USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 34
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The Geneva Lyceum.
In 1831, the Geneva Lyceum, one time so notable, was founded by the Rev. Miles P. Squier, D. D. Its buildings were erected in the west part of the village. the funds therefor having been raised among the generous people of the region upon the personal appli- cation of Dr. Squier. Although not intended to be specially denomi- national, the Lyceum was generally recognized as having Presbyterian leanings, a statement which finds verification in the fact that Dr. Squier offered the buildings and grounds to the Synod of Geneva for the purpose of founding a college. The offer was seriously discussed for a time, but at length was abandoned, after which the Lyceum passed out of existence, about the year 1842. Its most famous graduate was the Rev. Dr. Augustus W. Cowles, afterward first president of the Elmira Female College, and, after fifty years of successful service, its first president emeritus.
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Geneva Medical College.
In 1834 an act of the Legislature authorized a medical depart- ment in Geneva (Hobart) College and in 1836 Geneva College erected a special building for the use of the medical faculty. In 1841 a new medical building of magnificent proportions for the time was erected on the east side of Main street, the State contributing $15,000 towards the fund for its erection. The medical department of Hobart College was discontinued in 1872 and the building itself destroyed by fire in 1877. In 1849 Geneva Medical College conferred the degree of M. D. on Elizabeth Blackwell and became honorably famous as the first medical college in the world to confer this degree in course on a woman. Among the members of the faculty of the Geneva Medical College who made it memorable and added to the brilliancy of Geneva society were: Edward Cutbush, Thomas Spencer, Charles Brodhead Coventry, Willard Parker. James Webster, James Hadley, Frank Hastings Hamilton, Thomas Rush Spencer, Charles Alfred Lee, John Towler, Frederick Hyde, Hiram Newton Eastman, Nelson Nivison, Charles Everts Rider.
The Classical and Union School.
In 1839 upon the suggestion, as it is understood, of Mr. Francis Dwight, the public or district schools of Geneva were consolidated into the union school, making a new departure in the State system of schools and education. In 1853 the Geneva union school was incorporated and authorized to maintain a classical department and to instruct a normal class, and in 1869 its corporate title was changed to the "Geneva Classical and Union School," being the first union school in the State so raised ; and today this school, very justly an object of local pride, stands easily in the first rank of New York State schools in the quality of its work. Its library is the largest belonging to any union or high school in the State.
Decade, 1840-1850.
In our next decade, 1840-1850, the most conspicuous event of the opening of the Smith and the Maxwell nurseries, the former in 1846, the latter in 1848. They woke into effective life Geneva's greatest and most characteristic industry-an industry to which Geneva, from its unique soil and climate, would seem to have been sealed and set apart from the foundation of the world. The obviously remarkable thing is that Geneva was so long discovering
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its natural advantage of location and recognizing its call. It is to be noted, however, that somewhat before the establishment of the Smith and the Maxwell nurseries a beginning of pioneer character had been made in the village by Isaac Hildreth and William G. Verplanck, and that as early as 1817 there appeared in the Geneva Palladium an advertisement in which Boardman and Wheeler offered for sale grafted fruit trees at their nursery, two miles east of Geneva on the turnpike to Albany.
In this brief chronicle, which is essentially of origins, it is not practicable to present the story of the development of Geneva's nursery interest which in its details reads almost like a fairy tale, but it is only justice to our municipality to note that Mr. Milton H. Harman, in a valuable resume of this subject, states that there were in 1906 forty-seven duly registered growers of nursery stock within a radius of six or eight miles of Geneva, having under cultivation about two thousand acres of land and employing in the various departments of the business approximately twenty-five hundred individuals.
Village Improvement.
Hardly less interesting than the development of the nursery interest during this decade, is the fact that though in the beginning Captain Williamson had artistically planned that the great Mile Point mansion should be approached from the village through two rows of splendid Lombardy poplars, two or three of which remain to this day, no attempt worth mentioning at beautifying the streets of the village with shade trees seems to have been begun before 1841. Various trees have since been tried at various times, but unfortunately the discovery came late that the stately elm was the one waiting to be chosen. The beautifying of our streets became systematic and triumphant not till 1874, when the Village Improve- ment Society was formed under the leadership of Mrs. George J. Gallagher, to whom Geneva owes a debt of honor, as also to those who wrought with her, conspicuous among whom were Mrs. Perez Field, Mr. Glynn, Miss Eva De Zeng, Miss Powis, and Mrs. John P. De Lancey. The good work is now cared for by the city through the park commission under the eye of the mayor. But after all, in this matter of village improvement, it was an epoch-making date when in 1862, by a State law, an end was made of cattle being allowed at large in the streets.
