USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > A history of Buffalo : delineating the evolution of the city > Part 18
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Along all lines of cultural development, the women of the city have contributed, from the beginning, even more than their share of action no less than of inspiration; but movements of organization among women distinctively in these fields is comparatively a recent fact. If there could be an exact enumeration of all now existing associations in Buffalo for every purpose outside of business and politics, it is quite probable that those which unite women alone would outnumber the associations of men. And this would be true with certainty in the large division which has to do
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CULTURAL EVOLUTION
with social service and with educational work. To a con- siderable extent, such coteries on the gentler side of the community have been co-operatively linked together, in a "Buffalo City. Federation of Women's Clubs," organized some years ago by Mrs. John Miller Horton, its first presi- dent. By the influence concentrated in this federation, the women's clubs gave early evidence of their power for such good work, as the establishing of a penny luncheon for underfed children in the public schools; securing medical inspection of pupils in the schools, and a probation officer at the police court for the care of young girls; raising the fund for a girl's scholarship in the University of Buffalo that is to be, etc. In 1910 the clubs affiliated in this federa- tion numbered fifty, representing a great variety of objects in their organization,-inclusive, for example, of the Polit- ical Equality Club, the Consumers' League, the Collegiate Alumnæ, the Crippled Children's Guild, the District Nurs- ing Association, the Mothers' Club, the Scribblers, and other literary and study clubs, which form the most numer- ous order.
Probably the largest single association of women in the city is that which constitutes the Buffalo Chapter, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, over which Mrs. John Miller Horton has presided as regent since 1901. This chapter, having six hundred and fifty-five members, is the largest in the State of New York, and sec- ond largest in the nation, that of Chicago, alone, going be- yond it in numbers. It is active in work on both patriotic and educational lines : providing, on one hand, semi-weekly winter lectures to our foreign population on the history of this country, in halls and public schools, for audiences of Poles, Italians and Germans, each addressed in the language of its nationality; identifying, on the other hand, by careful research, the graves of soldiers of the Revolution in this
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PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATIONS
vicinity, and marking them, with due ceremony and with durable markers in bronze. Closely allied in its objects with the Chapter of the D. A. R. is the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the Daughters of 1812, organized in 1904.
The order of associations to which these belong, patriotic and genealogical in their significance, includes many others, in both sexes. It embraces six posts, two relief corps and two circles of the Grand Army of the Republic; a camp of the Sons of Veterans; associations of the Veterans of the Twenty-first and the Hundredth Regiments of the War of the Rebellion ; a Buffalo Chapter of the Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution; the Buffalo Association of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution; the Buffalo Association of the Society of Colonial Wars; the Buffalo Association, Society of Mayflower Descendants; a "colony" of the National So- ciety of New England Women; an organization of the Daughters of New England; the Buffalo Society of Ver- monters ; the Ohio Society of Buffalo; the Old German So- ciety ; the Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, etc.
The extent to which women and men-but women more than men-are being gathered, in this generation, into clubs and classes for investigation and study in all regions of knowledge, and for discussion of all the questions of the day, is one of the most significant and promising signs of widened culture that our age affords. If it could be exhibited rightly it might furnish, perhaps, as illuminating a chapter of local history as one could prepare ; but the task of prepa- ration would be so difficult that I cannot undertake it.
ROCHESTER PAST AND PRESENT
R OCHESTER, beautiful for situation, on either bank of the Genesee river, near to its confluence with Lake Ontario, 372 miles from New York and 69 from Buffalo, prosperous, enterprising, enlightened, with its churches, its institutions of learning, its manufactories, its mercantile palaces, its asylums and hospitals, fair in the art with which man has embellished nature, with foliage and flowers and fruit, with broad avenues and spacious and tasteful dwellings, is of the best type of American urban development. Its citizens esteem it the finest residential town in the country and, as such, it has wide recognition.
Yet, on the traveler's thought Where'er he roams, O'er lands where art has wrought, Lands with all memories fraught, Thine image comes unsought, City of homes.
