USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Early history of Rochester. 1810 to 1827, with comparisons of its growth and progress to 1860 > Part 1
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F 129 RT R62
1800
PRICE,
15 CENTS.
PRESERVE THE PAST FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.
EARLY HISTORY
OF
ROCHESTER
1810 to 1827,
WITH COMPARISONS OF ITS GROWTH AND PROGRESS TO
1860.
RY OF CONGRE
1881
CITY OF WASHING
NEW COURT HOUSE.
PUBLISHED BY GEO. W. FISHER, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 1860.
STEAM PRESS OF CURTIS, BUTTS & CO., UNION AND ADVERTISER OFFICE.
MAPA
ESTER IN THE SPRING OF
1814.
RIVER.
16 17 7879
7
71
6
6
Forest
5
17
4
2
9.
Clearing
Saw Mills
3
Indian Trail
GENESEE
Forest
Mill Dam
Open Flat
Forest
Ford
Flat
I
Road
The following extract from a letter to JOHN KELSEY, Esq., author of the Lives of the Pioneers of Rochester, dated August 2d, 1854, explains itself :
DEAR SIR :
" Agreeable to your request we have prepared a Profile or Map of Rochesterville, (the now city of Rochester,) as it was in March, 1814.
More than 40 years having now elapsed since this vision was presented to our boyish eyes; and while we are tracing out the lines marked by our memory in years when we could hardly picture to ourselves a hope that we should this day walk among the living in a populous city, the one-twen. tieth of whose faces we hardly recognize ; all this passed before us now like a dream of a night or like a tale that is told. We believe we have placed upon the Map all the dwellings, business houses, mills, &c., that were erected in what was then called Rochesterville, together with the names and business of each occupant. A hundred reminiscences pass before us that we would be glad to here recite if we had time and you space for the matter.
Very respectfully, your obedient servants,
EDWIN SCRANTOM, PHEDERUS CARTER.
KEY TO THE MAP. WEST SIDE OF THE RIVER.
1. The strata of rock that dips out the South side of Buffalo street.
2. Hlouse owned and occupied by Orin E. Gibbs; M. D.
3. School house, District No. 1, built Spring of 1814.
4. Lime Kiln.
5. Silas O. Smith's Store.
6. A frame owned by Henry Skinner, now the Eagle Hotel.
7. Log house built by Hamlet Serantom, Esq., miller, occupied by Henry Skinner, joiner.
8. Ira West's store.
9. Abram Stark's grocery and dwelling house, (brick maker.)
10. John Mastick's Law office.
11. ITervey and Elisha Ely's store.
12. Abelard Reynold's new house, (saddle and harness maker. )
13. Abelard Reynold's house and shop.
14. Jehial Barnard's tailor shop, used also on Sunday as a place of religious worship. 15. New house occupied by Hamlet Scranton, Esq.
16. House occupied by Wheelock, joiner.
17. House occupied by Aaron Skinner, school teacher.
18. House occupied by David K. Cartter, Esq., carpenter and millwright.
19. James B. Cartter's blacksmith shop.
20. Saw mill raised March 11th, 1814, by Hervey and Elisha Ely.
21. Log house built by Horvey for himself and hands while constructing the first bridge across the Genesee River.
22. Ruins of the old Allen or King's mill.
EAST SIDE OF THE RIVER.
1. First framed house occupied by Enos Stone, farmer.
2. Old plank house occupied first by Enos Stone, afterwards by Hamlet Serantom, Esq.
3. Saw mill owned by Enos Stone.
4. First tavern in Rochester, owned and occupied by Col. Isaac W. Stone.
5. Col. Isaac W. Stone's barn.
6. Enos Stone's new house.
7. Bridge across the Genesee River.
ROCHESTER
FROM 1812 TO 1827.
In looking back over the past of Rochester, and comparing it with the present, it is gratifying to every old settler to know that our goodly city has ever been on the advance, and that now, (1860,) she ranks as the fifth city in point of population, (numbering about 50,000,) in the Empire State.
Situated in one of the most fertile regions, and surrounded by the best agricultural and horticul- tural country in the world, with moral and relig- ious advantages unsurpassed by any city in the Union, it is easy to see what will be her future.
