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 Struggle for Monroe County 
 
 ^ 
 
 Howard L. Osgood. 
 
 Read before the Koclhslcr Historical Society, Alay /j, iSgi 
 
 By the gift of Mrs. Julia M. Griffith, the 
 Historical Society has become possessed of 
 two letters addressed to her father, Roswell 
 Babbitt, one written from Rochester on Jan- 
 uary 9, isl',), by Daniel D. Barnard, and the 
 other from Albany on January 3(1, iSl'.t, by 
 Dr. Matthew Brown, Jr. Mr. Babbitt, at 
 the time of tlie first letter was at Albany act- 
 ing as agent before the Legislature for the 
 petitioners for a new county to lie formed 
 out of the old counties of Ontario and Gi-ene- 
 see, and composed of the towns which two 
 years later were erected into the county of 
 Monroe. 
 
 Mr. Barnard states the eagerness of the 
 Rochester people to hear of the labors of their 
 delegation at Albany, but expresses a great 
 doubt of their success. The letter from Dr. 
 Brown, one of the delegates, is written to 
 Mr. Babbitt after he had returned to Roches- 
 ter, and discusses the political situation at 
 Albany which is likely to affect the success 
 of the scheme at that session. He says: "A 
 [Senator is to be appointed next Tuesday or 
 Wednesday. The Tammanys have nominated " 
 Samuel Young ; Clintonians, J. C. Spencer ; 
 Federalists, R. King. All are determined to 
 support their candidates. The Republicans 
 are to have a caucus next Monday evening, 
 but little expectation that they will abide 
 liy their promise. * * =■ Tliere is with 
 some of us, a serious looking to the powers 
 that may come into office. What may be 
 the object will probably be disclosed if we 
 •hould get a new county. * * '* I have 
 some fears about dabbling in politics, but 
 shall use all my influence to keep our cause 
 i-lear from the effect of a connection with 
 any jmrty. The House is favorably inclined 
 to hear and our opponents likewise seem 
 rather disheartened, but tlireatencd 
 vengeance upon us in the Senate and 
 \ think that is the worst place foi- us. 
 * * In the present state of things it 
 seevis to me utterly impossible that we can 
 maite any good use of party." 
 
 From ISKi to 1821, Ontario county includ- 
 ed the eastern half of Monroe, all of Wayne, 
 all of the present Ontario, the eastern part 
 of Livingston and all of Yates counties. 
 Genesee county included the western half of 
 Monroe, the western part of Livingston, all 
 of Orleans and of the present Genesee coun- 
 ties. The .county seat of Genesee was at 
 Batavia and that of Ontario was at Canan- 
 daigua, the two being distant apart some fif- 
 ty or sixty miles. The village of Rochester 
 was situated between the two, partly in Gen- 
 see county and partly in Ontario county, be- 
 ing thus divided by the Genesee river. 
 
 In those daj's debtors who were unabJe to 
 pay judgments against them were liable to 
 imprisonment for debt, but the sheriff of the 
 county to whom an execution for the collec- 
 tion of the debt was delivered could ar- 
 rest the debtor only within the lim- 
 its of his jurisdiction. Old residents of 
 Rochester say that it was a common thing to 
 see a luckless debtor running with all speed 
 from the pursuing sheriff, to cross the middle 
 of the bridge connecting the two parts of the 
 village, for when he crossed that line he could 
 not be arrested by the sheriff of the county 
 on the other side. 
 
 The two counties, Ontario and Genesee, in 
 IslG, had a population of about SO,(IO(( and 
 comprised a territory of about ;J7,0()0 square 
 miles, a district considerably larger than the 
 state of Rhode Island. The difficulties 
 which the people of Rochester 
 
 and the neighborhood had in do- 
 ing county business wei-e enough to 
 suggest the desirability of forming a new 
 county with Rochester as its seat of justice. 
 But little commercial business was done by 
 these persons either at Canandaigua or Ba- 
 tavia, except in connection witli tiie courts 
 held at those places, and the county clerk's, 
 sheriff's and treasurer's offices. Their ordi- 
 nary business did not take them there in 
 those days; the roads were bad and the 
 bridges were poor, and the excursions of 
 
^ 
 
 !^, 
 
 travelers from Rochester to these county seats 
 were not only arduous, but sometimes even 
 dangerous. Neither Canandaigua nor Eata- 
 via was a center of trade, while Rochester 
 was, and the reasons of the promotors of the 
 scheme were both forcible and urgent. 
 
