USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume II > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01151 5191
Gc 974.7 D74H v.2
22781 13
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
49.9
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historyofgenesee02doty
HISTORY OF
THE GENESEE COUNTRY
(Western New York)
Comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates.
EDITED BY LOCKWOOD R. DOTY
VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED
1925 The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Chicago
- -
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
2278143
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY .15 BY HERMAN LEROY FAIRCHILD. University of Rochester.
CHAPTER II.
ANCIENT LAND OF THE GENESEE 111
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER III.
THE FIELD OF ARCHEOLOGY IN THE GENESEE COUNTRY 121 BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER IV.
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS 145
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER V.
THE RISE OF THE SENECA NATION, 1535 TO 1699
167
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SENECAS IN THEIR OWN HOME LAND ---______ 191 BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER VII.
A CENTURY OF PERPLEXITY, 1700-1800 .... BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
223
CHAPTER VIII.
THE WHITE MAN TAKES POSSESSION, 1783-1842
261
BY ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER, M. S.
CHAPTER IX.
INDIAN PLACE NAMES OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY 285 BY ARTHUR C. PARKER, F. A. E. S., Member N. Y. State Board of Geographic Names.
CHAPTER X.
THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION OF 1779 .317 BY ARTHUR WOODWARD BOOTH.
CHAPTER XI.
THE GENESEE COUNTRY
--- .339
BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE
351 BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HOLLAND PURCHASE
-- .389 BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BIG TREE TREATY
_405
CHAPTER XV.
THREE REMARKABLE WOMEN
433 BY CHARLES F. MILLIKEN.
XVI.
THE WAR OF 1812_
.455
BY ARTHUR C. PARKER.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE WAR OF 1812. (Continued.)
. .
.. .. 499
BY ARTHUR C. PARKER.
537
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE COUNTY OF ONTARIO
CHAPTER XIX.
THE COUNTY OF MONROE 617
CHAPTER XX.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: THE PIONEER ERA 663
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: JUDICIARY AND BAR 701
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: EDUCATION.
715
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: MILITARY
741
CHAPTER XXIV
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: CHURCHES
763
CHAPTER XXV.
805
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: CIVIC DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER XXVI.
825
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: BANKS
CHAPTER XXVII.
837
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: THE PRESS
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
847
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: MEDICAL PROFESSION ----
.855
CHAPTER XXX.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: INDIANS AND EARLY SETTLEMENT 861 1 -
CHAPTER XXXI.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: ORGANIZATION AND MISCELLANEOUS _887
CHAPTER XXXII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: TOWNS 897
CHAPTER XXXIII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: EDUCATION
947
(
CHAPTER XXXIV.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: RELIGION 951
CHAPTER XXXV.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: TRANSPORTATION
969
CHAPTER XXXVI.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: EARLY COURTS AND LAWYERS
973
CHAPTER XXXVII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: MEDICAL 983
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: INDUSTRIES
.989
CHAPTER XXXIX.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: BANKS
-----
997
CHAPTER XL.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: NEWSPAPERS 1003
CHAPTER XLI.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: MILITARY
1015
CHAPTER XLII.
THE COUNTY OF ALLEGANY. 1033
CHAPTER XLIII.
OIL AND GAS IN THE GENESEE COUNTRY
1059 BY LEWIS H. THORNTON, President of New York State Oil Producers Association.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE COUNTY OF GENESEE.
1111
CHAPTER XLV.
THE COUNTY OF NIAGARA
1147
CHAPTER XLVI.
1191
THE COUNTY OF CATTARAUGUS
CHAPTER XLVII.
1207
THE COUNTY OF WYOMING
CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE COUNTY OF STEUBEN
1223
CHAPTER XLIX.
INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS WITH AN HISTORICAL NARRATIVE OF STEU- BEN COUNTY 1241
BY REUBEN B. OLDFIELD.
CHAPTER L.
. THE COUNTY OF WAYNE.
1311
CHAPTER LI.
THE COUNTY OF ORLEANS 1341
CHAPTER LII.
THE COUNTY OF SCHUYLER
1359
CHAPTER LIII.
THE COUNTY OF CHAUTAUQUA 1367
CHAPTER LIV.
THE COUNTY OF. ERIE: CITY OF BUFFALO
1409
CHAPTER LV.
THE COUNTY OF YATES
1417
CHAPTER LVI.