The span of its existence is comparatively brief. It post- dates the Revolution. It was a wilderness when the inde- pendence of the republic was declared. Hardly a century has passed since it was trailed by the Iroquois and the howl of the wolf was the refrain of the forest. It was not until 1789 that the whir of the mill of "Indian Allan" -- that strange compound of pioneer and outlaw-of lust and ad- venture-heralded its civilization and Jeremiah Olmstead gathered a harvest from the field adjacent to the recent site of the State Industrial School. The genesis of Rochester was in New England. Its early settlers were mainly of Puritan stock. They were the men or the sons of the men
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>TAY QUO AUHIHA
ROCHESTER AND PRESENT
R beautiful for situation, on either bank af po Lenesee river, near to its confluence with Kale curio, 372 miles from New York and 69 trim Rudel perous, enterprising, enlightened, with its church, its numitutions of learning, its manufactories, its mee pali its asylums and hospitals, fair in the art with which map nes embellished nature, with foliage and flowers and fruit, wille venues and spacious and tasteful dwARTHUR GOULD YATES. American urban deve Railroad official; born East Waverly, New York, 1843. ential toyIn i867h established, a coal business in Rochester. In 18761 . organized the coal mining company of Bell, Lewis & Yates, which was purchased by the Buffalo, Rochester & Pitts- burg Railroad' in 1896." In 1890 became president of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad ; residence, Roches- ter, New York. mgr comnes ensongot,
City of homes.
The span of its existence is comparatively brief. It post- dames the Revolution It was a wilderness when the inde- live of the republic was declarel Hanily & century tres gramoil sinve (( wys trallel by the Imquay an | the howl of the war we Werefano of the xeral. It was not until y do de whl; if ibe gull of "Imdan Allan"-that mos Scep-os plonsoy ad outlaw-of lot and ad- -Two00-|agatond: d -piacon and Jeremiah Olmstead polécod « Toeval (com the held adjacent to the recent site of the State Toomed School. The genesis of Rochester mas ko New Foglar Its early settlers were mainly of Puniti tod The were the men or the sons of the men
228
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ORIGINS AND LOCATION
who had received the baptism of fire on the battlefields of the Revolution and who, in the schools and town meetings of Massachusetts and Connecticut, had learned those lessons of civil and religious liberty which, in the newer region, they formulated into law and vindicated in their lives- men of prescience, pluck and perseverance. Western New York, of which Rochester is the commercial center, was peopled by the western migration that set in from New England at the close of the eighteenth century and, through successive impulses, subdued the acres and moulded the character of the commonwealths of the Union west of the Hudson and north of the Ohio.
The ground upon which Rochester stands is included in that imperial domain-some 6,000,000 acres-west of Seneca Lake, the pre-emption right of Massachusetts there- in having been acquired by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, in 1788, who also extinguished amicably a portion of the "native rights." Almost a third of the territory was transferred in 1790 to Charles Williamson, in trust for Sir William Pulteney, and nearly all of the remainder-over 4,000,000 acres-became the property of Robert Morris, the patriot financier of American freedom. He disposed in 1793 of all lands west of the Genesee to a company of Dutch gentlemen, the tract thereafter being known as the "Holland Purchase" and the Indian titles therein, with cer- tain reservations, being surrendered by the Senecas, in the treaty at Geneseo (Big Tree), in September, 1797. Thus a vast area was opened to settlement. The proprietors invited it on liberal terms and the attractions of the region and the rewards that awaited the Puritan genius for conquest of the soil were not unknown; for the soldiers of Sullivan's army, as they had threaded the woods and scourged the savage, had taken note of lake and river and loam and alluvial deposits and by the firesides of New Eng-
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ROCHESTER
land had told of the valleys and tablelands waiting but the dexterity and the diligence of the husbandman to bloom as a garden. Many of the soldiers returned to verify their own descriptions. Nor were these exaggerated, as orchards of apple and of peach, great stretches of wheat, the busy mills of the Genesee and supremacy in the grain markets of the country soon testified. In rapidity of occupation and consistent thrift, Western New York is unrivalled in the annals of previous American communities, and this was due both to its natural advantages and the intelligence with which they were utilized.
