feeling of relief that the great issue was to be decided at last. Rochester responded nobly; the common council immediately appropriated $10,- 000 to defray urgent expenses, a public meeting was held in the city hall to pledge support to the Union, and over $40,000 was raised by subscrip- tion for the support of the families of volunteers. Nearly a thousand men were enlisted within 9 week under the direction of Professor Isaac F. Quinby, of the university; early in May they left for Elmira, where, with the addition of one com- pany from Livingston county, they were organized into what has always been here called afl'cctionate- ly the "Old Thirteenth," being our first regiment; on the 30th they were sent to the front under command of Colonel Quinby, being the first vol- unteer regiment (in conjunction with the Twelfth New York) to pass through Baltimore after the attack on the Massachusetts Sixth on the 19th of April. On Thanksgiving day of that year tlie Eighth cavalry, which had been recruited durini? the summer, marched away. They, with the Thir- teenth, the One Hundred and Eighth and the One Hundred and Fortieth, were pre-eminently fight- ing regiments, the pride of Rochester, although no discrimination is thereby intended against ths many others in which there were companies from this city and which distinguished themselves on many sanguinary fields. The feverish enthusiasm of the first summer gave place to a grim determination in 1862, when another call for troops was made and Rochester settled down to the business. The plaza in front of the court-house was dotted with recruiting tents, while others were pegged down at the Four Cor- ners and in other places, even in the outlying wards, the people bearing with equanimity the in- convenience that was caused to travel and to traffic and the runaway accidents that were occasioned by horses getting entangled in the tent-ropes. For the temporary quarters of the regiments that were being raised Camp Hillhouse was established on the east side of the river, in Brighton, and when that had to be abandoned Camp Pitzjohn Porter was installed on the west side, near the Rapids. In spite of all, tlie number of enlistments was not sufficient and in August, 1863, the dreaded conscription took place, when 1,096 names were drawn from the wheel by Robert H. Fenn, a re- spected citizen who was totally blind. It then seemed as though the limit had been reached, that nothing further could be borne, but another call for troops was made, for three hundred thousand ^s banks of the city, so that during the four years just previous to 1890 the banks loaned $r),391,- 29.'5.nT, while the associations sold in \hc same. time $0,989,834.50, an excess in' favor of the latter •)? $1,098,540.83. All of that irioney was used for the erection of small and comfortable homes, the I'orrower being generally the occupant, thus going far toward making Rochester a city of house- holders. In this way the usefulness of the system was clearly shown, and beyond that it had tli'? inestimable advantage of inducing habits of in- dustry, of thrift and, above all, of temperance T.onn associations have of late years lost the favor with which they were once i-egarded and are no longer the fashion, but lliere is no reason whv they should not again be taken up and repeat the good that they once accomplished. THE TELEPHONE STRIKE. The Boll Telephone company of Buffalo, which a short time before that had laid its wires through the intermediate counties between the two cities, opened an office in Rochester in January, 1879; It was understood at the outset that this was merely a branch of the American Bell Telephone company, for it was evidently guided by , orders from that concern, which admittedly held a large portion of its stock and had representatives on its board of directors. Subscribers were readily found and tlie service was operated by moans of wires carried for the most part over the lands of pri- vate individuals, but in 1883 the company felt strong enough to begin the appropriation of thu streets of the city. Having obtained from the common council the right to string wires and erect poles — provided the latter should be "straight an.^ sightly," it immediately proceeded to disfigure Main and State streets by the elevation of im- mense pine sticks, in some cases ninety feet high, "like the mast of some tall admiral," none of which had been prepared to .resist the action of the moist earth, most of which were far from straight and all of which were placed without the slightest regard to the convenience of property owners. At the same time, it being assumed that the use of the invention had then become a ne- cessity, the rentals were suddenly raised and all expostulations were met by the statement that the total revenue received under the original terms was not sufficient but that if the patronage were in- creased the old rate should be restored. Deceived by this promise, which tlie company probably never intended to keep, new subscribers came in, till the number reached nearly one thousand, which was considered quite large for those days. The service was extremely poor and the in- struments were inferior in construction, the re- ceivers giving forth a loud metallic click that was calculated to produce deafness in all persons us- ing them. But not for that did the company care, or pretend to care; on the contrary, it increased its extortions and announced that the flat rate of rentals was to be abandoned and the execrable toll system substituted for it, in which the lowest pos- sible price was to be fifty dollars for five hundred messages within the half-mile radius and six cents for each message above that number, the fifty dol- lars being increased to seventy for all subscribers outside the half-mile limit, making fourteen cents for each message. This was the final culmination of inordinate greed ; the patience of the people at 100 HISTORY OF ROCHESTEU AND MONROE COUNTY. last gave way and on November 20th, 1886, a tele- phone strike was inaugurated, practically all of the subscribers hung up their receivers and at the same time the common council revoked the license to use the streets and the public buildings for the wires. Much inconvenience was caused, but tlie community soon accustomed itself to the loss of the service and went without it for a year and a half; on the 12th of May, 1888, the company yielded and a settlement was effected by which the people gained most of the points in dispute. A few years later a home telephone company was organized, which will be mentioned in another chapter. OTHER STRIKES. While upon the subject of strikes it might be a? well to note the long strike at the stove foundries, which kept several hundred men out of work from the end of April, 1885, till the 9th of Au- gust, wlien it was settled by arbitration ; while the difficulty was at its height the strikers were so vio- lent in their murderous assaults upon those who chose to labor that police protection had to be af- forded to the workmen at the Co-Operative foun- dry and the Sill stove works. Similar disturb- ances marked the following years. In 1886 Ihe masons, demanding the limitation of nine hours for a day's work, caused a general suspension of building operations for a month ; early in the sum- mer of 1887 the troiibles extended to the streoli laborers, the worst alfair being on Gorham street, on the 2?th of June, when the strikers attacked the peaceful diggers in an excavation and ther, stoned the police who came to the rescue, so that three officers were badly injured before they iired into the mob and quelled the riot. A litlo ialei' was a prolonged strike of the shoe-cutters, in wliich there was no public disturbance, but there was much suffering, as some twenty thousand peo- ple were dependent for their sup»;ort upon those who went out. In 1889 there was a strike of the street car drivers, which began on the 3d of April and was not declared off till the 1st of June, though many of the old Iiands "went back to work before that. During the first week there was almost a complete tie-up of all the lines, then some other drivers were brought in and the cars began to ru7i on the principal thoroughfares, though they had to be preceded, at least on Main street, by a line of police extending from curb to curb. There was some rioting, the worst being on North Clinton street, on April 13th, when the police were fero- ciously assaidted by the mob, several of the formei being badly hurt. This little difficulty was prob- ably instrumental in hastening the transfer of the old horse car concern, in November of that year, to the present company, which changed the sys- tem to the electric as rajjidiy as possible, since which time there has been no disturbance. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. An important move was made on October 26th, 1882, when the Civil Service J{eform association was forjiied, in affiliation with the more general body in New York city, becoming afterward a member of the Natianol Cicil Service Reform league, of which Dr. E. M. Moore, as president of this society, became one of the vice presidents and member of the executive committee. Soon after this, through the inlliiencc of the last-named organization, Congress was induced to pass the "I'endlelon bill," by which appointments in the civil service of the United States were thrown opeu to those who successfully passed a competitive ex- amination, instead of being confined, as before that, to those who had political influence and wlio therefore could obtain places under tne execrable spoils system, and not otherwise. At almost the same time the legislature of New York passed ii similar bill, having regard not only to state em- ployees but to those engaged in the service of the different cities. Two boards of local examiners were appointed here, one to decide upon appli- cants for positions in i\n\ police and fire depart- iiienls, the oilier for all olher siibordimite olllcers, clerks and assistants. Prom the very start both boards encountered a quiet but determined oppo- sition from the municipal authorities, the ma- jority of whom hated the law and could not coin- prehend how there could be any such thing as ap- pointment by reason of merit or fitness. The. mayor, Cornelius R. Parsons, who was friendly to the law, endeavored to have the various depart- ments appoint suitable examiners, and in the board of police commissioners, of which he was, ex officio, a member, he introduced a resolution on tlio 18th of January, 1884, for the creation of a "commis- GENESEE VALLEY FAKK, SOU^J^II END. niSTOEY OF llOCHESTEK AND MONROE COUNTY. 103 sion, to conduct exaiuiiiations and ascertain the litncss of candidates, in accordance with the in- tent and purpose of the statute." But the two other commissioners would have none of it and voted that "it is not expedient that a commission be appointed to conduct examinations." The mayor having thereupon gone ahead and formed tlie two examining boards of private citizens, the police board declined for a whole year to ask the examiners for a list of those who had shown thn required standard of excellence, but at the end of that period they came to their senses and made the proper application, so there was no furthes trouble with them. The common council was ths next body to undertake the destruction of the law. Wishing to reward in the old-fashioned wny a cer- ' tain politician for some purely partisan services, they created the office of "inspector of lamps" and appointed him to it, with a good salary. The mayor promptly vetoed the ordinance and the al- dei'mcn ivitli equal celerity passed it over his veto. Then they put the name of the illegal appointee into the budget, which the mayor declined to ap- prove, and the spoilsmen readopted that also, whereupon the board of examiners obtained an in- junction against the city treasurer, the council and the mayor, forbidding the payment of that budget. When the whole swarm of city officials had to go without their salaries for some time the storm of protest became so violent that the name of the alleged inspector was dropped from iUhe rolls and the other salaries were paid. The mat- ter afterward was taken through all the courts of the state until the Court of Appeals decided, in a unanimous opinion, that the appointment was in violation of the civil service law. The executive board was somewhat more politic and diplomatic, but it was equally stubborn in its evasion of th'.' statute for a long time, until finally it too waa compelled to yield. Since that period there ha'j beecn no great difficulty and the law is now car- ried out in the letter if it is not respected in the spirit. THE PARKS. Even while Eochester was still a village there were several open spaces, grass-grown, in some cases fenced in, sometimes not, and universally called "squares," even where they were circular, like the one on Plymouth avenue. As these had all been presented to the municipality they went the way of most gifts and but little thought or labor was expended upon them by the authorities, so that they were far from being a credit and were of no real use to anyone, except in the case of Jones square, where the boys played baseball during the Civil war and for some years after- ward. Long after every other city in the country had real parks Eochester was destitute of those desirable adjuncts of municipal life, and every plea that was made for them was met by the argu- ment of economy on the part of the common coun- cil. The late Dr. E. M. Moore, who was em- phatically the father of the present park system, constantly spoke and wrote on its urgent neces- sity from a sanitary point of view, but the people were as apathetic as the aldermen were hostile, and his efforts would have been unavailing had not the late George W. Elliott, who was then a member of the board, supplemented those appeals by his unceasing arguments in the public press and in the council. The well-known nursery firm of Ellwanger & Barry had to make more than once the offer of a free gift of twenty acres of land that now form a part of the beautiful Highland park before the council could be induced to accept it, which was finally done in January, 1888. Later in that year the legislature passed a bill creating the park commission, with extensive pow- ers to accept gifts, to purchase land and to main- tain and control all public parks, including the small "squares" alluded to. The commission promptly organized, selecting Dr. Moore as presi- dent, which he continued to be until his death. The result of all this was the formation of three separate parks, of which the largest is the Genessee Valley — commonly known as South park — just south of the city line and covering both sides of the river, though mainly on the east, for the west is devoted to baseball grounds, golf links, canoe club and other houses. The vast expanse of this territory, extending to the horizon, is pleasing tfl the eye, the monotony of the plain being relieved by flocks of grazing sheep and a few of the larger variety of deer, while under the ancient forest trees bands play periodically during the summer afternoons. Fine as it is, the Genesee Valley must yield in point of natural beauty to Seneca park, usually called North park, where the undu- 10-1 