 As early as December, 1S16, the matter of 
 the division of Ontario and Genesee counties 
 was agitated in Rochester and a subscription 
 list was circulated to raise funds for erecting 
 the Court House and Gaol, "provided the 
 Legislature at their next session shall 
 * * * incorporate a new county from the 
 northwest part of Ontario and the north part 
 of Genesee counties and shall fix the seat of 
 justice of said new county =■- * =!' near 
 the bridge at the Genesee Falls.'' 
 
 Subscriptions were obtained to the amount 
 of $6,722.5I( from residents of the village of 
 Rochester, of which amount $oS7.5() was to 
 be paid in lumber, team work and labor. 
 Charles Carroll, William Fitzhugh, Nathaniel 
 Rochester and the firms of Montgomery & 
 Rochester. F. Brown & Co., and Frederick, 
 Abraham and Charles Hanford subscribed 
 $500 each. Every prominent citizen added 
 his name to the list. 
 
 The petition circulated at that time among 
 the inhabitants of the counties of Ontario 
 and Genesee, praying for a new couuty, re- 
 cites, among other things, that the adminis- 
 tration of justice should be speedy and 
 certain ; that four terms of court were held 
 in each year in Ontario county, and three in 
 Genesee ; that it was not unusual for a moiety 
 of the issues joined in each of those counties 
 to be unavoidably put over from term to 
 teiin ; that in the short time of five years a 
 wilderness had been made to retire befoi-e the 
 hand of industry and to give place to villages, 
 wealth and the arts; that while the petition- 
 ers were led by multiplied concerns to the set- 
 tlements on the Genesee river, it was seldom 
 that they visited Canandaigua or Batavia for 
 any other ol)jects than attendance upon 
 courts or calls at public offices ; that those 
 places possessed no local advaiitages, inde- 
 pendent of being shire towns, to render 
 them seats of business, and senteutiously 
 states, with obvious reference to Canan- 
 daigua and Batavia, "In vain does man 
 design towns and villages where nature 
 forbids." 
 
 This petition asked for a county substan- 
 tially of the dimensions and bounds of the 
 present Monroe, and was signed by several 
 thousand persons. Two plans were evolved 
 about the same time, looking to the desii-ed 
 result. One was ' ' to set off twelve miles on 
 the west side of Ontario county and twelve 
 miles on the east side of Genesee county, and 
 to make two new counties about twentj^-four 
 miles square each. " The other was to make 
 this whole district, twenty-four miles wide 
 by forty-eight miles long, into one county, 
 with a county seat at Avon. 
 
 '"1x7 
 
 Petitions opposing the division were also 
 circulated and signatures were obtained to 
 the number of a little less than two thousand. 
 Residents of t^anandaigua and of a few other 
 parts of the two old counties actively resisted 
 any division whatever, being led in their op- 
 position by county and state officers. Colonel 
 Nathaniel Rochester and Dr. Matthew Brown, 
 Jr. , were selected as agents of the petitioners 
 for the new county and went to Albany 
 earlj^ in lsl7 to present the petitions and to 
 advocate the plan, as well as to secure the in- 
 corporation of the village of Rochester. 
 At the session of the Legislature 
 a favorable report was secured from the 
 committee of the Assembly, but the plan 
 failed in the Assembly itself. The village of 
 Rochesterville was, however, incorporated on 
 April 21, ISIT, aad retained that name un- 
 til April 12, 1S22, when it was changed to 
 Rochester. 
 
 No active steps were taken to proceed in 
 the matter of the division until the au- 
 tumn of 1817, when meetings were held in 
 the different towns which it was proposed to 
 unite in the new county, and petitions were 
 circulated similar to that presented to the 
 previous Legislature; but the writer has 
 found no information as to what was done 
 before the Assembly in the spring of ISls. 
 