THE COUNTY OF CHEMUNG 1421
-CARNET
FACTOR
WAKELEP
Randi'll PAINTERUG
BILLANDFEAR CABINET MAKER
HA CHAPIN
AZTECH
=
VIEW AT FOUR-CORNERS, VILLAGE OF ROCHESTER
As sketched by Captain Basil Hall, June, 1827. Sketch was made from Powers Building corner, looking southwest towards the court- house. Shows first courthouse, with First Presbyterian Church in rear. Small building on Court House Square, at the corner of Irving Place, is the law office of General Vincent Mathews and Selah Mathews.
CHAPTER XX.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER: THE PIONEER ERA.
No city on this continent has a more enduring foundation than Rochester-her civic structure has been reared upon pure American principles and wholesome traditions. The little settle- ment of Rochesterville, over a century ago, was literally carved from the forest by New England pioneers-God-fearing, intrepid men whose course was shaped not by the lure of yellow nuggets, mineral wealth, flowing oil or other sources of quick wealth such as have drawn human populations to distant corners of the land, but by the simple and natural desire to improve their fortunes by finding homes in this new country, which held out the promise of opportunity to the hardy and purposeful settler. As the reader has learned from other historians, Rochester enjoyed a steady growth from the very beginning; indeed, the early years of the community's life witnessed a development only paralleled in after years by the "mushroom" towns of the West. Unlike the latter, however, Rochester never found the lawless element a factor in her experience. The population increased in a healthy, normal fashion, stimulated at intervals by such improvements as the building of the canal and the coming of the railroad. The waters and falls of the beautiful Genesee, the fertility of the soil, and other physical advantages impressed the men, who with critical eye appraised this locality, while the abundance of game was not without its appeal. Land, too, in this vast domain of the Senecas was cheap, and tracts of generous size were available to those who wished to purchase.
The country was heavily timbered with the sugar maple, beech, lin (basswood), oak and elm; there also abounded the pine, walnut, hickory and dogwood. A brochure printed in the year 1804, giving a "view" of western New York states: "Of shrubs and plants the most noted are sassafras, wild hops, fox grapes in some parts, ginseng, sarsaparilla, snakeroot, spikenard, man-
663
664
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
drakes in taste and flavour much resembling a pine apple, straw- berries, whortleberries, cranberries which are used for preserves, and wild gooseberries. Fruit, as apples, peaches, etc., grows to much advantage and in some parts are orchards that were raised by the Indians, but fruit trees were mostly destroyed in the expe- dition of General Sullivan against the Indians in the Revolu- tionary war. Of wild animals the most remarkable are bear and wolves, which abound most in the hilly parts; also deer, and elks a large species of deer weighing five or six hun- dred pounds, and a few panthers. Sheep are sometimes destroyed; but as a liberal reward is allowed for killing wolves and panthers, they become scarce as the population of the country increases. Squirrels are so numerous in some years as consid- erably to injure corn, and upwards of 2,000 of them have some- times been killed in the compass of six miles in one day which is appointed for that purpose by the inhabitants; the most com- mon kinds of them are the black, and the red, the grey coloured being very scarce. Of reptiles the most remarkable is the rattle- snake, which is seen mostly in the hilly parts. Large numbers of pigeons frequent the country in spring and fall, of which a great many are caught by nets and by shooting, and beds are sometimes made of their feathers. There are partridges and quails; and wild fowl and fish are abundant in Lake Ontario and other lakes, and in the rivers."
Earlier chapters in this volume have told of aboriginal life in western New York; of the dominion of the Senecas; of the missionaries, explorers and adventurers from beyond the seas; of the militant rivalries of France and England and the triumph of the latter; of various expeditions for conquest; of the tragedies of the Revolutionary period; of treaties with the Indians and the extinction of the native titles to the land; of times and events preceding white settlement upon the site of Rochester. The treaty of July 8, 1788, at which Phelps and Gorham obtained the Indian title to about two million six hundred thousand acres of land, and the conveyance by the State of Massachusetts in November following, confirmed them in the ownership of the soil of all the Genesee Country lying east of the Genesee River and a substantial tract west of the river.