HISTORY OP ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. lationa of the ground permit of the most agree- able variety of walks and drives with a charm- ing little lake toward the lower end; on the upper level are a number of cages with the smaller animals, while down below are many of the larger beasts, making altogeUier quite a menagerie; the gorge of the river prevents com- munication between the two banks, so that Maple- wood park, on the west side (originally a part of Seneca), is comparatively little visited, but it has many features of interest. Perhaps Highland park, the sinnllest of the four, is the most attractive of all, with its botanical display, particularly of the lilacs in their season, and the enormous number of different kinds of trees, showing a greater variety than can be found in any other park in the United States; besides which the view from the highest point, comprehending a large section of the sur- rounding country, with the neighboring villages and towns, atTords enjoyment to the beholder. The older citizens may possibly consider that, after all, the advantage of our park system, which has given Rochester so enviable a position among the cities of the Union and has done so much to benefit the liealth of the people by giving them these delight- ful breathing-places, lies very largely in the trans- formation that has been made in the small public places, which, formerly unsightly from neglect, have become beauty spots by the tasteful arrange- ment of well tended shrubbery. One of these old inclosures, which always went by tlio name of Bi'own situnrc;, is, porlinps, produc- tive of more direct and obvious benefit than any one of the more capacious parks. In 1902 the president of the board urged the devotion of that spot to purposes of recreation for the young, and, as his recommendation was warmly indorsed bv many leading citizens it was, after some oppositioa, adopted by the board. This was carried out in the following year, the Children's Playground league being formed for the purpose of aiding the move- ment and supervising the conduct of the young- sters. A year later the enterprise was in full swing, the children were taught how to play sys- tematically and, what was still more important, how to respect tlie rights and the feelings of each other. The park board had in the meantime erect- ed a shelter for them, with every convenience for the boys and girls, and every afternoon during tha summer and fall great troops of juveniles may be seen enjoying to the full the advantages of wlint was. once the comparatively useless old Brown square. The park system has been lately rein- forced by the magnificent gift of four hundred and eighty-four acres on the shore of the lake, along which its front extends for nearly a mile, while back of that are nearly a Imndred acres of forest and woodland. It is as yet wholly undeveloped, hut its possibilities are almost illimitable, and in the near future the ]K!()])le of Rochester will nuire fully appivciato the beiiclit bestowed upon tbcui by the uuiniiictMU'd of two of llii'ii' lellow-eiti/eiis. It is only fair to add that the credit for all the work done in this entire system is mainly due to the knowledge, good taste, skill and industry of the one who has been the superintendent of the parks from the very beginning. THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL. The most important celebration ever held in Rochester was that in commemoration of the fif- tieth birthday of the city, in 1884. For many days beforehand the people had been perpetually re- minded of the event by newspaper articles describ- ing everything that ever happened liere and giving full particulars of what was to be done on tht festal days. The celebration really began on Sun- day, the 8th of June, for on that day most of the discourses treated more or less fully of the sud- jeet and at the First Presbyterian churcli, who.-^n society was Iho oldest, Rev. Dr. Tryon Edwards preached in the morning, by request, the same ser- mon that he had delivered at his installation just fifty years before, and in the evening the services were conducted by Rev. Dr. F. De W. Ward, who, at that same remote period, had been there ordain- ed as missionary to India. Throughout Monday morning the municipal committee was engaged in receiving invited guests, and at noon the official beginning of the celebration was announced by fifty discharges of cannon and by the ringing of St. Peter's chimes and other church bells for an hour, with the appropriate shrieking of steam whistles and other distracting noises at irregular intervals. The afternoon was taken up with the literary exercises at the city hall, on the platform of which were seated all the ex-mayors then living ; Mayor Parsons gave a short address and Eev. Dr. Shaw, the venerable pastor of the Brick church, i^f^^t V &kkj :Wi^. i^-.j^i3Misi tk '':'^u-'imip^:^v!^'^r^^^'iffl^^mmti^am - ... ..■,- .. ■,- -■ ^.»., ,>^- ■■ \m^ li ^^^^- ^ >i#^S:'" ' : V' ^^^'^S^ fl^SttiliSiiiSTl u ijm^^g /*'■.? ■' ''''.'i.'.""'.',r -■■■.:•■ '^'y-C''^?^''^''' ■ ^ ■ -:^~K'^~^'- cn?fe^^^ii;^^Sf;:>i '•■*K. '".■■■'■'";:";;:' ^ '..■'",•;•;>' ' ' iJtv?^ ;'5 •'^^ F %:■ ^^b^K^H^Ms^^^sH^^^ .v-a ■■■■■ '■-■■^i^^-' '•■- Vl ■ • '"^'^^-V- -.'J^:. , ./^'-^''^^^r^'^^^?'^ P^^^^^H^^ffl mcu. ^S ^m 1 ^iiK^^^l55S?^^?^y^^«'^^PM5Sfe'i^f*J?? ^^H p A'IKAV LOOKING SOUTH. HIGHLAND PAEK. iriS'IH)l?,Y OF ROCHI^ISTEll AND MONROE COUNTY. 107 delivered the invocation; a communication from the town council of Rochester, England, congriit- ulating its namesake, was read and a resolution of- fered by Frederick A. Whittlesey returning thanks to the ancient corporation by the Medway was adopted; after that came an historical address by Charles E. Fitch, an oration by George Raines, the recitation of a poem by Eev. Joseph A. Ely and complimentary addresses by Mayor Low of Brooklyn and Mayor Smith of Philadelphia, the whole being interspersed with vocal and instru- mental performances, including a festival hymn with a full choir and regimental band, the music being composed for the occasion by the leader, Prof. Albert Sartori. On Tuesday morning Governor Cleveland with his staff arrived on a special car; he was met at the station by the reception committee, a detach- ment of police and a large military escort under \]\o coiinnaiid of Colonel Francis A. ScluBlfcl and taken lo IJio Rowers Hotel, where a re- ception was held. At the firing of the noon- day salute of fifty guns every store in the city closed its doors, a measure that would have suggested itself naturally, for the streets were already filled with a throng of sight-seers, both of residents and of those from the surrounding coun- try who had come in unprecedented numbers, in- tent on nothing but witnessing the parade. This was under the command of the marshal of the day, General Reynolds, with a full staff of aids and deputies, and it embraced all the veteran mil- itary organizations, then the citizen soldiery of that day — with a company of Bufl!alo Cadets be- l.woon the lines of thoir hosts, the Rochester Ca- dets — then the lodges of Odd Fellows, the uni- formed Catholic societies, the German societies of various kinds, the Ancient Order of United Work- men and a number of organizations, social and ofberwisc, then the Rochester fire department, followed by an endless array of wagons represent- ing the dilfcrent industries and trades ; it was the finest procession ever seen here, perhaps in this section of the state. In the evening there was a grand banquet, at which, in response to toasts, short speeches were made by Governor Cleveland. President Anderson, Mayor Bdson of New York, Mayor Boswell of Toronto, General Riley, Alfred VAy, Dr. Moore, Patrick Barry, Judge Macomber and others, including Oronoyetkba, then the head of the Mohawks, from Canada, one of the kindred of Joseph Brant, tlie old war chief of the tribe. AS TO DISEASE. While there have been no destructive epidemics in Rochester during the last half century, the city has been by no means free from disease and from alarms over the possible spread of contagion. In the latter part of 1889 the malady known as the grip (an Anglicisation of the French form, la grippe) made its first appearance here, and throughout the succeeding winter it was very prev- alent, being directly fatal in many cases but in a greater number bringing with it lifelong infirmity and the susceptibility to other diseases; the next year it was just as bad, twenty-six deaths occurring from it during the closing week of 1891 ; for some years after that it came back every spring, though never with its original violence. Not to cure, but to prevent, the spread of contagious disease, par- ticularly of tuberculosis, the churches of Rochester, beginning with the North Presbyterian, adopted on May 6th, 1894, the use of individual commun ion cups, and that sanitary practice, initiated here, was soon followed in diilerent parts of the country. The diphtheria was always a dreaded visitor, and, when a French physician by repeated experiments in 1894 found that the blood of horses which had been immunized by proper treatment possessed curative, properties, the medical frater- nity experienced a feeling of relief. A small amount of that anti-toxine being brought to this city it was used with good effect in the. case of u child who was very ill, whereupon three horses of .our fire department were set off for that peculiar service and underwent for several weeks the grad- uated injections of diphtheritic poison that ren- dered them germ-proof, after which they were bled and tlio serum was drawn off from the blood, so that before the summer came the wonderful rem- edy was ,ready for distribution among the doctors. THE soldiers' MONUMENT. This was dedicated on the 30th of May, 1892, in Washington park, which a few years before would not have been in proper condition to contain it, and the delay in the erection was largely owing to the fact that no fitting place could be found for 108 HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. ic. On the day named, after a parade of ten thousand people, headed by the war veterans and including a large proportion of the public school boys, appropriate addresses were made at the un- veiling of the statue, by President Harrison, Gov. ernor Flower and Frederick Douglas, who were present as the guests of the city ; John A. Reynolds, the president of the university. Senator Parsons and ]\Iayor Curran. On the northern side of the pedestal, which is twenty-one feet square, &et in a base approached by five steps and having at its corners four bronze military statues typifying the infantry, the cavalry, the marines and the artillery, are these words: "To those who, faithful unto death, gave their lives for their country. 1861- 1865"; on the southern face is this inscription: "We were in peril; they breasted the danger. Th ; republic called; they answered with their blood"; on the east and west sides are displayed the great SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. WASHINGTON PARK. seals of the United States and the state; from the pedestal rises a granite shaft surmounted by a figure of Abraham Lincoln. Forty-two feet is the total height of the monument, the weight of stone is nearly half a million pounds, and the cost of the whole, defrayed by popular subscriptions and the proceeds of several entertainments, was $26,- 000. MINOR ITEMS. On the 9th of March, 18G7, a board of trade was established here, with George J. Whitney ns president, but it expired in a few months. In May of that year the body of Louis Fox was found in the river at Charlotte; he was a celebrated bil- liard-player who, holding the championship cue of the United States, had lost it the year before that in a contest with Joseph Decry at Washington liall; chagrin over his defeat had caused him to commit suicide in aberration of nrind. At mid- night on November 12th Edward Pay son Weston, the first of professional pedestrains, passed through here on his rapid walk from Portland, Maine, to Chicago; he still, by the way, believes in that exercise, for in April, 1906, at the age of sixty- nine, he walked from Philadelphia to New York, more than a hundred miles, in less than twenty- four hours. The year of 1868 saw great activity in building, over five hundred structures being erected, at a cost of about a million and a half; in 1870 the state armory, facing Washington park, was put up and the Powers block was completed to the alley; in 1887 the Wilder building, the EJl- wanger & Barry block, the Gemian Insurance building and all those on the site of the old Clin- ton Hotel were put up; in 1890 the Young Men'? Christian Association building, on South avenue was erected, at a cost of $183,000. In May, 1870, there was quite an excitement among the Fenians hei-e, those ardent patriots attempting to revive the performance of four years before when they had an inglorious battle with the "Queen's Own" on the other side of the lake; this time several car- loads of warriors passed tlirough and others were preparing to follow from here, when the United States marshal interfered and arrested the com- mander. Captain (or "General") O'Neil; that end- ed the last attempt at an invasion of Canada. In June of 1873 Susan B. Anthony was convicted ol illegal voting in the previous year. In 1876 the officers of the coast survey used the figure of Jus- tice, which then surmounted the upper dome of the court-house, as one of the points of tri angu- lation to determine the exact meridian of Roch- ester, which was found to be 77° 36' 50.97" of west longitude, 43° 9' 22.44" of north latitude. What was probably the heaviest and most prolonged snow-fall ever known here was during the last week of 1878 and the first week of the next voar; the HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 109 snow drifts were thirty feet in the surrounding counti'y, where many people were frozen to death; several fatal accidents from trains running off the track and a railroad blockade from the 5th to the 10th of January; the executive board paid thir- teen hundred dollars for shoveling and carting away the snow during the week. Charles Stewart rarnell, the Irish leader, had a warm reception here on January 26th, 1880, and made an address in the city hall, giving a temperate statement of the wrongs of Ireland. Rochester's first Chinese voter was naturalized here in 1883. On August 10th, 1884, the remains of Lieutenant F. F. Kis- lingbury, the second in command of the Greely relief expedition to the Arctic sea, lay in state at the city hall; four days later the body, which had been interred at Mt. Hope, was exhumed, to settle the question as to cannibalism on the part of tliG surviving members of the crew; the flesh was found to have been stripped from the bones, af- fordiiig ghastly pniof of the truth of the rnitiors. Tlie first dog show ever given here was held JFarch 14th, 1889; in that year the largest three brewer- ies in the city were sold to an English syndicate for about four million dollars. The financial stricture of 1893 was felt here as elsewhere, but the banks pursued a conservative policy, refusing to make any loans but the very smallest, while the savings banks paid all demands without delay, so there was no panic; the distress