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Parks.
To this decade, 1840-1850, belongs the awakening of Geneva's interest in the subject of public parks. It is true that when in 1796 Captain Williamson laid out Geneva he made provision for a public square in front of the great Geneva hotel which he was that year building, but it is not certain that he had any intention to improve the public square at any time into a park. However that may be, the public square remained, except for a year more or less during the twenties, an open plaza, till about 1841, when the board of trustees of the village directed a portion of the public square to be enclosed as a park and the trees were forthwith planted which are now one of the city's delights. From a statement contained in a brief but interesting paper prepared by Mr. Hugh L. Rose, president of the park commission, it appears that Geneva owes the improve- ment of the public square into Pulteney park largely to the public spirit of the late Captain Luther R. Stoddard of the United States navy.
The creation of Genesee park belongs also to this decade. The movement was inaugurated at the beginning of the decade, but owing to difficulties extending over several years in securing owner- ship of part of the land proposed to be included in the park, it was not till January 27, 1849, that the Genesee park became an accomp- lished fact.
Public Utilities.
With this decade practically begins the long line of public utilities so-called, for which modern civilization, especially in the United States, is noted. In this decade, 1840-1850, three public utilities make their first appearance in Geneva: in 1841, the first railroad, the Auburn branch of the Central; in 1843, the first express facilities, not more extensive, however, in the beginning than a carpet bag carried by Mr. Wells, afterwards the Wells-Fargo express, and in 1848, the first telegraphic facilities.
It may interest many that in 1847 was held the first regatta on Seneca lake, seventeen boats participating. This same year, 1847, an event happened which has proved of increasing local interest. The brothers, John Williams and Solomon Elwell Smith, under the firm name of "J. W. Smith & Co.," organized a dry goods establishment, which in virtue of its conduct on principles of the highest order equally as to business ability and business honor
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has prospered greatly and today in Western New York is rivalled only in the larger cities. In 1892 it was converted into a stock company, "The J. W. Smith Dry Goods Co.," and as a new depar- ture which has amply justified itself, thirty per cent of the stock was issued to the older employees. The elder brother died in 1878, the younger brother in 1900.
Decade, 1850-1860.
The decade, 1850-1860, is modest but not absolutely lusterless. In 1851, another great captain of industry, a man who also inter- ested himself heartily and wisely in public affairs, William B. Dunning, came to Geneva. Of him and his extensive and varied work it can only be mentioned here that in 1853 through him Genevans first had the opportunity of heating their houses by steam. Since Mr. Dunning's venture in this line, steam heating boilers and apparatus have become one of Geneva's great industries and in the pursuit of it Geneva has reaped distinction as well as profit. The last phase of this movement is a central heating plant established in 1899 as a public utility, whose advantages are open to a fairly large area of the city at what is claimed to be a theoretically minimum figure.
Other business developments of this decade were: 1851, the opening of a carriage manufactory by David W. Baird: 1852, of a furniture manufactory by Theodore E. Smith; 1859, of spoke and bending works by Ezra Havens. And during this decade began sash, blind and door manufacturing as a separate industry; also there was developed by W. A. Dorsey & Bros. what was probably Geneva's first wholesale grocery business.
In 1852, one of the most valuable of public utilities, illuminating gas, was first introduced into Geneva, and was first used for street lighting in 1854, previous to which date each citizen had been a light unto himself. Electric lighting, both for public and for private use, was first introduced in 1883. Also in 1852 St. Peter's church was organized, and later, 1861, in connection with it was developed by Bishop De Lancey "The Diocesan Training School of Western New York," the Rev. Dr. James Rankine becoming rector of both St. Peter's church and the training school, but the training school, after the death of Bishop DeLancey, was re-named "The DeLancey Divinity School."