 The desire for the division of the old coun- 
 ties kept increasing and an active campaign 
 was begun in October, 1818, by the appoint- 
 ment of delegates from the towns, and a 
 meeting at A. Ensworth's in Rochesterville. 
 Pittsford, Brighton, Henrietta, and Per- 
 rinton, in Ontario county, and Riga, Parma, 
 Gates and Ogden in Genesee countj-, were 
 repi-esented at this convention. It was de- 
 cided that these towns together with Penfield, 
 Murray, Sweden, and a part of Bergen, 
 should be included in the proposed county. 
 A committee was appointed to pre- 
 pare a' petition to the Legislature 
 ■ and separate committees in each town were 
 selected to circulate it. Finall}^ it was voted 
 "that Roswell Babbitt be a committee to 
 furnish money to defray the expenses of pub- 
 lishing " certain notices. Mr. Babbitt must 
 have been not on,ly public spirited, but self- 
 sacrificing as well. A month later, at a 
 meeting of the citizens of Rochesterville, 
 Colonel Rochester, Dr. Matthew Brown, 
 Elisha Ely, Roswell Hart, and Augustus G. 
 Elliott were appointed a committee with gen- 
 eral powers to promote the new county pro- 
 ject, and Messrs. Ely, Babbitt, Elisha John- 
 son, and Dr. Brown went to Albany in Janu- 
 ary, 1819, as agents of the petitioners. The 
 petition was presented to the Assembly on 
 January 12th, and was immediately referred 
 to a committee. 
 
 At this time the State politics werejnuch 
 confused, but ])erhaps the most importan* of 
 the parties were the Clintonian and Anti- 
 Clintonian. Ontario county was supjosed 
 
 IN EXCHANGE 
 ^M 5 . WW 
 
io 
 
 to he strongly Cliutoniau. the Senate was 
 Auti-Clintonian, and the Asseniblj- was Clin- 
 tonian. The committee reported favorably 
 on January 2f)th, but two attempts to secure 
 favoi-aLile action in the Assembly failed of 
 success. This failure was due to the fear of 
 C5 the rival political parties that the division of 
 
 the old counties and the ei'ection of new ones 
 would introduce elements of uncertainty into 
 the campaigns of that spring, and 
 of tiie succeeding spring, and while 
 each party knew fairly well what its status 
 was in the counties as they then stood, to 
 erect new ones was deemed impolitic at that 
 time. 
 
 In the fall of isH) there were still greater 
 energy and activity on the part of the di- 
 visionists, who had suffered defeat in the 
 elections of the previous spring. A conven- 
 tion of delegates from the towns interested 
 in the proposed division was held on Decem- 
 ber 2, ISlO, at A. Ensworth's, in Rochester- 
 ville, and committees were appointed for the 
 purpose of appearing before the coming Leg- 
 islature. Their pj-eparations were more 
 thorough than ever before ; the petitions 
 were more industriously circulated ; meetings 
 were held more often, and all possible ma- 
 chinery was set in motion to advance the 
 success of the scheme. Among other things, 
 statistics were obtained as to the amount of 
 business done at Rochester, foi- comparison 
 with that done at Canandaigua and 
 Batavia. The warehousemen on the 
 
 Genesee reported that between 
 
 April 2{) and December 20. 1819, there were 
 shipped from their warehouses 19,954 barrels 
 of flour and s,034 barrels of potashes, be- 
 sides pork, apples, whiskey and other com- 
 modities produced in the i-egion. 
 
 Levi Ward, Jr., Elisha Ely and Enos 
 Pomeroy of Rochesterville wei-e the agents 
 to appear before the Legislature on the sub- 
 • ject of the division. Mr. Pomeroy went to 
 Albany in January, ls2i), and in connection 
 with Judge Charles H. Carroll, wh ■ appeared 
 in behalf of the petitioners desiring the erec- 
 tion of a county south of Monroe, presented 
 the petitions of the towns to the Legis- 
 lature. Tlie petition at this time 
 stated, among other things, that the 
 proposed limits of the northern county con- 
 tained twentv-five to thirty, thousand people 
 " and a very flourishing village of vipwards of 
 fifteen hundred inhabitants doing much more 
 business than any other in the state, west of 
 LTtica." It was referred to the standing com- 
 mittee of the Assembly on counties, which 
 after hearing many parties both for and 
 against the proposed division, recommended 
 that the matter be postj)oned to the succeed- 
 ing Legislature. In this the Assembly con- 
 curred. Tile year ls'^0 was a presidential 
 year. At this period the electors for presi- 
 dent and vice-president were appointed by 
 