was felt much more in the early part of the following year, when tlie lack of employment became so general that the Chamber of Commerce raised, by appeal to the citizens, a fund of nearly twelve thousand dollars, the common council appropriated ten thousand dollars for the winter work on buildings in the parks, and the mayor sent around wagons through the streets to collect discarded clothing; all this, joined to the charitable efforts of private individ- uals, kept the actual suffering within a small com- pass. In 1894 the East Side trunk sewer was com- pleted, at a total cost of $949,230.63. This brings the record, meager though it may be down to the beginning of 1895, since whicli time the more important events will be given in the next chapter. CHAPTER IX THE LAST TWELVE YEARS. Resignations of Pastors — The Storage Dam Proj- ect — Tlie Good Government Movement — -Long Death List of 1895 — The High License Law — Ballot Machines — The Cuban War — Services of Our Military Companies — The Voting Machine Mother Hieronymo — Dissatisfaction with the School Board — The Rochester Telephone — The White Charter — Its General Character' — Semi-Centennial of the University — Otis Day — Dr. E. M. Moore — The United States Independ- ent Telephone Company — Building Operations in 1905* — The Heresy Trial of Dr. Crapsey — The Evangelistic Campaign — Conference of Charities and Corrections — The Soft Coal Ordi- nance — Building in 190G — Susan B. Anthony — Dr. Louis Weigel — Henry A. Ward — George Ellwanger. In preparing the previous chapters constant use was made of former works by the present writer. In those last mentioned the chronological order of events was maintained, and the annual record closed with the mention of the death of prominent citizens during the year. In this book the narra- tive has been hitherto mainly subjective and the necrological list has been omitted, partly because it seemed to be a needless repetition and partly because it would have been so cumbersome as to be disproportionate in view of the extreme con- densation that had been otherwise used. In this present chapter we shall return to the narration of incidents in the regiilar order of time, except as they may be left for insertion in succeeding, chapters devoted to special subjects, and the obit- uary rccoi'd will be confined to those who lived here in the early days or who were in some way connected with the life of the city. In the early part of 1895 several prominent clergymen severed their connection with tlieir con- gregations, Eev. Dr. Ilutton, of St. Peter's Pres- byterian, preaching his farewell sermon on Jan- uary 28th ; Eev. Louis C. Washburn, of St. Paul's Episcopal, doing so on February 25th, and Eev. Dr. Asa Saxe, of the First Universalist, on ilarch 2d; the last named was at the time of liis retire- ment the oldest minister in the city and had been the pastor of his church' for the past forty-three years. During the first three weeks of A])ril the Mcdianies Institute held a pure food show, which was very successful; on the 2!)th of that niontli there was an unusual dis]ihiy of confectionery by the association of cooks and pastry-cooks of Eochester at their first ball and reception. The lack of a sufficient supply of water in the river during the summer season to provide for the needs of the mills and manufactories upon its banks had long been felt and had finally caused the adop- tion of a plan for the construction in the gorge of the river near Mt. Morris, about forty miles south of Rochester, of a storage dam fifty-eight feet in height; the legislature passed a bill appro- priating $150,000 for the purpose, it being stated that the object was to provide a uniform supply for the owners of water rights on the river and also for the Erie canal, the latter reason being given to account for the expense being borne by the state; Governor Morton vetoed the bill, greatly tc the disappointment of many citizens, though it was adniitlod thai lie h.ad good grounds for his HIS1X)EY OP EOCTIESTEE AND MONEOE COUNTY. Ill aclion. A Good Goveriiiiicnt inovcinciit look place in September, whicli was a revolt against the ad- ministration of municipal allairs and in direct opposition to the two political parties, which, as was alleged, had united in a corrupt league for the division of public plunder ; it put a full city ticket in the field, including several aldermen, making its selections from both parties but being non- partisan in the sense that its nominees were not known as machine politicians, and it held enthu- siastic meetings in different parts of the city; the public conscience was aroused and the Good Government ticket was successful not only at the election two ■ months later, but at the next two which followed it. Dr. David Jayne Hill resigned tbe presidency of the University of Eochester on the 25th of November, to accept the position of assistant secretary of state of the United States. Death reaped a plenteous lia:rvest in this year. Samuel C. Wordcu died January lltli, the best- known restaurateur of the city, who had been in business through the lifetime of more than one generation, having been one of the early landlords of the old National Hotel and after that the keeper of Oyster Bay. and other eating saloons of irreproachable character. On February 13th died Jolm H. Gordon, the inventor, in connection with his brother James, of the Gordon harvester, the predecessor of the famous McCormick reaper, which was an infringement upon it, so that the brothers recovered nearly half a million dollars in damages and acquired a large fortune from the invention. Frederick Douglass, a sketch of whose life has been already given, died February 20th, and George W. ]fislier on tlic 24th; he came hero in 1821 and was a clerk in the book store of Evcrard Peck, on the west side of Exchange street near the corner of Main, and on that spot he conducted the business, which he had pur- ch.asod, imlil 1871, when he retired, being llicn understood to be the oldest bookseller, in length of Rtorokccping, in the state west of New York city; he was one oC the early members of lli': Union Grays, in which he took a keen interest to the last. Peter Pahner died March 12th, aged ninetj'-five, one of the first pyrotechnists of the country; shortly after he began the manufacture of fireworks, nearly half n century before, he erected, for their occasional display and for a promenade and concert hall. Palmer's Garden, a fashionable resort in that day, on East Main street, nearly opposite North avenue. Miss Elizabeth P. llall, one of the founders of the Humane Society and long identified with otiier works of benevo- lence, died March IGth; on the same day James O'Donoghue, one of the old residents, who was in the furniture business on East Main street fifty years before that. Dr. F. W. Holland, twice pastor at different times of the Unitarian church in this city, died at Concord, Mass., March 26th, and on the same day, at Virginia Beach, William S. Kim- ball ; he was one of the most prominent men in the community and identified, perhaps, more than any other man, with a wide range of interests con- nected with the modern life of the city, giving freely of his wealth to all kinds of projects for the general good; in addition to many other or- ganizations with which he was associated he was president at one time of the City hospital, the Union bank, the Chamber of Commerce, the In- dxistrial school, the Genesee Valley club and the Post Express printing company. In April there died, on the 1st, Henry L. Fish, a member of the common council and of the board of supervisors for many years, elected mayor in 1867 and again in the following year and ffhosen member of As- sembly in 1872; on the 5th, Henry Michaels, a highly respected Jewish merchant; on the 6th, Jeremiah Sullivan, aged ninety-five, one of the organizers of the congregation of the Immaculate Conception church ; on the 20th, Henry W. Gregg, aged twenty-seven, chosen judge of the Municipal court a few months before that, the youngest man ever elected to judicial office in this city. In May, on the 18tb, William Keyes died, aged iiiuoly-fivo, born a slave in Virginia; his free- dom was promised to him when he should becomp twenty-five, but it was not given, so he escaped and with great difficulty reached Canada, cross- ing Lake Erie in an open boat, and came to Uocliestcr in 1851, living here ever since; on the 27tb, Owen Eedmond, a mechanical genius, the inventor of several machines; on the 30tli, George T. Parker, one of the older lawyers; on the 31st, Mrs. Eliza M. Eeid, the widow of Dr. W. W. Eeid, one of the most eminent of our physicians; at the time of her death, bemg within three months of ninety-six years old, she was, in point o'f residence, the oldest in the city; she came here in 1822, was married in 1830 and was through 112 HISTORY OF EOCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. the early part of her life a leader in all social gatherings and at the same time prominent in benevolent work, being the last survivor of the original board of managers of the Rochester or- phan asylum. John D. Pay, one of the canal commissioners of the state for two terms, died on the 6th of June; Alexander McVean in the saine month, while holding the office of county treasurer, to which he had been first elected in 1879; Bryan O'Reilly on the SOth of July, tlie oldest undcitakev in Rochester. On the 21st of October the city lost one of its ripest scholars, Asaliel C. Kcndrick ; born in 1809, he graduated at Hamilton college, was for several years a member of the faculty of Madison university, which his cousin had founded, and was one of the original faculty of the Uni- versity of Rochester in 1850, occupying the chair of the Greek language and literature, which po- sition he filled, with the exception of two years spent at Athens and Rome for the purpose of studying antiquities, till 1882, when he retired from active participation in the work of the col- lege, being made professor emeritus, though he occasionally gave instruction to honor classes after that; he was not only one of the foremost Greek scholars in the couiftry, recognized as such by being placed on the American commission for the revision of the Bible, but was versed in many branches of literature and was the author of num- erous works on different subjects. Plymouth church lost its beloved pastor, Myron Adams, on the 29th of December; he was born March 12th, 1841, and was graduated at Hamilton in the class of 1863; while still in his junior year he entered the army and served with distinction, first in the infantry, then in the signal corps and afterward as adjutant of a negro regiment, from which he was transferred to the navy, where he acted as chief signal officer of the department of the gulf; after the war he entered the ministry and accepted a call to Plymouth church in 1875; his theological vjews became more and more lib- eral and he preached a number of sermons in opposition to the belief in Ithe eternal duration of punishment, which attracted wide- sjjread , attention and miich antagonism, end- ing in the severance of his relations with the main Congregational body, but the consistency of his Christian character caused the feeling against him to pass away before his death, so that his funeral services were condiicted by clergymen of different denominations; he was the author of "A Continuous Creation" and "The Creation of the Bible." In 1896 the west side sewer was begun and mainly built, a much needed improvement, though very costly, as it ran from Lincoln park, using Deep Hollow creek for a great part of the way, and cin))lied into the river just below the lower falls; iinishcd the next ypMf iit a cost of over $600,000. On the 1st of May tiie Raines law went into eifect, by which every saloon was compelled to pay a vastly higher sum for a license than ever before, so that it brought in quite -a revenue to the city and state, between which it was divided ; all licenses had to be conspicuously displayed, and free lunches to be abandoned ; even purely social clubs, as was decided in a test case brought by the Rochester Whist club, had to take out a license to sell liquor to their own members; as to the lower class of resorts this law in its eifect supple- mented the municipal reform of the year by which all curtains and partitions in stall saloons had been removed. An interesting state convention of deaf mutes was held here July 31st, largely attended, all the proceedings carried on in the manual sign language. William J. Bryan, the national cham- pion of free silver, spoke to a large crowd at Jones park on August 26th. The Myers ballot machine was used for the first time at the Novem- ber election; it was far from satisfactory in its operation, breaking down until it could be repaired in several instances and failing entirely to record the vote in one district, so that many votes were lost thereby. The death roll this time will be as much below the average as the last one was above it. Bartholomew Keeler, who had been police justice for eight years, died on the 15th of Jan- uary; Alexander McLean on March 2d, chief of police from 1874 to 1885; David Rosenberg, July 30th, an old-time jeweler, having been in that business for more tha^n half a century; Maria G. Porter, December 14th, who had harbored prob- ably more fugitive slaves than any other person in the city except Amy Post. Local interest in the woes of Cuba became en- thusiastic in the early spring of 1897, mass meet- ings being held, at which large amounts of money were raised. Dr. R. R. Converse became pastor of St. Luke's church in Api'il. In that month a HISTORY OF EOCHESTEE AND MONEOE COUNTY. 