In 1854, the Hygienic Institute Sanitarium was opened; and,
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in 1855, Linden Hall, Geneva's first suitable place for public enter- tainments, was built and on the evening of July 25th inaugurated with no little ceremony, the Rev. William Hogarth, D. D., making one of his eloquent addresses.
Man may have slighted this decade, but not so nature. In the winter of 1855-1856 there were one hundred days of sleighing, but principally the "silver Seneca," whose habit is not to freeze oftener on the average than once in twenty years, had a monumental con- gealment, and on its crystal bosom Geneva held high festival in sports and horse races and all that could make gladsome the hyper- borean visitation ; and on the evening of July 16th, 1856, at ten of the clock, in the northern heavens appeared a splendid rainbow of golden hue. To this day this extraordinary phenomenon remains open for explanation.
Of the notable men and cultivated families, other than those already mentioned, that came to Geneva during this middle portion of Geneva's history, or even a little later down to our generation, which last for evident reasons must await the future historian, there are many.
In the latter fifties developed what was locally known as the "Wool House Clique," an informal association of leading gentlemen of Geneva, ostensibly for the enjoyment of each other's society, but after all more commonly for the discussion and promotion of the larger interests of the village: S. S. Cobb, J. S. Lewis, W. W. Wright, D. W. Colvin, C. J. Folger, P. H. Field, W. E. Sill, Z. T. Case, F. W. Prince, J. W. Smith, Colonel C. B. Stuart, Colonel E. Sherrill, John S. Dey.
About this time and for some years later, under the auspices of the Young Men's Association, Dr. George W. Field and after- wards Charles Fahley ministered disinterestedly and successfully to the higher culture in Geneva by the organization of courses of popular lectures which brought to Geneva many of the most distinguished lecturers in the country.
Decade, 1860-1870.
Ah! the decade, 1860-1870! It is the decade of the Civil war! There is but one event. It is as if Geneva stood still, intent only to see if in the Nation's crisis her sons deserved well of the Republic! As there has not been space to tell Geneva's story of her part in the war of 1812 and in the Mexican war, nor will be to tell her part
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in the Spanish war and the Philippine war, so there is not time to tell the story of her part in the great Civil war. Like the rest of the country from one ocean to the other, she gave freely her wealth Aund her sons and her good example, and like the rest she bore bravely and unflinchingly the losses which went so straight to her firesides and her heart. She gave to the Empire State as its great Adjutant General the high minded and efficient Hillhouse, and lead- ing her list of those who died for native land is the name of the knightly and intrepid Colonel Sherrill, who fell at Gettysburg. What a funeral that was, when all Geneva and all the country round about in solemn procession, like a cloud of witnesses, followed the body of the dead hero to the village cemetery! Tears? Yes, the city of our love gives them freely, tears of pride and exultation, tears of grief and sorrow, freely for all who fell for native land, whether in the distant islands of the sea, on foreign shores, or on the ocean, or on the fair fields of what is to Americans the sweetest country the sun shines on.
As in the military history of our country Geneva has not been without honor, so has Geneva not been without honor in our country's long naval history. Associated with Geneva as their home, the following distinguished naval officers may be named : Admiral Thomas Truxton Craven, Commodore J. William Swift, Commodore James Glynn, Captain Luther R. Stoddard, Admiral Donald M. Fairfax, and General Charles B. Stuart, one time the United States navy's engineer-in-chief-not to mention others who have served honorably in less conspicuous positions.
The events in the life of Geneva from 1870 till today lie within the memory of the present generation, and though they all are in various ways important and interesting, a bare chronicle without comment must suffice, but first may be pointed out what seems to be the characteristic event of each of the three decades that remain.
In the Seventies.
In the seventies, by the opening of the Geneva and Ithaca, the Geneva and Corning, and the Geneva and Lyons railroads, Geneva was made a place of exceptional shipping facilities, and a career as a manufacturing center was made possible, and this possibility Geneva has improved. Captains of industry multiply apace. They jostle each other on the streets, and Geneva is becoming as cele-
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brated for high grade manufacturing as it ever was for its character- istic industries foreordained by its soil and climate. With the rail- road development in the seventies, the names of Colonel Frederick W. Prince and S. S. Cobb are prominently connected. How important Geneva's entrance on a career as a manufacturing center has proved may be inferred from the fact that while Geneva's population in 1870 was 5,521, the census of 1910 makes it 12,446.