Phelps had experienced difficulty in establishing a western boundary to his purchase in agreement with the Senecas. The
articles of agreement made this 21. day of man in the year of our Lord one thousand Seven Hunind and Ninety two between Theniza Allen and Began in Barton Wilnehoth That for and in foreducation of five Hundred pounds New york Currency huww by the said Ebenezer Allen of Bryanin Boston the sind chinezen Allin both sall all that harry Land containing one hundred leves lying on the west side of the Geneeco Never in the Country of Ontario Hale of New York Bounded last on the Genero Mais so as to take in the Miles lately Built by the vaid Allin, Tem Thence to run northerly from said mills Sixty three Noch also southerly of sais mills Sixty three Mods, from there tuning westerly so as to made one hundred deres their measure and the said Therezer Allin both hereby improves the said Benjamin Baston to apply to the Hand Oliver Shelf. and Nathaniel Gorham on Either of them for a good and Suffercant died of benwey anses to be by them or - Either of them executed to the said Benjamin Barten. his His or afsigns for said Fact of Land and the said Chineze allin both hereby request and Impover the vaid Oliva Phelps or Nathaniel Gorham to seal. execute and Deliver such Need to the said Benjamin. Barton his Hers or afsigns, and the said toenerga allin doth hereby exonorate and discharge the said alim Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham in consequences of their creceting the deed af? from all and worry agreement or Instrument which might or may have existed respecting the convey ance of said hush
of Land from Them the said Glu Ghelps and Nathaniel Gorham on Either of them to the said Downezer Allin, in Hikmet when of the said Stenegen allen heath hurento set his hand and That the_ day and year above willen
fueled and delivered
2.63
37
in the presence of-
Elan 3/2 11.10
can't you
115.8 14
Gertrude & Ogden John Farlora
Contante for Deeck of Hortinta Sand, Ebenern allen alias Indian allen. 70 Benfammi Barter 1792
of allemix lille Joh Bartur Dus of Benjamin, Days hun father paul accen B.200/12 Hus. 100 años.
EBENEZER "INDIAN" ALLAN'S AGREEMENT TO SELL ONE HUNDRED ACRE TRACT His name is spelled three ways in this document, but his signature gives it as Allan.
7
669
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
sagacious red man held the territory west of the Genesee River as inviolate; this was his sacred hunting ground and must be preserved as such. However, Phelps possessed the shrewdness of the Indian trader and, after much bickering with the natives per- suaded them to give him a strip extending westward from the river at a point two miles north of the old Indian village of Canawaugus, a distance of twelve miles and thence northerly, paralleling the river about twenty-four miles to Lake Ontario. This additional tract of land was secured by numerous argu- ments, the chief of which was the promise of Phelps to build for them a sawmill and a grist mill at the falls.
As a matter of good business policy, Phelps kept his word. In 1789 he caused to be erected by Ebenezer Allan the two mills, in consideration for which service he granted to Allan one hun- dred acres, sometimes designated as the Genesee Falls Mill Lot. "Indian" Allan, as he was commonly called, a degenerate, poly- gamous ruffian, but withal a man of courage and hardihood, lived in his crude grist mill for two years. Thus he is entitled to be called the first white settler of Rochester.
The career of "Indian" Allan was colorful if degrading. He acquired his sobriquet from the fact that he voluntarily resided with the Indians and fought with them against the American col- onists during the latter part of the Revolution. He was an adopted member of the Seneca Nation and was known to the red men as Jen-uh-shi-o. For a time he was with the notorious Butler, but he failed to adapt himself to military discipline, so returned to his Indian comrades. Tradition has it that he wielded a scalping-knife with the best of them. After the war had closed, Allan settled on the Genesee River, where he remained until he came to the falls of the Genesee to build his mills. He disposed of his interest in the mills in 1792 to Benjamin Barton and soon thereafter journeyed to Canada, where Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe gave him three thousand acres of land on condition that he construct thereon a church, sawmill and grist mill; he died in Canada in 1814.
The matrimonial experiences of Allan are worthy of record and give a true index to the moral character of Rochester's first settler. His first wife was Sally, a squaw, whom he married before he came to the Genesee River; she bore him two daughters.
2-Vol. 2
670
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
This union, however, did not prevent his second marriage to Lucy Chapman, a white girl. Then he took unto himself a third wife, after depositing her husband in the river. This wife soon left him, whereupon Allan married a negress. He cast her aside, however, after defrauding her father of his property. Morilla Gregory, daughter of one of Butler's rangers, was his next wife, but, when Sally and Lucy objected, Allan coolly employed two men to place Morilla in a boat and send her over the upper falls. Morilla escaped, though, by swimming ashore and rejoined Allan, who placed her in a separate abode. Mary and Chloe, Allan's two daughters by his Indian wife, received the deed of a tract of land four miles square at what is now Mount Morris and known as the Mount Morris tract from the chiefs and sachems of the Seneca Nation who considered them children and members of the nation. Allan took this deed to Philadelphia and sold the
nd to Robert Morris without any right whatever and thus delib- rately defrauded his daughters, who never succeeded in regain- ing the land.