113 law was passed l)y the legislature creating the office of commissioner of juries for Monroe county, which has been found very beneficial in its work- ings, for it is not only a saving of expense but it also brings on to the jury list thousands of persons who always belonged there and who were kept off by nothing but their own disinclination to serve, while at the same time it excludes many who had their names kept on simply to get pay for their services; Martin W. Cooke, a prominent lawyer, was appointed jury commissioner on the 8th of May and held the office till his death on February 23d of the next year, when John M. Steele, the present incumbent, took his place. There was an interesting convention of the librarians of the state in May. On the 4th of July the thermome- ter registered a fraction above ninety-nine de- grees, the highest recorded up to that tima; there were many prostrations and it was almost as bad a week later, when a number died from the heat. The Eastman Kodak building on State street was erected in the spring, and a handsome building, some months later, for the Young Women's Chris- tian association on North Clinton street, at a cost of $30,000. The year as a whole was remarkably healthy, there being the fewest deaths for ten years, in spite of the increase in population, and in Decem- ber the fewest on record for that month. Never- theless, our necrological list is quite full, as will be seen from this record : April 27th, Washington Gibbons, in New York, one of the old-time law- yers of Eochester and city clerk in 1852, '53 and '54. May 7th, Henry East, who had conducted a meat market for forty years before his retirement from business in 1887. May 6th, Colonel E. Bloss Parsons, at Asheville, N. C, who had distin- guished himself by conspicuous bravery in the Eighth cavalry. May 15th, Eev. Herbert W. Mor- ris, D. D., an old Presbyterian clergyman. June Gtli, Deljanccy Crittenden, a prominent lawyer. July IGth, Eev. Dr. James Earl Bills; he raised a company of infantry in the Civil war and started for the front but had a sunstroke which compelled him to leave the army, after which he entered the ministry and became a noted preacher. July 21st, Captain Albert G. Mack, commander of Mack's battery during the war. August 12th, Eev. Dr. George Patton, pastor of the Third Presbyterian church from 1871 to 1894. August 16th, John- son M. Mundy, a fine artist, notable as a painter and more so as a sculptor. September 3d, Rev. J. P. Stewart, pastor of St. Mary's (Catholic) church. September 7th, Henry Harrison, the old- est volunteer fireman in the city and collector of the port for several years. December 4th, Charles C. Morse, a member of the old waterworks board. J)oceinbor • lllii, Daniol \V. Povvci's, one of the millionaires of the city, and perhaps the first to pass that mark; he was born in 1818 and was first employed in the hard- ware store of Ebenezer Watts, on West Main .street, with wages of eight dollars a month; in 1850 he opened, in the Eagle Hotel block, a brok- erage and exchange office, which soon grew to be a bank, though it was not incorporated as such till 1890; on the outbreak of the Civil war his con- fidence in the stability of the government led him to invest all his available funds in United States bonds as fast as each issue was put forth ; he held several public oHices and for many years was presi- dent of the board of directors of the City hospital; the block that will always stand as his monument was built at the close of the war, the hotel, just west of it, being erected in 1882, as a part of the original design; in the block he had collected one of the largest and finest art galleries in the coun-r try ; it was broken up and sold after his death, one of the greatest losses that the city ever sustained. On the 18th of January, 1898, a local public health association was formed, the fruition of the persistent efforts previously made by a philan- thropic citizen who has been the mainstay of the organization ever since, though Dr. Moore has held the office of president. The war of Cuban inde- pendence occupied the minds and hearts of people during this year. When the battleship Maine was blown up in Havana harbor, on the 15th of Feb- ruary, everyone felt that war must come, sooner or later, and the military companies here made ready for the conflict. They were the Eighth Separate, which had been Company E in the old Pifty-Fourih regiment and was still under com- mand of Captain Henry B. Henderson; the First Separate, which had been formed in the winter of 1889-90 by Captain F. Judson Hess and was at this time commanded by Captain L. Bordman Smith, and, a separate division of naval militia, commonly called the Naval Reserves, formed in September, 1891, by Lieutenant Edward N. Wal- 114 niSTOKY OF 1K)CHESTEII AND MONllOE COUNTY. bridge, who was still in command. Long before the war was declared the state authorities ordered these officers to report as to how many of their men would go to the front, and the Naval He- serves were ordered into service on the I'i'th of April, though they were never sent off as a body. Finally the tension was broken by Congress au- thorizing the president to intervene, the call for volunteers was issued April 23d, Spain declared war the next day and Congress followed suit on the •25th. In response to the call the governor made the stupid blunder of ordering out the state militia as such (or at least it was understood that way), though the Civil war had shown the folly of that ; as it was, a few of the men were put to the mortifi- cation of declining to volunteer, though almost all of their comrades did so individually. On Sunday, May 1st, the memory of the old war times was revived, when the two companies, with eighty-four men in each, marched away, es- corted to the station by all the military organiza- tions in the city and the Naval Reserves, who had to stay behind. Having reached camp at Hemp- stead, Long Island, they were disappointed to find that the old home titles were not to be retained, for they were put into the Third regiment of New York volunteer infantry, the Eighth as Company A, and the First as Company H. They were mus- tered into the federal service on the I'i'th of May, but they were not ordered to the front; on the contrary they stayed at Hempstead two weelcs longer, the ranks becoming thinner by I'oason of the wretched sanitary arrangements; at last they were moved to Camp Alger, near Washington, only to find that that place was worse than the other, a fever-stricken hole; where the men, witli sixty-five more recruits who were sent down in June, sickened and died, victims of the criminal incapacity of the secretary of war ; the fall of San- tiago, with the consequent treaty of peace, was all that saved them from annihilation. Those ^hat were left of them came home on the 13th of September, receiving a royal welcome, for the city turned out as on their departure. But while these soldiers never saw fighting, and never even left the country, the sailors were more fortunate; although the Naval Eeserves were not ordered off as a body, different squads of them were drafted at intervals, some of them being put on the moni- tor Jason, others on the auxiliary cruiser Yankee, where they did good service. Mention should be made also pi Captain Theodore S. I'u Ivor's com- pany, which left here on the 28lh of July and was put into wliiit was called, for some absurd reason, the Two Hundred and Second regiment; it did garrison duty in Cuba for some months, though not participating in any battles. After the death of Captain Smith — mentioned a little further on in this chapter — Murray W. Crosby was placed in command of the First Separate. On the return of the company to Eochester an order was issued permitting all men who, as members of the na- tional guard, had volunteered to serve in the war, to leave the service, and the company was reorgan- ized, with Frank G. Smith as captain. A little later he was stricken with consumption, and on his death C. Alon/.o Simmons became the coinuuuul- ing officer, being transferred from the cafitaincy of the Eighth Separate (where he had succeeded Captain Henderson in 1891), on recommendation from superior headquarters, and he still holds that position. F. S. Couchman is in command of the Eighth Separate, to which he succeeded on the transfer of Captain Simmons. At the November election of this year the peo- ple voted again by machine. The experience of 1896 had discredited that method of voting and so they went back the next year to the blanket ballot — somewhat similar to that employed in Australia — which had been used two years before, but it was a clumsy way, the sheet was very cum- bersome on account of the multiplicity of names, mistakes were very common and, above all, it took so long to count the vote that the result in some instances, even in a single district, was not knoAvn till after midnight. So the ballot machine was used again, not the old Myers alfair but the Stand- ard, far better, which has held the field here ever since. It is fairly satisfactory but it is open to the serious objection that it is inimical to inde- pendent voting and always will be, until the party lever, which is an unnecessary part of the mechan- ism, is done away with; besides that, the objection is urged against it that the voter has no means of knowing that his ballot is recorded just as he cast it. On the 4th of January Frederick Zimmer, a well-known German citizen, who had been police commissioner from 1873 to 1884, fell from the window of his office, on the corner of West Main HISTORY OF ROCHESTEE AND MONROE COUNTY. 115 and Exdiaiigo strcols, to the sidcwiilk bulow, striking on his head and killing him instantly; on the 14lh Thomas Peart, the oldest buteher in the city at the time of his death; on the 24th George C. Buell, a prominent merchant, one of the principal promoters of the elevation of the railroad tracks through the city; on the 30th Mother (generally known as Sister) Hieronymo, her worldly name being Veronica O'Brien; she was born in April, 1819, and entered a religious coniinunity at an early age; she came here in 1857 and shortly afterward opened a temporary hospi- tal in an old stable on the present site of St. Mary's, which noble foundation was built grad- ually by her personal elforts, the citizens, without distinction of creed, responding freely to her ap-, peals; in the time of the Civil war the hospital was frequently crowded with wounded soldiers and it was proposed to put a provost guard there to prevent their desertion, but she gave her word that none of them would escape and the guard was not stationed; such was the veneration of the soldiers toward her that they were faithful to her promise and every one returned to the army on his recov- ery; in 1870 she left the city but returned in a few years to become the mother superior of the Home of Industry, where she died, universally re- gretted. Mrs. Nancy Walker died May 9th, be- ing within three months of one hundred and eight years old; Rev. Dr. Israel Foote, rector of Si. I'aul's church for some years, July 1st; Francis S. Rew, July 17th, a veteran journalist, managing editor of the Democrat at one time, then on the staff of the A]h!iny .Evening Journal, then, on his leturn to Rochester, editor and one of the proprie- tors of tlic Evening Express; on the 4th of August Rev. James O'Hare, pastor of the Immaculate Conception church and vicar-general of the Catho- lic diocese; on the 17th Simon L. Brewster, presi- dent of the Traders bank. On the same day died L. Boidman Smith, who was born in 1867 and graduated at Union college in 1888; he entered the Cuban war in command of the First Separate company, but was stricken with typhoid fever while in camp and came home to end his days in the Homeopathic hospital, dying in the service of his country as truly as though he had fallen on the battlefield; he was generally heloved by a wide circle of acquaintances. Gilman H. Per- kins died November 16th; he was born in Gencseo Alarcli 4tli, .18^7, and came to this city in 1844; though always prominent in the community he was never aggressive, but rather retiring in his tastes and habits; of sterling integrity and un- blemished honor, he held many offices of trust and discharged them all with credit. Dr. L. D. Wal- ter, one of the oldest dentists in the state, died on the same day; Dr. Theodore C. White, a respected homeopathic physician, on the 18th; B. Frank Enos on the 4th of December, police clerk from 1871 to the time of his death. For many years there had been a great deal of popular dissatisfaction with the conduct of the school commissioners, or board of education, and the supposed connection of the board with a book ring which put text books into the public schools with an object quite different from the welfare of the pupils; besides which the body was un- wieldy in size, one member being elected from each ward, so that it was difficult to fix the re- sponsibility ; the feeling culminated in 1899, when the limit of patience was reached, and there was an emotion of great relief over the fact that in the future the board was to consist of five members, all chosen on the city ticket, according to the provisions of the charter for cities of the second class, commonly known as the White charter from the name of the state Senator who had pushed the matter through the legislature in the pre- vious year. In January of 1899 the disease of the grip raged with great severity, so that the death rate for that month rose to more than six- teen in the thousand. On the 32d of May St. Paul's (Episcopal) church, on East avenue, was consecrated. On the 31st the Memorial day pa- rade was one of unusual enthusiasm on account of the ending of the Cuban war, and also because there was in the line of march a Spanish cannon captured hy Dewey in Manila bay, which was afterward set up in one of the parks. Nine days later there was another parade at the unveiling of the Douglass monument, when Governor Roose- velt delivered an address ; and still another on the 4th of July, in which the most conspicuous figures were several companies of Canadian troops fully armed and equipped. In fact, it was a great sum- mer for parades, as there was an immense one on August 7th, at the opening of the "street fair," as it was called, a nondescript performance, with midways and baby shows and wild animals, whicti IIG HISTORY OF ROCHESTER ANT) MONROE COUNTY. lasted for a week and which was expected, from its display of Rochester productions, to advance the prosperity of the city — to "boom it," as the phrase went — which it didn't at all, for the mer- cliants never got back the money that they put into it, according to the usual fate of that eccen- tric form of advertising, backed up by whole col- umns about it in all the newspapers for days be- forehand; appropriately enough there was a fire in it on the lust night, in which thirty-eight bootlia wore burned up. As a sequel to tiie contest be- tween the Bell Telephone company and the citi- zens, the Rochester Telephone company (or Homo Telephone, as it has generally been called), came into existence during the summer, with a capital of $400,000. The stock was readily taken and a sufficient number of subscribers for the rental of telephones to insure against loss was obtained be- fore operations were begun. That number stead- ily increased, until, at the beginning of 1907, it reached 10,000; after six years of unbroken pros- perity, owing to the excellence of its equipment and the satisfactory nature of its service — during which it acquired, through the medium of the In- dependent Telephone Securities company, whidi was formed for the purpose, a controlling interest, through stock ownership, of independent (which means. anti-Bell) companies in Syracuse, Utiea and several other places in this state — it became merged in the United States Independent Tele- phone company. It may seem a small thing, but it was a matter of great importance to thousands of people, that free public baths were opened on July 27th, in the old Home of Industry, on South avenue, after many years of effort. As the Novem- ber election approached, the Good Government club was for some time undecided as to what course to adopt; at two previous elections it liad put into the field a full city ticket, which was ac- cepted by the Democratic convention and elected ; this time it was determined to do differently, so conferences . were held with the managers of the Republican party in which a ticket was agreed upon that was satisfactory to both sides, the more particularly as the compact included the nomination, for the first time in the history of the city, of a woman on the school boara, in this case a most admirable officer, who still fulfills the duties of that important position; the Repub- lican convention nominated this ticket, the Good Government