The first Directory of Rochester was published by Elisha Ely, and printed by Everard Peck, in 1827. Attached to this work, which was really a very perfect one of its kind, is a sketch of Roch- ester and Monroe county, covering about seventy pages, which is very interesting. That of the county was prepared by Jesse Hawley, Esq., and of the city by Mr. Ely, both gentlemen highly compe- tent to thetask. The sketches contain so much that is really interesting of the early history of this place, it was thought best to re-print them entire, in book form. The book is now out of print, and only here and there can an old copy be found in possession of our citizens. The statistics are wol - thy of preservation, and after a lapse of over 30 years, are reproduced and put into pamphlet form at so low a price as to enable every person to pos- sess a copy for preservation, or presentation to an absent friend. We have followed the copy closely, and the sketch relating to the county comes first.
DESCRIPTIONS AND MEMORANDUMS
OF THE COUNTY OF MONROE AND ITS ENVIRONS. Byla Heute
The tract of country now forming the county of Monroe, extends along the southern shore of Lake Ontario, about 21 miles west and 14 miles east of the Genesee river; its breadth southward from the lake being about 22 miles. Its geo- graphical position is, as nearly as it has been yet observed, between lat. 42° 51' and 43º 16' N. and between 3º 22'and 4° 03' west longitude from New York.
The face of the country, like that of the neigh- bouring counties on the lake, presents the gener- al aspect of a level yet soniewhat elevated table, sometimes dropping abruptly, and sometimes more gradually subsiding to the level of the lake. To a distant and general view, this level aspect is interrupted by only one narrow ridge, of gravelly consistence, rising in the town of Brighton and running in a northerly and easterly direction, in appearance like an irregular and broken wave, with several pointed summits ; yet, on a closer in- spection, the surface is considerably diversified.
The shore of the lake is indented with numer-
ous bays and inlets, of which the Irondequoit bay east, and Braddock's bay west of the river, are the most considerable. On the borders of the Irondequoit, and the creek of the same name, which discharges itself there, the surface presents a most extraordinary and picturesque appearance. It consists of a multitude of conical or irregular mounds of sand and light earth, sometimes in- sulated and sometimes united, rising to an aver- age height of 200 feet from a perfectly level mead- ow of the richest alluvial loom.
The rest of the country is diversified with gen- tle undulations retaining the remnants of their dense forests of beech, maple, and oak, on a deep yellow loam, covered with six or ten inches of black vegetable earth-some light and sandy plains, supporting alternately the oak and pine-a portion of the land called Ouk Openings, or sparse and scattering oak wood, on a solid calcarious gravel, and sometimes a lighter sand, mixed with clay-occasional patches of black-ash swale and pine swamp-and along the river and creeks, winding flats of the richest vegetable composition.
The subterraneous structure of this region cau hardly be considered as yet sufficiently explored, although the deep ravine cut by the Genesee riv- er, from its falls at Rochester to the dropping of the surface near the lake, exposes to view a thea- tre of regular and beautiful stratification but rare- ly witnessed, and the late excavation of the Erie canal has afforded an additional key to the un- locking of its mineral treasures. Beginning at the lowest observable stratum, the arrangement seems to be: 1st, Saliferous or salt rock ; this has been employed in building the aqueduct at Rochester-2d, Grey band-3d, Ferriferous slate -4th, Ferriferous sand rock ;- 5th, Calciferous iron ore-6th, Calciferous slate, nearly 100 feet thick ; this is the stratum cut into and exposed by the great falls in the village of Rochester-7th, Geodiferous lime rock; or swinestone, about 30 feet thick. The outcropping of this stratum forms what is called the Mountain Ridge ; in the viciuity of Rochester, and bed of the river above the falls, it presents a dark, approaching to the slate colour, and has a peculiar fetid odour. The 8th, Mor Corniferous lime rock, overlays the former, and appears in the south part of the county, which, still surther south, is overlaid by bitumin- ous shale and coal.
It is probable that the fetid odour of the lime rocks is derived from their affinity to and cotem- poraneous formation with the superincumbent bituminous strata. In the two last mentioned lime formations, sulphates of zinc, barytes and strontian, with sulphate of lime in the variety of snowy gypsum, as also fluate of lime, have been found. There are iuexhaustible quarries of plas- ter of Paris in the town of Wheatland. The only metallick ore which has yet been found in quantity, is that of iron, of which a very productive variety, the bog ore, occurs in Penfield. Those presenting themselves in the bank of the river have not been well examined.
The agricultural character of the soil of this district of country is that of the utmost fertility -the alluvion of the fetid lime stone which forms its base, being peculiarly adapted to the contin- ued production of superior wheat. Perhaps, also,
2
the moistness of the climate, from its vicinity to the great lakes, contributes to this effect. It is said that a chemical analysis of Genesee wheat, shows it to contain more saccharine matter than that of the southern states, while the latter com- bines with a larger portion of water in the com- position of bread. This may serve to explain why southern flour is more agreeable to the baker, but Genesee to the eater, when they come into com- petition in our cities.