The modern historian need offer no apology for "Indian" Allan. He was a product of the times. His moral incorrigibility was a mere incident in the part he played in Rochester's history. Mary Jemison, the "White Woman," has left us a pen-picture of Allan, whose commanding presence and ingratiating personal- ity could not overcome a sense of horror which his relation of gruesome tales of his exploits aroused in her, inured as she was to cruelties. We must not, in contemplating the life of this con- tradictory individual, deny him a measure of indulgence on account of at least one event invariably mentioned whenever his story is told, which occurred prior to Allan's removal to Roches- ter. We cannot condone his Bluebeard proclivities, but in the instance about to be mentioned we discover that he had at least a shred of loyalty and conscience in his make-up. The circum- stance is here recorded as it is given in words attributed to the "White Woman":
"The British and Indians on the Niagara frontier, dissatis- fied with the treaty of peace, were determined, at all hazards, to continue their depredations upon the white settlements which lay between them and Albany. They actually made ready, and were about setting out on an expedition to that effect, when
NATHANIEL ROCHESTER, WHEN A YOUNG MAN Photograph of portrait, done in pastel, which now hangs in the Hagerstown Bank.
COLONEL NATHANIEL ROCHESTER
Photograph of oil portrait owned by Mr. Rochester Hart Rogers, a great-grandson. The painting is the original of the familiar portrait. An inscription on the back reads, "Taken 1822. Aged 70 years."
675
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
Allan (who by this time understood their system of war) took a belt of wampum, which he had fraudulently procured, and car- ried it as a token of peace from the Indians to the commander of the nearest American military post. The Indians were soon answered by the American officer, that the wampum was cor- dially accepted, and that a continuance of peace was ardently wished for. The Indians, at this, were chagrined and disap- pointed beyond measure, but as they held the wampum to be a sacred thing, they dared not go against the import of its mean- ing, and immediately buried the hatchet, as it respected the people of the United States, and smoked the pipe of peace."
Thus, although resorting to artifice and fraud, unforgivable to Indian ethics, the man was doubtless inspired by the hope of preventing a massacre of Americans and was willing to run the very great personal hazard involved to accomplish it.
Sometime during the month of September, 1800, Nathaniel Rochester, Charles Carroll and William Fitzhugh came to the Genesee Country from Hagerstown, Maryland. All were men of affluence and prominence and their mission to western New York was to investigate at first hand that region of which they had heard so much from travelers. Colonel Rochester had been in the country now comprised in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee the previous spring and had returned home with the intention of moving with his family to Kentucky. The arguments of his friends, Carroll and Fitzhugh, induced him to visit the Genesee Country before taking this step. Carroll and Fitzhugh had been there during the previous year, but had purchased no land. All three bought lands in the Genesee Valley in 1800, on their first trip into the country together. Rochester secured one hundred and twenty acres at Dansville, also four hundred acres near the settlement of Williamsburg, where his two companions also bought land. In the following year, 1801, having meanwhile re- turned to Hagerstown, the three men again set out for the Gene- see Valley, but Rochester was compelled to abandon the journey and return home on account of illness. The next year he and Fitzhugh visited the region for the third time and, as in the pre- vious years, again made purchases. Their trip to the land office at Geneva, to make payments upon their contracts, led to their coming to the upper falls of the Genesee, the site of Rochester,
676
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
John Johnston, the land agent, having described to them in detail the advantages of the water power at this location and persuaded them to visit the place.
The appearance of the falls at this time is well described by Howard L. Osgood in a paper prepared in 1894. He states briefly : "The upper falls (or rather an extended cascade) stretched across the river about where the aqueduct is now situated, and were of a total vertical height of about fourteen feet. They were blasted away to make room for the aqueducts and a water passage under them and there is now only a continuous rapids. On the west side of the river, extending up stream from the top of the falls, was a small island separated from the west bank by a narrow channel, thus providing a natural race-way. From this channel the water was led in a rude flume to the old Allan mill on the flats below." The two old mills constructed by Allan were abandoned; the saw- mill had been totally washed away and the grist mill was about to follow.
