History of Monroe county, New York with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, Palatial residences, Part 28

Author: McIntosh, W. H. cn; Everts, Ensign, and Everts, Philadelphia, pub
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign and Everts
Number of Pages: 976

USA > New York > Monroe County > History of Monroe county, New York with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, Palatial residences > Part 28

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A BUSINESS LETTER OF 1794.

Knowledge of the past should inform the future. The transition of forest to city. of trail to railway, of hut to stately building, of wafer-sealed opistle, carried on foot or horseback, to the flash of the current conveying the telegram. now historie in the east, knows a continual progress and existence westward. Along the rail- ways creeping over the plains of the onee Great American desert the speculator lays out a town ; rows of shanties line the streets, a business of millions is tran -- acted ; yet as the road is pushed forward the population surges with it, and the terminal city returns to its solitude to await its chances in a coming day. The ukase of an emperor or czar may establish a site and give it population, but in a republic cities thrive as attractions are multiplied.

We have said that Williamson had bought of Samuel B. Ogdeu the Allen prop- erty, intending some improvements there; and when the faet was made known tu Christopher Dugan, who had married a sister of Allen, and had been placed in charge of the mill by him, he penned what may be said to have been the tir-t business letter written from the site of Rochester. In that light we give it further record :

" FALLS OF GENESEE, Aug. 9, 1794.

" The mill erected by Ebenezer Allen, which I am informed you have purchased. is in a sad situation, much out of repair, and unless attention is paid to it will soon take its voyage to the lake. I have resided here for several years, and kept watch and ward without fee or recompense, and am pleased to hear that it has fallen into the hands of a gentleman who is able to repair it, and whose character is such that I firmly believe he will not allow an old man to suffer without reward for his ex- ertions. I wish to have you come or send some one to take care of the mill. as tuy situation is such as makes it necessary soon to remove." What a revelation of character and indication of the times are seen in those few lines !

FIRST CROPS ON SITE OF ROCHESTER.

Samuel Street, of Niagara Falls, Canada West, had bought a farm at Dugan's ereek, on the river; improved by Allen and Dugan, it was well stocked by Street. Some time near 1794 Jeremiah Olmstead. Street's brother-in-law, came from Con- necticut, accompanied by his family, and settled on the farm. Well might the Genesee fever excite apprehension. for from the farm hands and the family ten persona, among the number MIrs. Oitustead. were numbered among its victims. Iu 1798, or the year following. Olmstead came down the river and occupied a shanty built by one Farwell upon the liter site of a brewery. and to the south of the Hou-e of Refuge. There he felled the timber upon a chosen spot, fencea it in, and sowed grain upon a small elcaring. He remained but long enough to reap the first crops grown upon the site of Rochester, and then moved upon the ridge, whence he changed his residence to Ilanford's Landing, where, on the year of his reuioval thither (1816), he died. We have said that Colonel Josiah Fish was hired by Mr. Williamson to take charge of the mill, and this he did for a period of six years, -- from 1796 to 1802. Colonel Fish was from Wyndham, Vermont. and. with his son Libbeus, moved in 1795 to a farm at the mouth of Black creek. A log hut was built, and by Indians roofed with bark. Several acres of land were plowed by the teamu of Mr. Shaeffer and planted. and then Mr. Fish and his son Went to live with Sprague, then operating the mill. As a specimen of pioneer lite on the lands now known as Rochester, Libhe is Fish says, " We had raccoon for break - fast, dinner, and supper, with no vegetables; and upon extra occasions we had cake fried in raccoon oil." Leaving his son with a neighbor at Canawaugu-, the father went east for his family, and brought them out to his improvement at Black creek. Sickness overtook them, and continued to afflict the family during the. season. Ifired to take charge of the mill, Colonel Fish removed thither in Na- vember. Cooking was done in a board shanty, and sleeping-room was partitionel uff in the mill. A year went by, and they built a three-walled log house. the fourth wall being the ledge of rocks on the river-bank, the site being later oven- pied by the old red mill. Fireplace and chimney were quarried from the rock. Colonel Fish remained in charge till 1804, when he moved to his farm, which he sold in 1807, and moving near Parma, there died in 1811.

VISIT OF AARON BURR.

Aaron Burr, the slayer of Hamilton and the couspirator of the Missi -- ippi. was a heavy dealer in town sites and tracts of wild land, and in 1795 came of the main route of travel to make canful observation of the falls, and took mra-ure- ments of them. Pioneers came up the river in bateaux, and looked wistfully upon the grand hydraulic power and the valuable site, but the forbidding a-pert of the piace, with its miasta-laden air, repelled and drove them to other more inviting but less important points. The first comers upon the river, save the

HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

millers at the falls, and William Hencher, below the mouth af Black creek, were Zadock Granger, Gideon King, and some others ; these formed a settlement at what Wwerawue known as King's, and then Hanford s, landing. It was said of the landing that it was the port of shipment for the Genesee river. yet its improvement was held in check by questionable land titles. Mr. Granger had bought three thou- mud acres of land from Me. l'helps for ten thousand dollars, and secured payment by a mortgage on the land. Granger soon died ; a part of the lands had been wold; the rest not clearing the incurubrance, the estate could not be administered. Phelps foreclosed and took jupression of the entire tract, including the portion sold and improved. Some settlers left; some repaid the purchase price, and others weight a settlement. In 1798 a new store and wharf had been built, but the height and precipitous character of the bank made conveyance to and from the wharf difficult. MIr. Williamson. writing home to England. ways of the vicinity and ita necession of settlers. " The navigation of the river is interrupted by four successive magnificent falls, the highest of them ninety-six feet. Around these falls a carrying-place was made, and the inhabitants for the first time began to use the navigation. They received salt from the Onondaga salt works, and their stores from Albany, with a very trifling laud carriage compared with what they were before necessitated to undertake from Geneva, and it has opened to them a rady market for their produce."