In the Eighties.
In the eighties Geneva's equipment in the interests of education was immensely enlarged by the successful establishment of the Smith Observatory and the New York State Agricultural Experi- ment Station, institutions the reputation of whose work transcends the mere boundaries of the Empire State. It is worthy of remark that the Agricultural Experiment Station is the tardy realization of a dream which floated before the minds of Geneva's forbears in the persons of the founders of Geneva (Hobart) College in 1822- 1825, when for the first time in the history of the higher education a college was created with power to offer courses other than that leading to the degree of A. B., and was pledged to maintain perpetually a course in direct reference to the practical business of life, the movement being inspired in the first instance by men whose largest practical interest was agriculture. The department of agri- culture in connection with Geneva College, which the forbears had in mind, did not for various reasons develop; but in its place has come, in the fulness of time, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, the best equipped and most efficient experi- mental school in the earth's oldest and noblest industry that is to be found in our country, and in point of comprehensiveness, in the world-a school that fills every Genevan's heart with whole- some pride.
In the Nineties.
The last decade of the century is the decade in which Geneva laid aside her village garments and put on the imposing robes of city life, but the event in this decade which will appeal to all as the gratifying one is the establishment of the Geneva City Hospital. This splendid charity consecrates in its records in detail, as a precious legacy to all who shall succeed us, the names of those whose fore- sight and beneficence made the Geneva City Hospital a reality. In
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this connection I can mention as the principal benefactor, principal not alone in gifts of money but in advice and a fostering care that never intermitted, one who for nearly forty years was in the front rank of Geneva's most devoted and intelligent citizens, the late Francis Oscar Mason, deceased as already mentioned in the year 1900, but happily two years after he had seen the fruition of the object so dear to him.
It but remains to run rapidly through the very creditable work of the present generation; but first permit me to express the deep regret of him whose duty it has been to prepare this brief chronicle of Geneva that the limits inherent in the plan proposed of making the sketch a record of events and to an extent of families rather than of men, has excluded from portraiture and characterization as individuals Geneva's multitudinous men of prominence, whether in civil or public, professional or business life, her clergymen, teachers, physicians, lawyers, legislators, judges, editors, authors, artists, men of affairs, soldiers and sailors, except as in any given instance one may have been connected as creator or exponent with some epochal event that has marked the unfolding of Geneva's life as village and city.
The Present Generation's Work.
1867: W. G. Potter and Son's Marble and Granite Works established. 1868: Herendeen Manufacturing Company, or U. S. Radiator Company, founded (incorporated 1888) ; The Catchpole Foundry opened. 1870: The North Presbyterian church organized ; Peel Bottling Works established. 1871: W. G. Dove's brickyard established; The Geneva malt house (Geneva's one mammoth building), the third largest malt house in respect of business trans- actions in the United States, erected by Samuel K. Nester. 1872: Glenwood cemetery opened ; the instruction of colored students in a separate building abolished. 1873 : The Evangelical church established; the Geneva and Ithaca Railroad completed. 1874: The Village Improvement Society formed ; the first laundry operated by machinery established. 1875: The Geneva Optical . Company organized; the Geneva, since 1892 the Kanadesaga club founded. 1876: The first Bergh agent for the prevention of cruelty to animals installed ; the first omnibus line put in service. 1877: The Geneva and Corning Railroad opened; The steam roller flour mill (super- ceding the old Red Mill of early date) erected. 1878: The Geneva
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and Lyons Railroad opened; The Church Home established. 1879: Telephone service first inaugurated. 1880: The first business college established; the 34th Separate Company formed; the paid fire department system established. 1881: The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station established ; the Geneva Advertiser (weekly) founded. 1882: Paid police department on Metropolitan system established. 1883: The first electrical plant installed; the Standard Optical Company organized to operate in connection with the Geneva Optical Company. 1885: The Phillips & Clark Stove Company organized; Humphrey's bindery & printing house founded ; first Loan and Savings Association organized ; the Geneva mineral springs developed.