The Genesee River, the principal natural feature in this district, belongs to the eleventh class in Woodbridge's arrangement of comparative mag- nitudes. It rises on the Grand Plateau, or great Table-land of Western Pennsylvania, interlocking with the head waters of the Allegany and Sus- quehannah rivers, around which a tract of six miles square might be so located as to embrace their several waters which flow into the Atlantick ocean, through the bays of St. Lawrence, Mexico and Chesapeake, and probably elevated 1600 or 1700 feet above the tide waters of the Atlantick.
[This is a region of bituminous coal, of good quality, supposed to be abundant in quantity.]
It runs from its source, about north 10° east, to Lake Ontario, about 150 miles-and about 125 in the state of New York-through the coun- ties of Allegany, Livingston and Monroe, touch- ing the southeast corner of Genesee. After cross- ing the Peunsylvania line into this state, it runs N. N. W. about 40 miles, to the Caneadea Reserva- tion, where it turns and runs N. N. E. or N. 25° E. in nearly a uniform line as to its general course, but with numerous small curves and windings, em- bracing large tracts of rich alluvial soil. It re- ceives the Canascraga creek, and Conesus and Hemlock outlets, on the east, and the outlet of Silver Lake and Allen's and Black creeks, on the west, beside many smaller streams. A few miles above the Gardean Reservation, it has two falls, near together-one of 60, the other of 90 feet. From the Reservation, it is navigable for boats to the head of the rapids, near Rochester-90 miles by water and 50 by land-and from thence by the feeder two miles into the Erie canal at Rochester. The third fall of twelve feet, is immediately above the canal aqueduct : the fourth is the great fall of 97 feet, about 80 rods below the aqueduct. From thence are considerable rapids, to Carthage, 112 miles, where the fifth fall, of 20 feet, occurs; and twenty rods below, is the lower fall, of 105 feet. Half a mile below this fall, the river comes to the level of the lake, and affords sloop navigation, from Carthage to Hanford's Landing, four miles, to its mouth.
This forms the Port of Genesee, which has a safe and convenient harbor of 20 feet water with- in, and from seven to eight feet on the bar, which lies half a mile in the lake. The whole fall of the river, from the head of the rapids, passing through the village of Rochester, to the lower falls, is es- timated at 226 feet in the distance of 312 miles ; in which the waters of the river can be used four or five times over, for hydraulick purposes.
The word Genesee is formed from the Indian name for Pleasant Valley, which is very descrip- tive of the river ; its banks, the alluvial flats, and the surrounding uplands, from ten to twenty miles on either side of it, being equal to the lands of any other country of the same latitude. The Genesee flats in particular, to which probably the Indian appellation referred, must strike every eye as peculiarly worthy of the name. These are either natural prairies or Indian clearings, (of which, however, the Indians have no traditions,) and lying to an extent of many thousand acres,
between the villages of Geneseo, Moscow and Mount Morris, which now crown the opposite declivities of their surrounding uplands, and contrasting their smooth verdure with the shaggy hills that bound the horizon, and their occasional clumps of spreading trees, with the tall and naked relicks of the forest, nothing can strike with a more agreeable sensation the eye long accustomed to the interrupted prospects of a level and wooded country. Had the Indians, who first gave this name to the valley, witnessed the flocks and herds that now enliven its landscape, and the busy towns, with spires overlooking it from the neigh- bouring hills, the boats transporting its supera- bundant wealth down its winding stream, and the scenes of intellectual and moral felicity to which it contributes in the homes of its present enlight- ened occupants ; and had they been able to appre- ciate this, they would have contrived the longest superlative which their language could furnish, to give it a name.
About forty years ago, the tract of country of which the county of Monroe forms a part, was only known as the hunting ground of such rem- nants af the Six Nations as survived the chastise- ment of Sullivan, and the still more destructive influence of frontier civilization. And many a veteran warriour is still alive, on the neighbour- ing reservations of Caneadea, Squakey-Hill, Cana- wagus, Seneca, Tonewanda, and Tuscarora, to entertain his degenerate sons with the exploits of his meridian viguur, when not a white man's axe had been lifted in all these forests.