Rochester itself was somewhat slow in starting. Until 1812 it was not even a hamlet. The first log house on the west side was constructed by Col. Josiah Fish, in 1797, and the first blockhouse by Charles Hanford, in 1807, on Mill Street, while, in 1808, Enos Stone built a saw mill on the east bank of the Genesee and, in 1810, erected a frame house on South St. Paul Street. No one seemed to know where to begin. Many there were with faith that somewhere in the section, so favored by nature, a sightly mart would arise. The streams sang of it and the opulent acres proclaimed it; but its precise location was intangible and illusory. It was to be at Williamsburg, at Mount Morris, at Lima, at Car- thage, at Charlotte, at Tryonstown, at Hanford's Landing, at Braddock's Bay-where not in the groping? But one man divined the spot, and became the founder of the city which bears his name and now numbers over 200,000 in- habitants-a city of the first class, third in rank of the municipalities of the Empire State. This was Nathaniel Rochester who, born and bred in Virginia, passed his early manhood in North Carolina, where he held various civic and military trusts. Removing to Hagerstown, Md., in 1798, he was there bank president, assemblyman, postmaster, judge, sheriff and presidential elector-a man of substance,
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ADOPTION OF THE NAME
sagacity and sterling integrity. In 1810, chiefly inspired by his aversion to human bondage and his desire to place his family in a healthier moral environment, he located in Dansville, where he erected a paper mill and engaged in various business activities. He had, however, previously visited the Genesee country several times as a prospector, with the view of transferring his energies thither and aid- ing in its splendid evolution, which he clearly foresaw; and in 1802, in conjunction with William Fitzhugh and Charles Carroll, he bought from Williamson the land known as the 100-acre tract on the west side of the Genesee, on which clustered the village, under the successive names of Falls Town, Rochesterville and Rochester, and the principal in- stitutions of the city now stand.
The site of the city beautiful was happily chosen, seven miles from the mouth of the river, which, rising in north- western Pennsylvania, flows for 200 miles through Allegany, Livingston and Monroe counties-a region especially pic- turesque in gorge and cliff and far-reaching plateau-de- scending at Portageville nearly 500 feet, navigable before the denudation of the forest for thirty miles above the great falls-and at Mount Morris emerging into the broad and fecund valley which, for many years, produced the purest wheat, with the most opulent yield on the continent, that ground into flour at Rochester, with its limitless water power above the cataract, second only to Niagara in volume and vying with it in majesty, soon informed the place with commercial significance.
Rochester has had room in which to grow. Its area, with the accretions of territory, as its needs have demanded, is 20.57 square miles, 5.7 miles in an east and west and 4.1 miles in a north and south line. In expansion from hamlet to village and city, its chief distinction has been that it was throughout rus in urbe, retaining the tone, conditions and,
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ROCHESTER
in large measure, the semblance of a village, with its center still called the "four corners," while compassing the refine- ments, the luxuries and the vim of a city. The trend thus indicated is originally due to the influence of the founder, and the few cultured Southerners who accompanied him hither, upon the New England mass-the composite of Cavalier grace and Puritan vigor-and later to the influx of Celt and Teuton and Jew, the latter of an exceptionally intelligent and industrious order.
With their love for the comely both in nature and art, the Southern projectors strove to reproduce the features of the homes they had left, and the New England settlers caught their spirit and sympathized with their aims. So, when the forests were felled that the fields might be sowed and foundations laid, shade trees were set out and gardens cultivated and greenswards shaven, Harvey Ely and John G. Bond being credited with the planting of sugar maples on South Washington Street between the canal and Spring Street, in 1816. Houses with many windows and wide verandas and generous fireplaces were built, each occupant holding title in fee-simple-homesteads, indeed-blocks of houses flush with the sidewalk being conspicuous by their absence. It is estimated that half of the householders in Rochester to-day own their homes. Later, came the edu- cation of the greenhouse and the florist, the laying out of avenues and intersecting streets, the erection of stately man- sions and the graceful designs in frame dwellings; and when the scepter of wheat had passed to Minneapolis by virtue of its control of the harvests of the mighty west and favor- ing freight rates to the east, the first appropriate appella- tion of "Flour City" was resolved into that of "Flower City," as designating the supremacy of Rochester in queenly charm.
In 1816, Colonel Rochester and his associates began to
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CONDITIONS IN 1813
sell lots. Prices were reasonable, long term payments were conceded freely and settlement began quickly. Francis Brown and others opened land to purchasers at the north of the 100-acre tract and called it Frankfort; and Enos Stone, who possessed 300 acres on the east side, offered them for sale in small parcels. The mingling of the three immi- grations thus induced was to form the strong current of the future city life, but the fuller flow, through the earlier dec- ades, was to be that which had its spring in the mind of Nathaniel Rochester. At the close of the year 1812, the river had been spanned by a rude bridge, where now the substantial structure, lined by imposing business establish- ments, stands, and over which thousands daily pass through Main Street. Hamlet Scrantom's log house was on the site of the Powers Block. Abelard Reynolds, who survived until 1878, a nonogenarian, had built a saddler's shop upon a portion of the ground upon which he afterward erected the Arcade, and there were also adjoining blacksmith and tailor shops. Two years later there were five streets, several farm houses on land now within the city limits on East Avenue, two saw mills, two flour mills, three or four stores, as many shops, a lawyer's and a doctor's office, and the post- office in a desk in the shop of Abelard Reynolds, who was appointed postmaster in 1813.