On their first visit a scene of desolation met the eyes of Colonel Rochester and his companions as they forded the river and gazed at the small clearing made by Allan. There in an open space dotted with tree stumps and liberally covered by underbrush was a log hut, deserted and fast decaying, while manifestly the only inhabitants were the native denizens of the surrounding forest. They quickly perceived, however, the natural advantages of the spot and without much loss of time and after arranging about the mill privileges with Gideon King, they journeyed southward to Bath, where they met the agent, John Johnston, and accepted his offer to sell them the hundred acre tract for the sum of $1,750. An agreement was drawn up between Johnston, acting as attor- ney for Sir William Pulteney (the tract then being a part of the Pulteney estate), and Rochester, Carroll and Fitzhugh, bear- ing date of November 8, 1803, which briefly describes the land involved as a "certain tract of land in township number one in the short range on the west side of the Genesee River in the County of Genesee (late Ontario) and State of New York, being the tract commonly known and designated as the Genesee Falls Mill Lot and containing one hundred acres, together with all the privileges and advantages of the waters thereon and the mills thereon erected."
William Putting& by his city I Johns long
Ch: Carroll É
ar
was the
L.
SIGNATURES OF CARROLL, FITZHUGH AND ROCHESTER ON CONTRACT FOR ONE HUNDRED ACRE TRACT
,
-1
.
TTF
FIRST MAP OF ROCHESTER; DRAWN BY COL. NATHANIEL ROCHESTER
679
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
This tract formed the original site of the present city of Rochester and as such is entitled to a passing account. The ac- companying map will indicate the boundaries of the original tract, and, in this connection, it is interesting to note that practically all of the street names within the hundred acres have undergone a change, only Fitzhugh and Washington streets retaining their original names. Buffalo Street has become Main Street; Mill Street has become Exchange; Mason Street became Market Street, then Front Street; Carroll Street has been changed to State Street; Hughes is now Fitzhugh Street North; Hart became Sophia, then Plymouth Street North; Franklin is now North Washington; Ann Street is now Church; and Falls Street is now Spring Street. In 1792 "Indian" Allan had disposed of his in- terest in the land to Benjamin Barton, giving him full possession which the latter strengthened by obtaining a deed. Barton sold the tract to Samuel B. Ogden who, in turn, transferred it to Charles Williamson, the agent of the Pulteney estate.
The biography of Nathaniel Rochester has appeared many times in the literature of the city to which he gave his name, so that nothing beyond the briefest mention of his affairs will be attempted. He was born in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia, February 21, 1752. After his father's death his mother remarried and moved to Granville County, North Carolina. When he was sixteen years of age, in the autumn of 1768, he left home to enter the employ of a merchant at Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina. Here he resided for fifteen years, until 1783. When only twenty-three years of age he was chosen a member of the Orange County Committee of Safety and in the same year he was commissioned a major of militia and appointed paymaster of the battalion of Minute Men in his district. In April, 1776, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and a month later was elected a delegate to the state constitutional convention. Sub- sequently he was commissioned deputy commissary-general of military stores in North Carolina with the rank of colonel. In 1783 he removed to Hagerstown, Maryland, where he remained for twenty-seven years, as an active merchant, manufacturer and banker ; also holding many offices of public trust. In May, 1810, he removed permanently to western New York and settled at Dansville, where he established a sawmill, grist mill, paper mill and wool-carding shop. His diversified interests at this time
680
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
were a serious drain upon his financial resources and he threat- ened to dispose of his property at the falls of the Genesee to Car- roll, but the latter urged him strongly to retain it. Less than a year later he had occasion to thank Carroll for this advice.
Colonel Rochester laid out the village of Rochesterville on the hundred acre tract in the summer of 1811. In January, 1814, he sold his property at Dansville, and in the spring of 1815 removed to East Bloomfield, Ontario County. In 1818 he became a resi- dent of Rochester, and upon the organization of Monroe County in 1821, he was appointed county clerk and the same year was elected first assemblyman from the county to the legislature. He was also president of the first bank organized in Rochester. He died May 17, 1831, and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in the city which he founded. It is a noteworthy fact that as recently as June, 1924, a bronze memorial tablet, erected upon the Bevier Memorial Building, Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Insti- tute, was unveiled in his honor. This was accomplished through the efforts of The Rochester Historical Society and the Rochester Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution; the expense was borne by private contributions. The tablet itself, marking the site of Colonel Rochester's final home, is inscribed with a suitable epitome of this worthy pioneer's life and work.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.