The pre-emptive title, however, to this territory was claimed by the state of Massachusetts, under its colonial charter, which contemplated the whole region between its north and south boundaries, from the Atlantick to the Pacitick ocean. The charter of the state of New-York interfered with this claim, and after various unsuccessful attempts to adjust their differences, under the Congress of the old confederation, they were at last happily settled by mutual commissioners, who met at Hartford, on the 16th day of December, 1786. According to this . settlement, Massachusetts ceded to New York the sovereignty and jurisdic- tion of all the territory claimed by the former within the limits of the latter, and New-York ceded to Massachusetts the property of the soil ; or, in the words of the settlement, "the right of pre-emption of the soil from the native Indians," -" to all the lands now in the state lying west of a line running due north from the 82d mile stone, on the north boundary of Pennsylvania, to the British possessions in Canada, excepting a tract of one mile in width along the Niagara river "
· This line commences in the 42d degree of north latitude, 82 miles west of the northeast corner of the state of Pennsylvania, and is called the Pre- emption line. It runs through the middle of the Seneca lake, at its north end, and about one mile east of Geneva, and also through Sodus bay. Dr. Spafford, in his Gazatteer, says, it proves to be the meridian of the city of Washington.
[It is also the west boundary line of the New- York Military Lands, which contain twenty-eight townships, each ten miles square-that proud and splendid monument of the gratitude of New- York to her Revolutionary heroes-she gave 550 acres of good land to every soldier ! ! ! ]
In 1787, Massachusetts sold this tract, contain- ing six millions of acres, to Messrs. Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, for one million of dollars; or, for three notes of £100,000 each, New-England currency, payable in consolidated securities at par.
In the following spring, Oliver Phelps, living at
3
Granville, Massachusetts, prepared himself wth men and means to explore the country, and with great resolution and intrepidity took leave of his family, his neighbours, and the minister of the parish, who had assembled on the occasion, all in teurs, and started on his expedition ; they bidding him a final adieu, scarcely hoping ever to see him return again from an Indian country, hardly yet pacified !
He persevered, and penetrated the wilderness, from the German flats, in Herkimer, to Canandai- gua, [meaning « chosen place, in the Indian lan- guage,] a distance of 128 miles by the present improved road-sent out runners, and collected the sachems, chief's and warriours of the Six Na- tions, and in July, 1788, with the aid of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, as State Commissioner, and In- dian Missionary, concluded a treaty and purchase of a tract containing about 214 million of acres ; bounded east by the pre-emption line, west by a meridional line, running from a point in the north line of Pennsylvania, 42 miles west of the 82d mile stone, to an elm tree, in the forks of the Genesee and Canascraga ; thence down the Genesee, as its meanders, to a point two miles north of the Canawagus village, [now near Avon bridge,] thence due west twelve miles, [11% miles south of the village of Le Roy,] thence northerly, parallel to the general course of the Genesee river, [N. 24° E.] to Lake Ontario- which course forms the east line of the Triangle Tract, so called, and is about 24 miles long.
The reason of this remarkable offset of twelve miles to the westward, may not be unworthy of notice, as illustrative of the change in the value of landed property which has taken place since that time. Mr. Phelps proposed the erection of mills at the falls of the river, now at Rochester, and wished for a competent space around them for a mill-yard. To this the Indians assented, and gave him the aforesaid offset, being a space of 12 miles by 24, for that purpose,
After a mill had been erected by a Mr. Allen, and the Indians came to see it, and the quantity of ground requisite for a mill-yard, they uttered their interjection of surprise, quoah! and added, KAUSKONCHICOS! (signifying, in the Seneca lan- guage, waterfall,) and this ever after became the Indian name for Mr. Phelps.
The kindness, however, and good faith with which Mr. Phelps, like the celebrated. William Penn, always conducted his intercourse with the Indians, did not fail to secure their confidence and affection ; in token of which, they adopted both him and his son, Oliver L. Phelps, as honorary members of their national councils.
The leading chiefs and warriour concerned in these negotiations, were Farmer's Brother, the grand sachem, and who, for his political wisdom, might be called the George Clinton of the Six Nations-and Red Jacket, the celebrated orator, who is still alive.
After the treaty, Mr. Phelps surveyed the land into tracts, denominated Ranges, running north and south, and subdivided the ranges into tracts of six miles square, dedominated Townships, and designated each by numbers, beginning to number both ranges and townships at the 82d mile stone, in the southeast corner of the tract, [now the south- east corner of Steuben county,] numbering the townships northwardly to the lake, from 1 to 14- and the ranges westwardly, from 1 to 7. Thus, Bath is designated as township No. 4, in the 3d range ; Canandaigua as township No. 10, in the 3d range; Pittsford as No. 12, in the 5th range ; and Brighton as No. 13, in the 7th range of town- ships, in Gorham & Phelps' purchase.