In 1813, there was a population of 1,500. There were two taverns, a fire company had been organized, two news- papers, the Gazette and the Telegraph, were published and there were four churches-the First Presbyterian, St. Luke's (Protestant Episcopal), the First Baptist and St. Patrick's (Roman Catholic). The music of the stage horn was heard in the streets as the coaches wheeled their way from Albany to Buffalo. The village had been incor- porated three years, Francis Brown having served continu- ously as president until succeeded by Matthew Brown, Jr.,
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this year, the latter remaining in office until 1823 and being again elected in 1825 and 1826. There were five flouring mills distinguished for the quality of the staple they manu- factured. In 1819, contracts were let for digging the Erie Canal between Rochester and Palmyra. In 1823, 10,000 barrels of flour were sent to Albany and New York, and, on October 27, 1825, the jubilant flotilla, bearing Governor DeWitt Clinton, the canal commissioners and prominent citizens of the State, received an ovation in the village, which the great inland waterway was to signally benefit, as it halted for a few hours in its progress to the Atlantic.
With the busy mills of the Genesee and the transport to the ocean, urban entity for Rochester was assured. In 1827, the first directory was issued. It contains many in- teresting items. The population is 8,000. Numerous streets have been opened, and the boundaries are Goodman Street at the east, York at the west, Glasgow at the south and Norton at the north. Monroe County having been erected in 1821, Rochester is its capital, the court house being built in 1822. Seven flouring mills are in operation and there are cotton and woolen industries, breweries, dis- tilleries, tanneries and over 100 stores. There are 25 phy- sicians, 28 lawyers, 1,000 mechanics and 500 laborers. There are ten churches and a number of charitable organiza- tions. The Bank of Rochester has a capital of $250,000 and the press is represented by one monthly, one semi- weekly and one daily publication-the Advertiser, dating from 1826, since consolidated with the Union and now the oldest newspaper west of Albany in the United States. Among those who are giving tone and direction to social, business and public life are the Rev. Joseph Penney, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church and subsequently presi- dent of Hamilton College, and the Rev. Francis H. Cuming, rector of St. Luke's. Among practicing lawyers are Daniel
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CONDITIONS IN 1826
D. Barnard, who is to represent two districts in Congress and the nation as Minister to Prussia; William B. Roch- ester, who has been in Congress, is to be circuit judge and to come within a few votes of being elected Governor ; Vin- cent Mathews, who had been a brilliant pleader at the bar and a senator and congressman in "the southern tier," is closing his professional career, while Frederick Whittlesey, Addison Gardiner and Samuel L. Selden are beginning theirs. Henry R. Selden is a law student. William Adams, Frederick F. Backus, John B. Elwood and Levi Ward are physicians. Thurlow Weed, Luther H. Tucker, Edwin Scrantom, Levi W. Sibley and Robert Martin are printers. William Atkinson, Matthew Brown, Jr., Harvey Ely, Charles J. Hill, E. P. Beach, Solomon Cleveland and Thomas H. Rochester are merchant millers. Thomas Kempshall, Erasmus D. Smith, Samuel G. Andrews, Na- thaniel T. Rochester, Levi A. Ward, Jacob Gould, William Pitkin, Everard Peck, Silas O. Smith, Elihu F. Marshall and Darius Perrin are merchants. Levi Ward, Jonathan Child, Josiah Bissell, Jr., Elisha Ely, Aristarchus Cham- pion, Harvey Montgomery, Abram M. Schermerhorn and Ira West are classed as capitalists, and Joseph Medberry, Warham Whitney, Ebenezer Watts, William Alling, Abner Wakelee, Jacob Anderson, Benjamin M. Baker, Aaron Erickson and Nelson Sage are laying the foundations of their fortunes. In 1828, Abelard Reynolds builds the Arcade on Buffalo Street, an ambitious and even a venture- some undertaking for its day, improving and extending it to Exchange Place in 1842. In 1833, Colonel Rochester, the founder dies, amid the lamentations of the community, closing serenely a life which had been eminently useful and had had honorable recognition in the councils of three commonwealths.