1886: The Young Men's Christian Association organized (an earlier organization under this title was made in 1870, but soon lapsed). 1888: The Smith Astronomical Observatory founded ; the Patent Cereals Company organized. 1889: The Geneva Preserving Company organized. 1890: The New York Central Iron Works Company incorporated, outgrowth of the Dunning works established 1851, as already mentioned. 1891: The Geneva Carriage Company organized, in 1894 reorganized as Geneva Wagon Company ; the Torrey Park Company formed. 1892:The Buffalo Extension of the Lehigh Valley Railroad completed. 1893 : Street paving in Geneva begun; now 1911 there are 15.79 miles of paved streets. 1894: The Naples Railroad opened ; the trolley line to Waterloo opened; the Geneva Choral Society established; The Smith opera house built. 1895: Geneva's first daily paper, the Geneva Daily Times (Independent Republican in politics) estab- lished; the Geneva Wall Paper Company founded. 1896: The control of waterworks assumed by the village ; John J. Pole's Kettle Drum factory established. 1897: The Political Equality Club formed; the Salvation Army post created; the Summit Foundry Company organized; Vance boiler works established; James F. Carney's bottling works established. 1898: Geneva raised to City rank; the Geneva City hospital opened ; the Country Club formed. 1899: Geneva awning and tent works established. 1900: Geneva Cutlery Company organized. 1901: The American Can Company organized; Charles A. Chapman's Factory of Household Specials opened. 1902: The Chamber of Commerce organized; the Catch- pole foundry purchased by Walter Howard. 1903: The Humane Society established; The Empire Coke Company organized; the
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W. F. O'Brien stone cutting works established. 1904: The trolley line to Rochester opened; the Fay and Bowen Engine Company organized.
1906: A lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks established ; Geneva's first Centennial celebration which for fulness and dignity of ceremonial and exposition left nothing to be desired : the munificent and memorable gift by William Smith of Geneva of nearly or quite a half a million dollars to Hobart College for the establishment of the William Smith School for Women, as a co-ordinate department of the college, a gift which within four years crystallized into a group of noble buildings, the William Smith Hail of Science, the Elizabeth Blackwell House, the Elizabeth 1907: The Allegretti Smith Miller House, and Gymnasium.
Manufacturing Company (strops) establishment. 1909: The United States Lens Company organized; the Geneva Brewing Company established; the P. J. Donnelly Cabinet Company founded ; the Geneva glass works established. 1910: Geneva's first Savings Bank founded. 1911: The Geneva Baking Company organized ; the Geneva Ice Cream Company organized; the Geneva Buff and Polish Company established; and happily last of the present generation's works, a beautiful public drinking fountain, after a design by Arthur C. Nash of New York, formerly of Geneva, erected in the Castle street plaza, east of Exchange street- a present to the town by one of Geneva's most gifted and public spirited women, recently deceased, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller.
The Centennial Week in 1906.
This event comprised a week's programme, beginning with religious commemorations in the churches on Sunday, May 13; an Old Home day with concerts, a banquet to editors, professional baseball games, and a history night; a music day, with grand concerts by the Geneva Choral Society; an Industrial day, the features of which were an industrial, military and civic parade, of which Colonel William Wilson acted as grand marshal, and a mass meeting, at which Mayor A. P. Rose presided and addresses were made by Lieutenant-Governor M. Linn Bruce and others; an Edu- cational day, with a parade by Hobart College students and the scholars of the public schools, followed by an address by President Finley of the College of the City of New York; a Nurserymen and Fruit Growers' luncheon and in the evening a display of fireworks
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on the lake; the celebration closing on Saturday with a Baby parade, and with ball games and other athletic sports on the Hobart College campus. The historical exercises proper, held in the Smith opera house Tuesday evening, constituted the culminating feature of the celebration and included addresses by Professor Charles Delamater Vail, L. H. D., of Hobart College, and Mrs. Sarah Rose Melien Burrall, delivered before a representative and brilliant audience, and an historical paper, valuable and interesting, by Mr. Eli Bronson, presented by title only, but subsequently printed.
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