As the Genesee river runs about 24° east of north, below Avon, and Mr. Phelps continued his 7th range of townships to the lake, the 5th range was left to contain but twelve, and the 6th range but ten townships-and in order to square the tract lying west of Genesee river, he set off two townships near the lake, which he called the Short Range, now comprising the towns of Gates and Greece; and the present towns of Caledonia, Wheatland, Chili, Riga, Ogden, and Parma, being then four townships, he called the first range of townships west of Genesee river, in Gorham & Phelps' purchase.
This tract formed the counties of Ontario and Steuben for many years, until 1821, when Monroe and Livingston counties were formed, except that part of it lying west of the river, which was an- nexed to the county of Genesee at its organiza- tion in 1802, and the south part of the 7th range set off from Steuben to Allegany.
In 1789, Oliver Phelps opened a land office in Canandaigua-this was the first land office in America for the sale of her forest lands to set- tlers. And the system which he adopted for the survey of his lands by townships and runges, be- came a model for the manner of surveying all the new lands in the United States ; and the method of making his retail sales to settlers by Articles, has also been adopted by all the other land offices of individual proprietorships that have followed after him.
The Article was a new device, of American ori- gin, unknown in the English system of convey- ancing; granting the possession, but not the fee of the land; facihtating the frequent changes among new settlers, enabling them to sell out their improvements and transfer their possession by assignment, and securing the reversion of the possession to the proprietor, where they aban- doned the premises. His land sales were allodial ; and the other land offices following his example, have rendered the Genesee farmers all fee simple land holders, which has increased the value of the soil and the enterprize of the people.
Oliver Phelps may be considered the Cecrops of the Genesee country. Its inhabitants owe a mau- soleum to his memory, in gratitude for his having pioneered for them, the wilderness of this CANAAN of the west.
Gorham and Phelps sold about one-third of this tract by townships and parts of townships, to companies and individuals, to settlers and specu- lators, who invited an emigration into the coun- try that soon formed the new county of Ontario, (taken from Montgomery,) which, by the U. S. census of 1790, contained a population of 1075.
On the 8th of November, 1790, they sold nearly all the residue to Robert Morris, containing 1,264,000 acres, for eight pence lawful money per acre-who sold the same to Sir William Pulteney, for the sale of which the latter opened a land of- fice at Geneva, and also at Bath, under the agency of Charles Williamson.
Gorham and Phelps, not being able to pay the whole purchase money, compromised, and surren- dered to Massachusetts that part of the land to which the Indian title remained unextinguished, being about two-thirds of the western part of it ; -in consideration of which, the state cancelled two of their notes.
In 1796, Robert Morris purchased the aforesaid land of Massachusetts-extinguished the Indian title-sold out several tracts of fifty and one hun- dred thousand acres off the east side of the tract, and along the Genesee river ; and mortgaged the residue to Wilhelm Willink and others, of Ams- terdam, called the Holland Land Company, under
4
which the company afterward acquired the title; surveyed it, and in 1801, opened a land office at Batavia, under the agency of Joseph Ellicott, for the sale thereof.
[It would be a good measure of publick econo- my, to get the early and leading titles to the lands in the Genesee country, collated and authenti- cated by an act of the legislature, to be used in our courts of record, in evidence on litigated titles; and save the expense of special exemplifi- cations of them for every cause.]
The early settlements of the country were mostly made in the vicinity of the Buffalo road, as the leading avenue through it. The earliest settlements in the territory, now the county of Monroe, were those made in 1790, by Israel and Simon Stone, in Pittsford, Glover Perrin, in Per- inton; by Peter Shaeffer, on the flats of the Gen- esee, near Scottsville; by Orange Stone, in Bright- on; and in 1791, by William Hincher, at the mouth of the river; and four out of these six pa- triarchs of the forest are still living. The two last lived twelve miles apart, and for several years without an intervening neighbour; and such was the eccentrick turn of the last named, that, as fame reports, he was jealous of all new comers, fearing they would disturb the tranquility of this conveniently distant neighbourhood. In 1796, Zadock Granger and Gideon King settled at the upper landing, four miles from the mouth of the river. In 1805, the harbour of Genesee was made a port of entry, and Samuel Latta appointed thie collector. In 1822, the United States govern- ment erected a light-house for the harbour.
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