 were appointed 
 to Albany. The 
 divisionists were 
 although fewer in 
 
 the Legislature, and the political com- 
 plexion of the Legislature to be 
 elected in the spring of 1S2() 
 
 was of more than ordinary importance. This 
 fact doubtless had muc-li to do with the re- 
 port of the committee of the Assembly and 
 the postponement of all proceedings by the 
 Legislature of that year. 
 
 Nevertheless, the petitioners were not dis- 
 couraged by four successive failures, and 
 with increased zeal and vigor took proceed- 
 ings during the summer and autumn of 
 1820 to make their next attempt a sure success. 
 At a meeting of the citizens of Gates and 
 Brighton, held in Rochesterville on August 
 23, ls20, committees were again appointed 
 to push the project, and on October 28, 1820, 
 Nathaniel Rochester and Elisha B. Strong 
 the agents to fi;o 
 opponents of the 
 equally in earnest, 
 number. Led by such 
 able generals as John C. Spencer and Myron 
 Holle3% Assemblymen from Ontario county, 
 and Samuel M. Hopkins, an Assembh'man 
 from Genesee county, the anti-divisionists 
 were able to cope with a much larger force 
 on equal terms. The Legislature met on 
 January 9. Is21. The petitions for tlie new 
 counties were presented this time to the Sen- 
 ate. Counter petitions by thirteen hundred 
 remonstrants were offered by the opponents 
 of division. On January 22d the bill to 
 erect Monroe county passed the Senate by a 
 unanimous vote. 
 
 In the Assembly the bill met with vigor- 
 ous opposition from Messrs. Spencer, Holley 
 and Hopkins, who urged that no county 
 should be erected of teriitory l.ying on both 
 sides of the Genesee river, as it would subject 
 half the inliabitants to great inconvenience 
 and expense, and that the division would 
 merely promote the interests of a few lawyers, 
 merchants and tavern-ke' pers residing at the 
 new county seats. They stated that county 
 charges, before the division, fell lightly on 
 individuals and that the time, w inch was a 
 period of serious financial depression, wa.> un- 
 propjfious for raisng the sums iiecessar\- 
 to erect expensive buildings. 
 
 Besides this, the Erie canai was expected to 
 make material changes in the distribution of 
 business through the coiintie- of Ontai'io and 
 Genesee, and it might be found most uilwise 
 to have made tln' division when the canal 
 should be completed and the traffic upon it 
 should be fully under way. They also uvgf' 
 that there were many other places bette. 
 adapted than "' Shingletown," as they calle 1 
 the village of Rochester, for the seat of justioe, 
 and charged that the inhabitants "f the re- 
 gion about did not desire a new county, 
 but were over-persuaded by a few southern 
 gentlemen who had acquired landed interests 
 which would be greatly increased in value b' 
 
the proposed change. It was also stated that 
 in the near future a tier of lake counties, 
 along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, 
 would certainly be erected and that the 
 erection of Monroe was an entering wedge 
 for the purpose ; that it was better to have as 
 few county clerks' offices as possible, in which 
 deeds and such other instruments were to be 
 recorded, as the examination of titles would 
 be more easily conducted where the territory 
 of the county was large. 
 
 In the meantime their S3'nipathi^ers were 
 acting vigorouslj^ in the two counties to 
 create reasons for the defeat of the bill. The 
 judge of Ontario county opened his court at 
 sunrise and continued the sessions day after 
 da\, until late at night, giving scarcely time 
 for those in attendance to obtain food or 
 sleep. His calendar was soon exhausted. 
 The people of Canandaigua, opposing 
 the division, were highly elated 
 
 and boasted that the evils complained 
 of were but imaginary and that any court 
 anxious to complete what business was before 
 it could easily do so. The county clerks 
 kept their offices open early and late. But it 
 was too late. The advocates of division 
 pressed the arguments that Ontario and 
 Genesee counties were too large and that 
 they had exerted undue influence in the 
 councils of the state in many different ways, 
 and that the petitions which had been pre- 
 sented to five sessions of the Legislature show 
 sufficient reason for the passage of the bill. 
 It passed after much filbustering by Mr. 
 Spencer and his colleagues V)y a vote of 73 to 
 21. The council of revision then having the 
 veto power, approved the bill on February 
 2ri, 1S21, and the act stands as chapter 57 of 
 the laws of 1S21, and is entitled, " An act 
 to erect a new county by the name of Mon- 
 i-oe, from parts of the counties of Ontario, 
 Genesee, aud for other purjjoses." 
 