club indorsed it and it was trium pliantly elected. Jehiel Barnard died on the 13th of IMay; h could hardly be called a child, for he was seven ty-five years old, but he was one of Rochester' babies, having been born on tlie loth of January 1824; his father, whose name was the same, kep the first tailor shop in the village and was mar riod to Delia Scrantom in 1815, the first weddin; in tlu! scltlcmoiil. On llio I71li ol' llio moiill Kmaiiuel M. Moercl died at tlio age of ninety lour; M'as born iu lloiiuiid; could well remember even in his last days. Napoleon's retreat from Rus sia, as he saw the French army passing througl Brussels on its return to France. On the 18tl Charles W. Briggs died, mayor of the city in 1871 on the 24th Haywood Hawks, secretary of th( Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit company; on tin 29tli his predecessor in that position, from it foundation in 1868 to 1884, William J. Ashley born in ]812, graduated at Hobart college in 18G3 president of the Merchants bank at the time of hi; death, a safe adviser in financial matters. Oi the 7lh of June Frinik W. Elwood, of one of tlu pioneer families, son of Isaac R. Elwood, one o the organizers of the Western Union Telegraph he was graduated at Harvard in 1874 and wai a member of a great number of clubs and frater- nities. On August 5th Chester P. Dewey, an olc journalist, connected for some time with th( Rochester Daily American and its chief editor ii 1856 and 1857, after which he went to New Yorl and acquired distinction on the metropolitar press; on the 20th Frederick G'oetzman; a promi- nent German-American citizen, interested ir sevei'al Teutonic institutions. Elon Hunt ington, the last survivor of the origina board of trustees of the University of Roches ter, died September 20th, aged ninety-one ; on the 25th George P. Danforth, a former judge of tin Court of Appeals, died in the county court roon after arguing a case in special term ; a sketch o; his services and his character, as well as of thosi of other distinguished lawyers, will be found ii another chapter. Lucy Ellen Guernsey, the his of a remarkable family of literary talent, died No vember 3d; she was born in Pittsford in 1826 and when the Indians used to pass through tiia settlement they always put up in her father'i barn, leaving their guns in the house, as a marl mSTOllY OF IfOCriESTER AND .MONllOE COUNTY. 117 of coiivtesy; she uas n piolilic writer of magazine articles and of tlic ligliter kind of literature; slie started the first sewing school here for the j)oorest class of street children, and through life she was the helpful friend of the friendless. The closing year of the old century opened with tiie administration of the city government under the White ehailei', which was the oiilcome of a long series of unsatisfactory methods, with pro- posed improvements from time to time — some of them carried out, others unheeded — and the re- peated efforts for revision made by the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations, resulting in the appoint]nent of a state committee which pre- pared a uniform charter for all cities of the second class, that is of those with a j.opulation between 50,000 and 250,000. This has heen found to be very satisfactory in its operation, so that the var- ious amendments adopted since its passage by the legislature in 1898 have been immaterial and have not alfccted its general character, its basic prin- ciple is the concentration of power in the hands of the mayor, to whom is given vastly increased and almost absolute authority. His power of ap- pointment, which is uncontrolled, includes the right to remove at pleasure any city officer prev- iously appointed by him ; he has what may be called a cabiiiel, executive heads of depiiftnieiils with ori;;iual jiirisdic'tion subject to his supervis- ion— consisiiiig of the commissioiiers of jjublic works, of public safely and of charities and con'cc- tion — he appoints the corporation counsel, the city engineer and the scaler of weights and measures, besides which he is a member, ex officiOj of the boards of contract and suj)ply and of estimate and apportionment, which are composed of different officers of the city government. The common council, the president of the council, the comp- troller, the treasurer, the four assessors and the five members of the department of public instruc- tion, or school board, are elected by the ])C()ple. The common council is thus shorn of most of its foruuM' jiower, its e.xocutive functions are taken away from it and the legislative authority is all that remains to it. One great advantage is that this concentration of power makes it much easier to fix the responsibility for any wrongdoing or misinanagenuMit of the ]nd)lic funds, and this more than offsets any imperfections that there ■ may be in this present charter. It is, however — upon the supposition that an amendment to the state constitution, which was adopted by the last legislature, putting all cities with a population of more than 175,000 into the first class, which would bring Eochester into the category, shall be ratified by a vote of the people — intended to have an entirely new charter, though on the same gen- eral lines, to meet the changed conditions, and one has been prepared and approved by the governor having this end in view. The early part of June saw the fiftieth anniver- sary of the founding of the university, which was celebrated by the dedication of tjie new gymna- sium on the 11th, Commencement and alumni day on the 12th, and on the 13th addresses at the Lyceum by distinguished speakers, including Gov- ernor Boosevelt and ex-President Hill. June 15th will long be remembered as Otis day, when the whole city turned out to welcome home General Elwell S. Otis on his return from Manila and the consequent eiuling of his long term of military service. Under a memorial arch that had been erected at the junction of Main street and East avenue passed a parade of great length, in which there were many civic elements but the warlike feature predominated, making it as a military display probably the finest ever seen here; tliis was owing to the piescnce in the line of march of the Marine band, which had been permitted, as a special favoc, to cojue on from Washington, as well as of several companies from the regular Fifteenth infantry and the Fifth and Seventh ar- tillery; those United States troops had a few days before established themselves at the tempor- ary Camp Otis in Maplewood park, just on the edge of the river bank, with a full hospital corps, a surgical tent and a full garrison outfit; there they remained for a week, attracting daily crowds of visitors, particularly at the time of guard inount and more especially to witness the unusual spectacle of dress parade on the last day; of course there was a banquet on the evening of the parade, at which the veteran General Joe AVheeler, Dr. Hill and others Spoke; the next day General Oti-* received his connnission as major-general in tho regular army and was put on the retired list in March, 1902. Eev. Dr. Nelson Millard resigned Ihe pastorale of the. First Presbyterian church on September .'iOth, and withdrew from the Pres- byterian denomination some time later. It was a 118 HISTORY OF EOCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. warm autumn, the mercury rising to a fraction above eighty-seven degrees on the 6th of October, the highest ever recorded here in that month; on the lltli, Dr. Rusli Rhecs was inaugurated us president of the university, with impressive ad- dresses by three other presidents — Low of Colum- bia, Harper of Chicago university and Seelye of Smith college; on the 15th the corner-stone of the Eastman building of the Mechanics Institute was laid. The deaths of the year were numerous — in Jan- uary, on the 5th, Rev. Dr. W. D'Orville Doty, who had been rector of Christ church for the previous twenty-three years, one of the most beloved of the city pastors; on the same day General W. Henry Benjamin, whose war record has been given in an antecedent chapter, was clerk of the county court for some years and in 1870 clerk of the state commission of appeals; on the 22d Theodore Bacon, a distinguished lawyer, and on the 24th Edward A. Frost, county clerk from 1877 to 1883. On April 2d Joseph D. Husbands, born in Bar- badoes, West Indies, in 1809 ; came to the United States at an early age and graduated at Union in 1828, supposed to be the oldest living college graduate in the country at the time of his death; admitted to the bar in 1838 and came to Rochester two years later; appointed registrar in bank- ruptcy in 1867; interested in reforms and widely known as an anti-slavery and temperance orator. On April 22d W. Dean Shuart, who had been paymaster in the army with the rank of major; city attorney four years, surrogate twelve years. Only the passing generation will remember the Kremlin saloon, in the basement of the old Clin- ton Hotel; Roscoe Ashley, who Avith his father, Isaac Ashley, used to keep it, died May 30th. Henry F. Huntington, treasurer of the board of park commissioners, died June 25th; Ezra R. An- drews August 13th, president of the Mechanics Institute and the Mechanics Savings bank and a member of several boards; David Hays, October 17th, graduated here in 1877, at Berlin univer- sity two years later and Columbia law school in 1881, a promising young attorney, with every pros- pect of a brilliant career before him ; pn the 20th Rev. T. C. Murphy, rector of St. Mary's church. At the beginning of 1901 Charles B. Gilbert be- came superintendent of the public schools and scvci'al radical changes were made in llie methods of instruction, particularly in the lower grades, not all of which, such as vertical writing, were acceptable to the taxpayers and parents of the pupils. A grand reception and a merry dance signalized the opening of the Eastman building on the 15th of April. A continuous down- pour of rain on the 30th of May caused the aban- donment of the usual Memorial day parade, for the first time since that patriotic observance be- gan. The First Methodist church was dedicated on June 23d, with a sermon by Bishop Goodsell and an a'ddress by Chancellor Day of the Syracuse university. On the 21st of October the Rochester Optical and Camera company was fomied, with a capital of $35,000,000, to purchase foreign and home plants and manufacture plate cameras; a ru- inous enterprise, unsuccessful from the start, large- ly owing to woeful mismanagciucnt and inexcus- able extravagance; two years later the remains of it were absorbed by the Eastman Kodak company, only four per cent, on the original investment be- ing received by the stockholders, many of whom could ill afford the loss and who suffered greatly in consequence of the boundless credulity that seems to characterize the people of Rochester. Cornelius R. Parsons died on the 30th of Jan- uary; alderman for many years, mayor of the city for fourteen years, elected to the Assembly in 1890 and the next year sent to the state Senate, of which he Avas a inouiher when he died. On May 15th Thomas Smith, aged one hundred and one, thought to be the oldest inhabitant at the time of his death; October 11th, A. Tiffany Norton, city editor of the Democrat & Chronicle; November 9th, .William II. Gorsline, a prominent contractor, who had erected many of the finest buildings in the city; November 15th, Bertha Scrantom Pool, of literary talent, granddaughter of Hamlet Scrantom, the first permanent settler; December 6th Rev. J. J. Leary, the fourth rector of St. Mary's church to die within as many years; De- cember 11th, William J. Fowler, one of the edi- tors of the Evening Express for ten years, with a marvelous memory and clearness of style. In 1902 the Stromberg-Carlson Telephone Man- ufacturing company was incorporated, with a capital of $3,000,000; it had been a highly suc- cessful concern in Chicago, where it manufactured improved SAvitchboards and other telephonic appa- ratus for iiidepondeut companies; the stock liav-. HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 119 iug been largely bought up by the stockliolders of the ]?ochester Telephone company the works were gradually removed to this city, extensive buildings being put \ip at East Rochester. This year wit- nessed in its closing months the only real coal famine ever known in the city, the same that adlictcd the whole country as the result of the prolonged strike in the anthracite coal Ticlds; Lho actual sulTering was considerable, though the ap- prehension of what might come was still worse; even after the strike was broken by being left to arbitration the supply of fuel was wholly inade- quate for a long time, the police had to guard the coal cars as they stood on the tnistles, to prevent wholesale pilfering, and in the morning hours before the dawn odicers stood at the yards of the coal ralroads to regulate the loading of the wait- ing wagons, without which precaution there would have been a serious riot; on one Sunday, that of December ]4tli, lojig lines of teams of the dealers struggled through the deep snow, on an errand of mercy rather than of business, to deliver the dark morsels that were necessary to sustain life. 'J'his was the greatest building y«ar known up to that time, there being about seven hundred struct- ures erected, of which the most notable were the line Masonic Temple, on Clinton avenue North; the Rochester Athletic cluh-houFC, just opposite; the shops of the Pfaudler company and the Pneu- matic Signal company, at Lincoln park; the East High school and public schools numbers G and 23; the cost of all was $2,615,078, while many more buildings were extensively remodeled, 7naking a total expenditure of si)2,!)13,142; the building exceeded that of the previous year by $707,798, that of 1900 by more than a million and that of 1898 and 1899 combined. On the 2d of March George Moss died, a good newspaper man, connected with the Union & A (Ivrrtispr for some years and afterward secretary of the ChaTiiber of Coinmorce. 