Rochester is incorporated as a city, April 28, 1834, being
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the ninth city chartered in the State. Its area is 4,000 acres, reaching northward, at this time, to include the lower falls and the Ontario steamboat landing. Streets are pushing out in all directions. The population is nearly 13,000 and the assessed valuation of property, real and personal, is $2,533,211. There are 1,300 houses, 14 churches and two banks. There are five wards and the Mayor and other officials are elected by the Common Council, the chief ex- ecutive not being chosen by the popular suffrage until 1841. Jonathan Child, a citizen of substance, of commanding presence and dignified bearing, is the first mayor. The elegant mansion of the Corinthian order, which he built is still standing on South Washington Street and is the most notable specimen of the type which prevailed with men of means at the period of its construction. That of Chan- cellor Whittlesey on Troup Street is another; and it may be said, in passing, that the third ward, comprising a goodly portion of the 100-acre tract and still retaining its olden boundaries, was, for many years, the abode of the more prominent, not to say aristocratic, citizens and was the vici- nage of gracious hospitalities, engaging courtesies and neighborly offices. Its social supremacy has departed, but its traditions remain. In 1834, there are ten hotels. There are three semi-monthly, four weekly and two daily news- papers, the Democrat being established this year. Com- munication with the outside world is through two lines of stages, along the Genesee turnpike, the packets on the Erie Canal, a steamer making daily trips from Charlotte to other lake ports and one plying between the Rapids and Geneseo -discontinued in 1836-and the Tonawanda Railroad, with steam as the motive power, to South Byron, extended to Batavia in 1836 and to Attica in 1842.
A few of the notable events in local history may be men- tioned in this connection, leaving to a succeeding part of
Fourary
KOCHEST R
Des mont : 0) pred in the State. Its area is 4,000 acres, want, at this time, to include the lower falls d. il harly steamboat landing. Streets are pushing . . . 0 0 .- ctions. The population is nearly 13,000 and the miche valuation of property, real and personal, is $_,533 211, There are 1,300 houses, 14 churches and two banks. There are five wards and the Mayor and other offic als are elected by the Common Council, the chief ex- ecutive not being chosen by the popular suffrage until 1841. Jonathan Child, a citizen of substance, of commanding presence and dignified hearing is the first mayor. The THOMAS B. CRARY. elegant mansion of the Corinthian order, which he built is st Manufacturer: railroad contractor born Hancock, Delathe most ware County New York, September 26, 1866; son of Horace H. and Polly (Burf) Crary; educated. Hancock High School; married Binghamton, New York, September
Chan- 27, 1893, Louise Brintnall, president Crary Construction It may eCompany ; director First National Bank(Binghamton : Bing- hamton Trust Company spresident 1900s Washer Company ; treasurer Alder-Batavia Natural Gas Company; Akron Nat- ural Gas Company; trustee Syracuse University ; l Hanstocrati Was the vici-
more 32d degree : address, Binghamton, . Citizens cha Mason,
grauinus hospitalities, engaging courtesies and ghborly offices. Its social supremacy has departed, but ts traditions remain. In 1834, there are ten hotels. There are three semi-monthly, four weekly and two da ly news- papers, the Democrat being established this sese Cen munwat on with the auts de world is through iwmo fines of stegos, along the Genesce turnpike, the packets on the Erie Camil, a sie mel m king daily trip from Charlotte to other luis ports enil one plying between the Rapids and Grneseo -Sentlaund in 183 and the Tonawanda Railroad, with mount as the motive power to S uth Byron extended to Rafavia ma8;6 and t Amica in 1 42.
A few of the mutable ment in local history may be men- Tunel in the conrecrico, leading to a succeeding part of
Flerary
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RAILWAYS AND CANALS
this article a more detailed description of leading institu- tions and industries. Among these are the visit of LaFay- ette in 1825, the lasting notoriety achieved by Sam Patch in his fatal leap at the upper falls and the terrible cholera scourge of 1832. In 1836, the city acquired 54 acres in the southeastern section, planning a cemetery thereon and hap- pily naming it Mount Hope. With additional purchases, it now embraces about 200,000 acres, and with the charm of its pristine features of wooded knoll and intervale and dotted vista, enhanced by an exquisitely intelligent and re- fined service of the landscape gardener, it is one of the most inviting resting places of the dead in the land. Other cemeteries are the Holy Sepulchre, St. Boniface's, St. Pat- rick's, Brighton, Rapids and Riverside.
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