 The new county, flaiued after James Mon- 
 roe, then the President of the United States, 
 included the towns oJ/|>dtes, Pr.i'ma, Ogden, 
 Clarkson, Brightpn, ''^e^jSliJ, -' Perinton, 
 Pittsford. MendoiV. Heiirfetta, - a ...part of 
 Sweden, a part ol Rush, au4 a/ por- 
 tion of Caledonia, which was newly 
 named the town of Inverness, Within 
 ,.t(lie boundaries of the new county were also 
 
 .. iiuch part of the territory in the counties of 
 Ontario aud Genesee "as is included between 
 the southern shore of Lake Ontario on the 
 south, the lioundary between the United 
 
 \ States and Upper Canada on the north,- the 
 easterly line of the town of Penfield continued 
 to the said boundary line on the east, and the 
 westerly line of the triangle continued to 
 ( he 'laid boundary line, on the west." Com- 
 niist^ioners were appointed to determine the 
 proper site or sites for a court house and gaol 
 to be erected in the county of Monroe. A 
 
 Court of Common Pleas and a Court of G 
 eral Sessions were established and terms 
 said courts were provided for. One mem 
 of Assembly was apportioned to the ii 
 county. Elisha Ely and Levi Ward, Jr., ' 
 the town of Brighton," and James Seymo 
 "of the town of Clarkson," were appoin 
 commissioners to superintend the building 
 the court house and gaol, and two asst 
 ments of five thousand dollars each were 
 thorized to be collected for the expenses 
 the erection of the county buildings and 
 the contingent expenses of the county. 
 
 The council of appointment, in whom ■ 
 power of naming the county officers was v( 
 ed, on March 5, 1S2], appointed Elisha 
 Strong as the first judge of the Court of Cc 
 mon Pleas, Timothy Childs as District Att 
 ney and Nathaniel Rochester as Coui 
 Clerk ; on March 7tii James Seymour v 
 appointed sheriff and on March lOth Elis 
 Ely received his commission as surrogate, 
 the election of the same year Nathaniel Ro 
 ester was elected the first member of Asse 
 bly from the new county and he sat in i 
 Legislature of 1822; in November, ll' 
 Elisha Ely was appointed County Clerk in 
 place, and March 28, 1.^23, Orrin E. Gil 
 was appointed surrogate in the place of J 
 Ely. 
 
 The only further question to be sett 
 after the passage of the bill was that of 
 site of the county buildings. It appears tl 
 three lots were offered to the commissione 
 One, the lot now occupied bj- the court no 
 in this city, and two others on the east s 
 of the river, one being a part of Enos Ston 
 garden, and another a lot on North St. Pi 
 street. The court house lot (which v 
 finally accepted) was argued to be the b 
 site for the purpose, for a number of reas( 
 . which were comparisons of t 
 east and west sides of the river and cannot I 
 be interesting at the present time, while a 
 showing that the present i-ivalry is as old 
 the settlement. It was urged that the larg 
 part of the new county lay west of the rn 
 and that the territory on the west there 
 would admit of a much larger populati 
 than that on the east, " the west having mu 
 more territory, and the east having mu 
 more poor land ; that the soil on the w. 
 side of the river is more sandy and con 
 quently is dryer and less rauddj' in vi 
 weather ; " that the lots offered on the east si 
 were less comfortable for use because mc 
 exposed to the high, cold winds in winfc 
 and that the expansion of the population 
 the village would certainlj^ be toward t 
 west to meet the incoming trade upon t 
 canal. • 
 
 " In vain does man design towns and v 
 lages where nature forbids." 
 

 
 
 
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