'JMic next day Dr. ]<]dward M. Moore passed away, to the regret of the whole city. He was born at Rahway, N. J., July 15th, 1814, and received a thorough class- ical education in the school of his father, Lindley l\Turray Moore. A sketch of his eminent services in medicine and surgery will be found in the medi- cal chapter; it is enough to say in this connec- tion that he was in every way one of the most conspicuous figures in the community. He was not oidy the father of the park system but was interested in all forward movements, in all the philanthropic and educational enterprises, of many of which he was the president, including the board of trustees of the Reynolds Library; for the last years of his life he was universally recog- nized as the "first citizen" of Rochester. On the 15th of the month Samuel Wilder died; a promi- nent financier, but still better known among his associates as a most entertaining raconteur; at an early age he came here from Massachusetts, where he was born in 1824; at first a clerk in Brit- tin's dry goods store, on East Main street, he soon obtained an interest in the firm, which became that of Brittin & Wilder, changing a little later to that of Wilder, Gorton & Co., when the place of busi- ness was moved to State street, a little north of Exchange place (now Corinthian street), and in that location it was one of the well-known land- marks of the city in the middle of the last cen- tury; during the war it was moved across the street, the firm having become, in the meantime, Wilder, Case & Co., from which the head of it soon after retired; he then devoted himself to real es- tate, purchasing Corinthian hall with a block of the Western Union Telegraph stock, of which company he was one of the directors, and turning the building a few years later into a theater; he established the Central bank, was one of the founders of the Mechanics Savings bank and president of both, and was largely interested in the City hospital and the Unitarian church. Charles S. Baker, a well-known lawyer, died April 21st; after holding municipal offices for some years he was elected to the Assembly in 1878 and continued there, with the intermission of one term, till 1883, when he was sent to the state Senate; in 1884 was chosen a member of Congress and was twice re-elected. George P. Yeoman, a successful lawyer and justice of the Supreme court, died Juno 1st; Rev. Dr. Benjamin 0. True, a profes- sor in the Rochester Theological seminary; Rev. Dr. Herman C. Riggs, twice pastor of St. Peter's Presbyterian church, August 7th, and Dr. Azel Backus, September 2d; he was born here in 1828, the son of Dr. Frederick F. Backus (who set- tled here in ]81G); having graduated at Ilobart and in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, he practised his profession here till near the close of his life. On the 23d of 120 HISTORY OF EOCHESTER AND MONROE COLLTrY. October, John H. Rochester, a gi-anilson of the founder, passed away at |lie age of seventy-two, the oldest inembci' of St. Luke's church at the time of liis death; was president of the Rochester Historical society for two terms, an original mem- ber of the park commission, secretary and treas- urer of the Mechanics Savings bank for thirty years. Everything that seems to call for record in 1903 is of a personal nature. Dr. Adolph Lorenz, the celebrated surgeon of Vienna, Austria, visited Rochester in the latter part of Jime and performed several operations at the City hospital during his stay here. On the 28th of November, Adolph J. Rodenbeck resigned the office of mayor, having been appointed judge of the Court of Claims. . Dr. H. H. Stebbins, for many years pastor of the Central Presbyterian church, resigned December 30tli, and in the evening of the same day a fare- well reception was given at the Lyceum to Rev. Thomas R. Hendrick, who had been appointed as the Roman Catholic bishop of Cebn, in the Philip- pine islands. William Rmnsey died January ICth; born in 1841, before graduation at Williams college in 1861 he enlisted in the army and served during tlie war, coming out with a reputation for bravery and a colonel's brevet; having studied and prac- tised law he became justice of the Supreme coui't in 1873 and remained on the bench till 1901, when he resigned. Three other well-known at- torneys gave up their briefs later in the year — Joseph A. Stull, June 1-lth, Frederick L. Durand, August 10th, aged eighty-seven, graduated at Yale in 1836 and came to Rochester in 1845, beginning practice at once; George H. Humphrey, October 6th. James A. Hinds died July 24th; Samuel Sloan, for some time president of the Mechanics Savings bank, September 1st, and H. Austin Brewster, December 18th — all three prominent merchants of long standing — Oliver Allen, May 5th; though living in Mumford, where he was born in 1823, and continuing the woolen mill that his father establislied there in 1829, he was closely identified with Rochester interests, as bank director and otherwise; he was the principal pro- moter of the State Line railroad, which became the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg. Rev. J. B. Stillson, the oldest clergyman in the city, died July 2d, and Mrs. Louisa Rochester Pitkin, tlic last surviving child of Colonel Rochester, passed away the same day; she was born at Dansville in September, 1810, a few months after the family migrated to the Genesee valley. Henri Appy, tlie oldest and best-known musician in Rochester, died November 16th; born at the Hague, Holland, in early life he played with Mendelssohn and was afterward solo violinist with Jenny Lind, Son- tag and other singers of world-wide celebrity; lie came here about the close of the war and estab- lished the Philharmonic society, which he con- ducted for twenty years, giving it up to confine himself to private pupils. All the theaters were carefully inspected on the 4th of January, 1904, in consequence of the aw- ful fire at the Iroquois, in Chicago, where so many lives were lost on the last night of the prev- ious year; the license of the Empire, a place of vaudeville performance, was revoked, as having too many elements of danger, and other build- ings of resort were made more thoroughly pro- tected. On the 2d of June the Rochester and Lake Ontario Water company began laying an in- take pipe at the beach, to give the city an addi- tional supply. On the 10th of that month the Rochester Light & Power company, which two years before had absorbed all the gas and electric companies of the city, reached out still further and purchased all the stock that could be ob- tained of the street railroad, forming thereby the Rochester Railway & Liglit company, a monster monopoly of public utilities, which thus far has been rather beneficent on the whole, owing to the constant supervision and requirements of the municipal authorities. Apart from suicides there were a surprising number of fatal casualties in this year — one hundred and nineteen, of which thirty-nine were from accidents on steam rail- roads, tliirty-two from drowning, eight from the street cars, the rest from various causes. Rev. Dr. '!'. Harwood I'attison died on the 11th of I^'eb- I'uary, a professor in the Rochester Theological seminary; James Brackett, March 7th, mayor in 1864 and president of the Rochester Savings bank for many years before his death ; Reuben D. Jones, May 30th, born in 1815, one of the oldest newspaper men in Western New York, having lieen on the Dailij Amcvimn as far ))ack as 1847 and after that connected with several otlicr local journals; Joseph A. Adliuijtm, July THE "FOl'i; COItXKJJS. JITSTOHY OF UOCHESTEli AND MONEOE COUNTY. 123 2cl, surrogaLc from 1884 to 1892, n good soklier, having entered tlie war as a private and coming out as lieutenant-colonel. Father Hippolyte Do Ecggc, chancellor of the Catholic diocese of Eocliester, a popular priest, well-known through- out the United States, died Julj' 14th at Antwerp, having gone to Belgium, his native country, on a visit. Valentine Fleckcnstein on August lllh; he had hecn a member of the executive hoard, city assessor, jjostinaRter, city treasurer and collector of internal revenue. Rev. Dr. Isaac N. Dalbey, pastor of the West Avenue Methodist church, August 15th. John McMuUcn, a typical fireman of the old volunteer school, chief engineer of the depariiiient in 18(1,'!, died Sejilemhor 2nh. Mrs. Mary J. Amsden, widow of Christopher T. Ams- den, December 2Gth, the oldest native-born resi- dent of Kochester at the time of her death, having come into the world and this little settlement in 1810. In January, 1905, the J3righlon election was carried by the annexation party by a majority of one vote. The Rochester Railway & Light com- pany gave out contracts in ]\Iarch for extensions, buildings and machinery to the extent of $1,250,- 000. In April Rev. Dr. C. E. Hamilton resigned the pastorate of the First Methodist church and Rev. Dr. T. r. Coddington tliat of the First Uni- vcrsalist. Father Thomas F. llickey became coad- jutor bishop of the diocese in May. On the 1st of June the public market was opened, a great step in advance, for it put a stop to the blockade of hay wagons on Front street fiom time immemor- ial and to what was still worse, the serious inter- ference with traflic in the neighborhood of the "Seven Corners," at East Main street and North avenue, by the long lines of wagons of market gardeners which had come tliere, principally from Irondequoit, long before dawn and stayed well into the morning. On June 20th was the presentation to the university, the gift of the alumni, of the statue of President Anderson, in the middle of the campus; on the 5th of August the laying of the corner-stone of the ncAV armory. Toward the close of the year negotiations that had been going on for several months were completed which resulted in tlie formation of a gigantic enterprise, Iho TTniled SIntcs. Imhipendcnt Telephone com- pany, with a eai)ital of $50,000,000, the headquar- ters being localod in tliis city, where most of the ollicers resided; it involved the practical absorp- tion of the most of the following named independ- ent telephone companies, with the absolute control of the others by the purchase of most of the stock: The New York, the Utah^ the Indianapo- lis, the Stroraberg-Carlson Manufacturing and the Rochester, which last named controlled, through stock ownership, not only several smaller concerns, but also the Independent Telephone Securities company, which itself controlled, also through stock ownership, thirteen operating companies; the cost of acquiring all these securities was $56,- 459,343.43; the future of this great company is uncertain, and what will be the final outcome is at tlie present writing wholly conjectural. This year building operations were carried on to an un- precedented extent, so far as the money expended was concerned, the total valuation of the structures erected being $5,569,019 ; among the most import- ant of these were the building of the Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit company, on the corner of Main and State streets; the addition to the Ger- man Insurance building adjoining it, making those two structures occupy the site of the old Irving Hall or Silas 0. Smith block; the Strong Manufacturing building on State street, the build- ing for offices of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pitts- burg railroad, on West Main street (one of the most beautiful in its proportions in the whole city), and the Sibley, Lindsay & Curr building, on East Main street, as well as those that re- placed the ones destroyed in the great fire of February, 1904 — which is described in an- other chapter — all of which were completed in the early part of the year. Death invaded the ranks of the law in this year, carrying off a number, among whom may be men- tioned Menzo Van Voorhis, January 18th ; "Wil- liam F. Cogswell, the leader of the bar, February 12th; Frederick A. Whittlesey, February 24th; born in 1827, graduated at Union in 1847 ; a son of Vice-Chancellor*\¥hittlesey ; a lawyer of the old school, confining his practice almost entirely to the real estate branch of his profession, in which he was a recognized authority; retiring from the practice of the law several years ago, he devoted himself more than ever to literature, to which he had always been addicted ; was president, at the time of his death, of the board of trustees of the Reynolds Lilirary, of which he was one of the in- 124 HISTORY OF EOCHESTER AlS^D MONROE COUNTY. corporators; John W. Stebbins died Jiily 30th, and John Van Voorhis October IlOUi, a success- ful lawyer with a very lucrative practice; mem- ber of Congress, elected in 1878 and 1880 and again in 1892. January 28th Kendrick P. Shedd died; after serving in the war he was county clerk for two terms, from 1891 to 1897; February 14th J. Miller Kelly, a Democratic politician, alderman from the fifteenth ward for twent3'-flve years; February 17th Frederick Cook, remarkable for the almost unbroken prosperity that attended his movements; beginning life as a shoemaker and then a butcher, he abandoned those trades to be- come a brakeman on the Buffalo & Rochester rail- road (before it became a part of the New York Central), for some time a conductor of a German immigrant train, then of a regular passenger train; having followed that calling for twenty years, he gave it up to embark in commercial enter- prises, which, multiplying on his hands, seemed to owe much of their success to his guidance, for he was president of almost every one of the corporations in which he was interested and was recognized as a financial magnate, not only here but elsewhere; was prominent in Democratic politics and secretary of state of New York from 1886 to 1890. Dr. John Stafford, the oldest physician in the city at the time of his death, just a century in age, died February 25th; Elbert Henry Scrantom, April 24th, a bookstore keeper of long standing; Frederic P. Allen, May 3d, of an old family, cashier of the Ceriiian-American bank; James C. Hart, August 16th, a successful merchant and highly respected citizen; never held office, very retiring and equally charitable, dis- tributing his great wealth so unostentatiously that no one ever know how much ho gave away. George G. Clarkson, August 25th, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1811; an old anti-slavery man, mayor of the city in 1874, for a long time president of the old Athenaeum and for twenty-six years presi- dent of the board of managers of the Deaf Mute institution. Dr. George G. Carroll, September 24th, a valuable member of the board of education. William Purcell, December 27th, in early life a practical printer, he became a member of the edi- torial staff in 1854 and ten years later chief editor of the Union & Advertiser, retaining that position until his retirement, by reason of ill health, four years before his death; one of the most vigorous and effective writers ever connected with the liochentur press; on tlic last day of the year Philip Kri(Ml, a famous tenor singer in opera, in con- certs and in church choirs. The most memorable occurrence in 1906 was the series of events connected with the trial for heresy of Rev. Dr. Algernon S. Crapsey, the rec- tor of St. Andrew's (Episcopal) church. Toward the close of the previous year Dr. Crapsey had de- livered a number of Sunday evening addresses al his church, in which he indicated plainly his dis- belief in some of the doctrines commonly held by members of that denomination, notably the miraculous conception and virgin birth of Jesus Christ and his bodily resurrection after death, as well as the doctrine of the trinity. Almost sim- ultaneously these addresses were printed and pub- lished in book form, under the title "Religion and Politics." On the 6th of January following Rt. Rev.. AVilliam D. AValker, bishop of the diocese of Western New York, vehemently condemned, in a sermon preached in Christ church, the views enunciated by Dr. Crapsey, but, in spite of that, the latter declared publicly, three weeks later, that he should maintain his position in the church. Then the standing committee of the diocese took up the matter and made a presentment against Dr. Crapsey on February 23d. After some delay the case came on for trial at Ratavia before tlie ecclesiastical court of the diocese on the 17th of April. Roth sides were represented by able coun- sel, the eonimittec hy three Buil'alo attorneys, tiie accused by J. Breck Perkins of this city and Pld- ward M. Shepard of Brooklyn, both of whom de- livered strong arguments, besides which Dr. Crap- sey spoke in his own bolialf. On the 9th of May the court, l)y a vote of four incnil)ers, tlie fifth dis- senting, handed down its decision or verdict, find- ing that the accused had been guilty of preaching and publishing in denial of the doctrines as con- tained in the Apostles' creed, the Nicene creed and the book of Common Prayer, and stating that in its opinion "sentence should be pronounced as follows : That the respondent be suspended from exercising the functions of a minister of this church until such time as he shall satisfy the ec- clesiastical authority of the diocese that his belief and teaching conform to the doctrines of the Apostles' creed and the Nicene creed as this church has I'cceived the same," expressing at the same m STORY OF TiOCIIESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 125 time tlio lio})c tlial bd'oic the lapso of the Uiii'ty clays, at tlie end of which time he pIiouIcI be sen- loiiccil, he might see his way clear to satisfy the authorities of his conformity with the doctrines. So far from recanting, Dr. Crapsey reiterated, in still more emphatic language than he had previ- ously employed, his belief in his former utter- ances, and on the 6th of June he filed an appeal from the verdict, on the ground that the court was illegally formed, that it had refused to receive important evidence, that not sufficient time for preparation had been allowed and that the decision was vague, null and void. That brought the case before the final court of review, which held ils si'SHioii ill New York city and whidi, after hearing liie arguments of counsel, liandcd down, on the l!)tli of November, a decision which, without going inlo the merits of the case, rejected tlic appeal, on tiic ground that no errors had been committed on Ihe former trial, the jiulgmcnt of which mwM, therefore, stand. That ended tliis remarkable heresy trial, which, for better or worse, in one way or another, will leave its iiu])ress for a long time to come. A week later Dr. Crapsey, in a letter of much dignity, requested Bishop Walker to execute the sentence without delay, having done which he preached his farewell sermon at St. Andrew's and tendered to the wardens and vestrymen of the parish his resignation as rector. On the 4th of December he was formally deposed from the priest- hood of the Episcopal church. Of minor church matters in this year the most important were the dedication of West Avenue Methodist church, January 21st, of the Lyell Ave- nue Baptist church Novend)er 4th, and of the new chapel of the North Presbyterian church, Decem- ber 30th, the laying of the coiiier-stone of St. Augustine's church December 33d, the resignation of Rev. C. A. !McAlpine of the Bronson Avenue Baptist church (which had been consolidated with the Wilder street church) on October 18th, and nf Rev. Dr. S. Banks Nelson of St. Peter's (Pres- byterian) on the 22d, and the acce])tance, on the 18th, of a call to the Second Baptist by Rev. Charles H. Rust. On the 11th of November an evangelistic campaign was opened in several of the churches, ten large meetings being held simul- lancously; Ibis continued with nu)re or less en- thusiasm for eighteen days; the movement par- look largely of the nature of old-fashioned re- vivals, though that term was not used at all; one of its ])rominent features, in which it differed from anything done here before, was the use of saloons, every one of which of any notoriety in the city was visited by two evangelists (a man and wife), who made addresses^ pfEered prayers and sang hymns, which \yeTe joined in by the large crowds that were present and that invariably treated the vis- itors with perfect respect; much good was effected in this way, hopeful at the time and probably permanent. More than the usual number of con- ventions were held here this year, of which the most striking were those of the Genesee Valley Schoolmasters' association, then organized, Janu- ary 20tli; of the state league of saving mid build- ing loan associations July 16th, of the Arbeiter Saingerbund on the 20th, and both the national and state conventions of opticians on the 30th; the national convention of jewelers August 3d, that of the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted ifeaim on October 3d, of the state association of master plumbers on the 9th, of public school su- perintendents on the 15th, of Methodist bishops of the world on the 34th, of Afro-American Pres- byterians on the 36th; on November 1st the Uni- tarian conference of the middle states and Canada, and on the 13th, 14th and 15th of that month that of charities and corrections; this last was the sev- enth state conference of that nature that had been held and in some respects it was the most important one of all, those who were present representing all the charitable agencies of the state, oflicial and unofficial, public and private, de- nominational and non-sectarian, and the various addresses and reports being of a very high order; all the mceting;s, including the banquet, were held at the Eureka club-house; at the close of the con- ference Daniel B. Murphy of this city was elected president for the ensuing year. For many years Rochester had been suffering from the smoke nuisance arising from the use of soft coal as fuel in the manufacturing establish- ments and other large buildings, such as hotels and apartment houses. Disagreeable at the best, from its covering all white clothes, dishes and plates with a coating of soot and dirt, it was found to be also detrimental to health, particu- larly ill the case of young school children. Hav- ing become an intolerable evil, the Chamber of Commerce took uj) the matter and in spite of 12G HISTOIIY OP ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. strong opposition it succeeded in so rousing pub- lic opinion that the common council felt obliged to pass an ordinance prohibiting the use of bitu- minous coal except for a short time at stated peri- ods when fires were being started, and in carrying out this injunction what artists might call a color scheme, though in this case it was denomi-, nated a color scale, was adopted to determine whether any given volume of smoke was too dark to be permissible. The ordinance went into effect on the 1st of June, in consequence of which, as it has been quite generally obeyed, the city liaa been noticeably cleaner and healthier than it was before. Building operations were very extensive, the total valuation in the permits given by the iire marshal being $G,181,134, an increase of more than half a million over the previous year. Of the structures erected the most conspicuous was the West Side department store, on the corner of West Main and Fitzhugh streets, seven stories in height, with five acres of floor space, the frame work of iron, of which two thousand tons were used, covered with an exterior of white enameled terra cotta, which took more than fifteen car load3 of those plates, the total cost being $200,000, ex- clusive of the land, all of which had before that been covered by business blocks ; the beauty of this construction was sadly marred by the contiguity, on the west, of two unsightly buildings, but they arc being replaced during this year by an ornamental structure of the same height with their present companion. While a large addition was being made to the already enormous plant of the East- man company at Kodak park the collapse of the roof and part of the second floor, which consisted of a concrete material in which an inferior grade of sand was used, on the 21st of November, cost the lives of four men, one of them the foreman in charge of the- work. Another extensive addi- tion, completed at the very close of the year, was that of the Genesee Valley club-house, on Gibbs street and East Main, which is described in the next chapter. Perhaps the most notable banquet ever given in this city, though by no means one of the largest, was that on February 3d, when the justices of this Appellate division of the Supreme court entertained at the old club-house all the judges of the Court of Appeals. In spite of some frightful losses inflicted upon a widespread portion of the community, rich as well as poor, by reason of the depreciation in value of the securities of an industrial concern that was supposed to ofEer assurances of a safe investment, the year has been on the whole a very prosperous one. Money has been plentiful and has been well distributed, as may be illustrated by the pay- ment on December 1st of more than a million dollars in extra dividends by two manufacturing companies; the bank clearances, which, as well a^ oilier fiscal statistics, will be given in aiiollier chapter, showed a decided increase; the record of the post-ollico, which will ull'urd another indication of the general prosperity, showed that the receipts for the year were $769,970.54, the first time that they have passed the three-quarters of a million mark, December bringing in $77,15G.16, the lar- gest amount for any one month in the history of the office. The report of the health bureau showed that during the year there were 2,035 marriages, 3,688 births and 2,825 deaths, an increase in all corresponding with the growth of the city and maintaining the usual proportion of the groups, except that the births have increased slightly fast- ei" than the deaths, while the mortality iimong in- fants has shown a relative decrease as compared with previous years. The weather, although it be- haved pretty well during most of the time, waa quite eccentric during the first month and tha last, for on January 21st the mercury rose to seventy-one degrees, breaking the record of that day for thirty-five years, while about the begin- ning of December the fluid in the tube fell to zero, the lowest point ever reached here so early in the winter. This brings the general narrative of the city, imperfect as it may be, down to tha first of January, 1907, except for the necrological record that follows. Susan B. Anthony, the celebrated leader in tlie movement for female suffrage, died at her home on Madison street on the 13th of March. Born at Adams, Massachusetts, on February 15th, 1820, she came here in 1845 and was a school teacher for some years. Her public life really began in 1852, when she was sent by the Daughters of Tem- perance to a state mass meeting or convention of the Sons of Temperance at Albany, where she at- tempted to speak from the platform, but was not allowed by the presiding officer to do so, which so roused her indignation that it settled, instead of preventing, her vocation as a public speaker. The IIJ STORY OF llOCIIESTER AND J[ONEOE COUNTY. 127 lemporiuicc leioi'm wats never wholly iudiU'crent to lier and tliat of anti-slavery was still closer, but they both yielded to the cause of woman's rights, as she conceived them, which overshadowed every- thing else and embraced far more than the exten- sion of the elective franchise; in fact, the equal- ity of the sexes not only politically but in every other way. This was signalized by her adoption, in December, 1852, of the "bloomer" costume, with trousers and abbreviated skirt and the hair cut short, which peculiar dress she wore for a lit- tle more than a year, abandoning it then only because she perceived that it was doing more than anything else to prejudice people against the gen- eral cause that she had at heart. The most nota- bl event of her life was connected with the presi- dential election of 1872. On November 1st of that year she and fourteen other women registered, un- der protest from the inspectors, in the eighth ward of the city of Rochester, and on the 5th they all cast their votes, again in spite of the protests of the inspectors, who, being threatened with legal penalties if they refused to receive the ballots, were thus placed between two fires. A few days later Miss Anthony was arrested and admitted \o bail and was tried for illegal voting in the United States court at Canandaigua on the 18th of June in the following year. Judge Hunt, of the Su- preme court, sitting in circuit, took the decision of the case out of the hands of the jury, directing them to bring in a verdict of guilty, after which he imposed a fine of one hundred dollars, which she never paid, and that was the end of it so far as she was concerned. The poor inspectors fared worse, for when they refused to pay the fine of twenty-iivc dollars that was laid against Chcm they were sent to jail (a form of martyrdom that was courted by the principal offender but was denied to her) and kept there till President Garfield par- doned them out at the end of a week. That in- cident caused the name of Susan 13. Anthony to become more, widely known than ever and aided licr in the propaganda for female suffrage to which her life became even more exclusively devoted than before. Carrying the crusade into the western states, she was largely instrumental in inducing some of them to embody her views in legisla- tion which has not in every case brought the mil- lennium that was hoped for or even the satisfac- tion that was expected. In 1904 she went to Berlin as a delegate to the council of women, at which she, with others, brought about the forma- tion of the International Suffrage Alliance, repre- senting the women of ten different nationalities, after which she was received by the German em- peror and by the empress and honored with marks of distinction. Another missionary journey to the Pacific coast and then a run down to Wash- ington in the early part of 1905, where the extraor- dinary attentions that she received were cut short by her illness, for she broke down at last un- der the strain of her incessant labors and after a short interval came home to die. Whatever may be thought of the peculiar political principles that she promulgated, no one can refuse to her mem- ory a measure of admiration for the persistency, the energy and the devotion with which she advo- cated them. In the field of literature may be noted the deaths of George H. Ellwanger, , April 24th, an author of note, principally in the line of horti- culture; George M. Elwood on the 29th, of an old Rochester family, remarkable for his conver- sational power, in which he had no superior, a versatile writer, an indefatigable collector of books and book plates ; W. Martin Jones May 2d, private secretary of William H. Seward while the lat- ter was at the head of the state department. Pro- hibition candidate for governor in 1888, as a pub- licist he was one of the earliest advocates of in- ternational arbitration as the proper method for the settlement of disputes between nations and in 1896 he submitted, to the bar of the state an ex- haustive report on the subject; George F. War- ren September 17th, for several years dramatic critic and special editorial writer on the DemO' crat £ Chronicle, in which he displayed a lit- erary style never surpassed by anyone on the press in this city ; H. Pomeroy Brewster November 1st, author of "Saints and Festivals of the Christian Church" and a contributor to the daily press of entertaining articles on English life. Of Civil war veterans Dr. B. L. Hovey May 5th, an old army surgeon, medical director of the twentieth corps under Hooker, member of a great number of medical societies, local, state and national; Maurice Leyden August 15th, enlisted in the Third New York cavalry and mustered out as brevet major of the Fourth Provisional cavalry, elected county clerk in 1886 ; Halbert S. Greenleaf August 128 HlSTOllY OF llOCHESTEU AND MONROE COUNTY. 2oth, born in Vermont in 1827, served with dis- tinction during the war as colonel of a Massachu- setts regiment, removed to Eochester soon after- ward, was elected member of Congress as a Demo- crat in this strongly Republican district in 1882 and again in 1890 ; George W. Goler October 24th, born at Cape Vincent in 1829, entered the army as second lieutenant in the Sixth New York cavalry, rose to be lieutenant-colonel, had the re- markable record of having participated in seventy battles, twice wounded, twice a captive in Libby prison; Patrick C. Kavanagh November 24tli, was captain in the One Hundred and Eighth, an officer on the police force from 1868 till his retiremeid five years ago. In the realm of science three men passed away Dr. Louis Weigel, a distinguished physician, dieci May 31st at the age of fifty-one; he had writter. much for medical journals, largely on the train- ing of children, for as an orthopedic surgeon he was widely known; when the knowledge of the cathode ray was brought before the world he be- came intensely interested in the discovery and be- sides using it directly in his practice he was con- tinually experimenting with it; this cost him hit life besides giving him prolonged suffering, foi he took no precaution against the possible effects of the ray upon himself, which eventually showed themselves upon his hands, where a cancerous growth became plainly developed after other phy- sicians had perceived its approncn and had in vain endeavored to induce him to give up hii= work with ' the battery ; at last the time came when the knife could no longer be avoided and in October of 1905 he had all the fingers of the light hand removed, with three of the others, leaving him only the thumb and little linger of the left, several eminent surgeons from New York and Buffalo, as well as of this city, being present at the operation; the disease continuing to spread, five more operations were performed at intervals, which may have had the effect of prolonging his life, but if so only for a brief period; in spite of his mutilation he maintained his practice as m consulting surgeon and showed invariably a cheer- ful countenance in all his intercourse with friends until the end came and he died, a veritable martyr to science. Harrison B. Webster, who died on the Ifith of June, had gained a reputation ns a sci- entist and a man of broad learning, particularly in the line of zoology, sociology and political econ- omy; born in 1841 he was graduated at Union in 18C8, his college studies having been broken into by his service during the war; having been a mem- ber of the faculty of Union for some years he came here in 1883 to take the professorship pf natural history in the University of Eochestei-, but he resigned that position five years later to become president of his alma mater; he did much to lestore the former sliitiis and prosperity of Union, but at (ho expense of his heallli, and he returned here in 1904 lo spend the rest of his days. Henry A. Ward, while walking in the streets of Buffalo on July 4tli, Avas struck by an automobile and so badly injured that he died at the hospital an hour later. He was one of the most celebrated men that Rochester ever produced; his fame wa.'* so widespread and his explorations over the eartli were so extensive that as was said at his funeral by his pastor, Rev. William C. Gannett, "he was a citizen not only of this city and state but of the whole world." He was born in Eochester, March 9th, 1834, and went to Williams college, though ho did not graduate there but entered the scien- tific department of Harvard university, where hi; studied under and subsequently became assistant to the elder Agassiz. (loing to Europe and Africa as tutor to a son of General Wadsworth, he made, while abroad, his first collection of minerals, rocks anil fossils, which is still exhibited, tlie gift of his patron, in the rooms of the Buffalo Natural History society. Returning afterward to Paris he entered the School of Mines, supporting himself while there for five or six years by the sale oi specimens which he picked up, and then he began the formation of another mineralogical cabinet, by far the largest and best of its kind ever made, which was afterward bought by popular sub- scription for the University of Rochester, where it now is. While filling in that institution the chair of natural sciences, from 1860 to 1865, he founded the Ward Natural Science Establishment, which is described elsewhere and which Avill be a lasting monument to his fame. Leaving the uni- versity lie went into the service of some mining companies in the AVest, but it was time thrown away for him and he soon abandoned it to enter upon his life-work of collecting minerals valuable not intrinsically, but from tlieir rarity, and of du- plicating, by moans of molds that ho had made.. HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND ilOiNROE COUNTY. 129 the leinaiiis oi' all Iho exliiicl iiiiinuils Hint coiiW be round, Uiougli foi- lliu last I'cw years he devoted liiiiiseK almost exclusively to the gathering of meteorites, of which he had the largest private collection in the world, which is temporarily lodged in the Museum of Natural History in New York. This labor, which at the same time grati- fied his iiisiitiable love of travel, look him to the very ends of the earth, so that he circumnavigated the globe two or three times and visited every known part of the world. His remains having been cremated, his ashes were deposited in a niche cut out of an immense boulder of crystalline quartz, which he had obtained in the Lake Su- perior region and placed in Mt. Hope for that purpose a few years before his death. Of those engaged in other occupations the fol- lowing may be mentioned: Thomas C. Mont- gomery died May 29th; he was born in 1820 and graduated at Princeton at the early age of eight- eon; he was n lawyer by profession, but for the latter period of his life he was retired from active practice, a man of fine attainments and of rare culture. Volney P. Brown died July 4th, one of the best known and most successful farmers in Western New York; his home was in the town of Wheatland, where he was born in 1823; he wa= a member of Assembly in 1870 and 1871. Hcnrv Bartholomay, the pioneer brewer of lager beer in Rochester, died at Munich in the land of his fathers, on the 3d of September; born at Frank- fort-on-the-Main in 1829, he came to this city in 1850 and in 1852 brewed the first barrel of lager beer ever made or sold here; from that sprang the Bartholomay Brewing company, which grew to be one of the great industries of Roch- ester; when it was sold to an English syndicate in 1889 he went back to Germany, with the respect of all who knew him, to spend the remainder of his life. Daniel T. Hunt, who was postmaster of this city from 1870 io 1887, died at Chicago, September 17th; George E. Slocum, an old resi- dent of Scottsvillc, died there November 13th, n contributor of valuable papers to literary and historical societies with which he was connected. Rochester lost one of its most eminent citizens on November 26th, when George EUwanger passed away after a prolonged illness. Born in Wurtem- herg in 181 (J, he came to the United States in 1835 and to this city a year later, and started the ,A fount Hope Nurseries, which soon acquired a florld-widc reputation, though the firm name, that of EUwanger & Barry — the other partner being the late Patrick Barry — was the title that was iiimowt universally applied to them. Being a thor- ough master of all the details of the business ho soon built up a large and flourishing trade in fruits and fruit trees, extending even beyond the limits of this country, acquiring a fortune there- by and, incidentally, by the acquisition of real es- tate in connection therewith. In other relations he was well known and influential, being a director in several banks and on various boards of an edu- cational and literary nature. His generosity was wide and his public spirit brought him to tlif? front in many enterprises for the good of the community. To the example and the exhortations of bis lirm it is mainly owing that Rocheslcr is one of the best-shaded cities in the country. Of women who were prominently identified with various forms of beneficence were Mrs. Helen Mumf ord Halsey, for fifteen years president of the Woman's Auxiliary of Western New York and also of the board of managers of the Church Home, who died August 10th ; Mrs. Harriet Kemp AVard, aged ninety-four years, who died August 24th at Grove place, where she had lived ever since coming to Rochester in 1834 with her husband, the late Levi A. Ward, one of the early mayors; Mrs. John Harry Stedman, who died October 7th after a life that constantly tended to the better- ment and the elevation of tone of the society in which she moved; Mrs. Anson C. Allen, who died October 18th, one of the original memben'S of the Domestic Science board of the Mechanics Insti- tute, a cousin of Louise M. Olcott, the popular au- thor. II' it slinll pccni to the reader that loo large a proportion of tlie foregoing chapter has been de- voted to obituary notices let him consider those items as condensed biographies and in many in- stances, at least, as reminiscences of the previous history of the city. Viewed in that light the chap- ter may present a less somber aspect. CHAPTER X THE PRESENT TIME. The Industries of Rochester — Its Relative Posi- tion — First in Many Things — The Chamber of Commerce — The Reynolds Library — The Histor- ical Society — The Academy of Science — Ward's Museum — Schools and Churches — Social Clubs Literary Clubs — Secret Societies — Public Build- ings — Hotels, Apartments and Theaters — The Parks — Hospitals and Asylums — Bridges — Streets, Sewers and Street Gars — The BanTcs— The Weather — The Government — City Ex- penses — Conclusion. By the latest census, that of the state, taken in 1905, ]?ochester liad a population of 18t,f)73, that of the county being in the same year 239,444. With the natural increase since then, and the re- cent addition of the village of Brighton, the pop- ulation of the city at the present time is undoubt- edly rather above 200,000 than below it. By the United States census, taken in 1900, it ranked twenty-fourth among the cities of the Union, and there is no reason to suppose that its relative po- sition has altered materially since then. But there are other things that make a city besides the num- ber of its inhabitants, and in many of these Eochester stands pre-eminent among the municip- alties of the world and in still more among those of this country. Anything like a full description of its manufacturing industries would require not merely a chapter but a volume, and in the follow- ing condensed statement of facts care will be taken to omit anything that shall even savor of an ad- vertisement and to avoid the use of personal names except where necessary for purposes, of identifi- cation. There is about $50,000,000 actually in- vested in its manufacturing industries, the amount of stock issued by them being three times that; and the annual value of manufactured products is $83,000,000, the employees in factories and work- shops numbering over 40,000. It is the first city in the world in the manufacture of cameras, mak- ing more of them than are made in all other places put together; most of these are products of the Eastman Kodak company and its branches; these are of all grades and varieties of excellence, a large proportion for ordinary amateur use but others for technical work, valuable in pathological researches; some capable of taking a picture nine- teen foet long, giving ft pniioniinic vicw'of n city, for instance, and sweeping in all but ten degree's of the whole circle, while others are more rapid in their operation than the human eye in its move- ments, showing a bird in full flight or a base ball in its passage from pitcher to catcher; one was used with good efi'ect in the San Francisco earth- quake fire, depicting the conflagration in its prog- ress, after which the flames came on so swiftly that the camera was destroyed though the negative wus saved ; naturally more photographic supplies of all sorts are made here than anywhere else. In the somewhat similar line of optical instruments Rochester has also no equal, the factory of Bausch & Loinb, established in 1853, turning out more of those articles than any other so far as known; there molten sand grains in imported glass are transformed into the most delicate instruments known to science, and millions of lenses are made there, from the smallest microscope glass no larger IIISTOllY OF HOCIIESTEll AND MONROE COUNTY. 131 than a pinhead to the search-liglit mirrors three feet in diameter for the United States navy, be- sides which the firm has lately gone into practical partnership with the federal government in one line, as it now produces the lenses for the light- houses along the coast (which a few years ago it was thought could not be made satisfactorily out- side of France) and the most sensitive instruments for measuring the tides ; like the Kodak company this house has headquarters, branches and agencies on every continent and in almost every country; there are several other concerns in this city en- gaged in similar production, which would be con- sidered large if they were not overshadowed by this. First also in the manufacture of enameled steel taul, in 1833, the last-named having in connec- tion with "Pioneer" hook and ladder, number 1 — afterward known as "Empire" — a real house of its own on Fitzhugh street, where the north end of the large dry goods store now stands. When Rochester became a city, in 1834, no great change took place in our department. The conmion council elected two fire wardens for each ward, John Haywood and Abelard Re^'nolds for the fii-st, John Jones and AVillis Kempshall for the second ; Erasmus D. Smith and Thomas IT. Rochester for the third, Nehciniah Oshurn and Obadiah M. Bush for the fourth, Marshall Bur- ton and William Colby for the fifth; William U. Ward was re-elected chief engineer*, with Theo- dore Chapin and Kilian TI. Van Rensselaer as his assistants. Fifteen hundred dollars was put into the tax levy for the support of the department and a second hook and ladder company was formed for the east side of the river. The next year a hose company sprang up, probably attached to engine company number 1, for it bore the same name, the "Aetna." In 1838 two bucket com- panies were organized, also an engine, truck and hose company, a nondescript afl'air, not named. In the same year "Storm," num- ber 7, blew in; from its birth to its end it was true to its name; disbanded within a year of its formation, it was put together again and in January, 1813, was located on Plymouth avenue, in "CornbilT'; reorganized ten years later *Tlie names of iill the siil)sci|in,iit cliiof cnsinccis will lie found 111 llic civil liiit. -':i%;.i^,''?' C'.VFAl.'AdT. KllfE ENCilNE, No. 4, liOCIIP^STEi;, AS IT AP- I'JOAliED ON 'J'JIE DAY OF GENE HAL IfEVIEW OF Til 1<: FIJtE DEPAirj^MENT, OCTOB]