VISIT OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.

In 1797, during the month of June, Louis Philippe, the last king of France, his brothers, the Duke de Montpensier and the Count Beaujolais, in compan: vith Thomas Morris, of Canandaigua, rode to the present site of Rochester to observe the falls. Not a habitation of any character was to be seen ; the nearest settler was Orange Stone, at whose house they found refreshment. Little could the courtly and royal Frenchmen imagine the tragic scenes of their native land. or the won- derful transformation to be wrought where they had gazed upon a scene of beauty in a lonesome wilderness. Vaguely the population cherished the idea of n coming town, and within a half-score of miles from Rochester, inside its precincts, five villages aprang np, and then faded from the view to become choice farms or ciigible sites for private residences. Frankfort is not thus included. its original independ- ence being lost in the expansion of the vast and onward-growing city. Augustus Porter had surveyed the territory of the purchase, and on his maps had marked with care the places where mill or village were, or would be. and ou that map Falltowo had no place. Castletown is a memory ; ita site was at the rapids near the division line of Gates and Chile. Mr. Wadsworth owned lots including the lower part of the rapids, and there conceived the plan of founding a village at the foot of navigation, and at the head of the portage from the river below the falls. Survey was made, lots sold. a store and tavern built, and a few families settled there, one of whom was Isaac Castle's, and hence the name of the now noo- existent village.

THE VILLAGE OF ROCHESTER.

In the first directory for the village of Rochester, published by Elisha Ely, - and printed by Everard Peck in 1827, is presented a sketch of the place. which - hay a greater interest from the view of those years. and the evidence of hopeful pride which made the village notable as the city has become famous: "The village of Rochester is situated on both the eastern and western banks of the firmae river, seven miles from its mouth at Lake Ontario, and includes the third and fourth of the six several falls on the river : the third, or upper one, is a small fall of twelve feet, situated at the foot of the rapide, and immediately above where the canal aqueduet is erected ; and the other is the great fall of ninety-seven f.t. situated cight rods below. It is two and a half miles south of where the Allurint way of celebrated Ridge road interseets the river. and at the first bridging- place south of the lake, with accessible and convenient banks for crossing it, and alen for passing around the head of Irondequoit for Teoronto bay as it is called by Dr. Spafford), giving an east and west continuation to the Ridge road. It is den three miles south from Hanford's landing on the west side of the river, and two miles from Carthage landing, the head of the sloup navigation from the lake on the east side, and about thirty-five miles by land, and eventy by water, from Mount Morris, to which place the river ia navigable at all times, and fifty miles by lan.l. and ninety by water, from Gardean, or the second of the upper falls. which is the head of navigation during freshets. The two lower falls are at Carthage, etin and a half milce below the village. It is two hundred and cichteen miles w .- t of Alliny, twenty-eight northwest of Canandaigua, and thirty-tive nearly no4th. ist of Bitivia. It is situated in latitude 43º north, and about 77º West Longitude."

PIONEER SETTLERS.

The mill-lot, so called, lay on the west side of the river, abreast of the first falla, from whose dam the water was conveyed hy races subsequently to run valuable machinery. It was sold by Charles Williamson, agent of Sir William Pulteney, in 1802, for seventeen dollars and a half per sero, and three persons became the purchasers, with an intention to there lay off a village site. These three were Colonels Nathaniel Rochester. William Fitzhugh, and Major Charles Carroll, who visited the Genesee country in 1800. Colouel Rochester made purchase of mills. water-power, and lands at Dansville, while his companions invested near Monut Morris. It was when revisiting this region that Fallstown tract was purchased, and then permitted to lie unsurveyed and unvecopied. The place was but biding its time ; and, in a valuation of the different parcels of land, made January, 1802, Israel Chapin, Joseph Annin, and Amort Hall put in the mill and its one han- dred acres, at one thousand and forty dollars. Five years went quietly by,-years when hope had stimulated the proprietors of village sites to hold fast their prices, and seek an early harvest for investments. Meanwhile, a company of seven pur- chasers, back in the year 1791, had bought of Phelps and Gorham a tract of twenty thousand acres on the west side, and partitioned the land by lot. Charles Harford, one of the number, became, in: 1807, the pioneer settler upon that part of Rochester west of the river. Harford was an emigrant from England, in about 179I, and wrote Captain Williamson, in 1794. to secure for bim a body of land for grazing, and some town-lots, as he was preparing to go to England to bring on his family. He ultimately became located, as stated, in the northwest part of the village, and built a block-bouse and made a small clearing on what was later State street, near the terminna of the Lisle road. Ilere he had one hundred aeres allotted to bim, and the remainder of his land was in Gates, where descendants located. The Allen mill was unfit for use, and settlement demanded a fouring- mill in this vicinity, and in 1807 Harford built a small muill at the main falls. There was one run of stones, and those were two and a half foot in diameter. This mill did the grinding for four years for an extensive region of the back woods. As was usually the case, a saw-mill was built upon the same race. Settlers upon the original mill-tract had obtained their first boards by repairing the oll Allen . saw-mill, at the fails. and later had been supplied from the mill of Nathaniei Jones, erected neat Hanford's Landing. The mills of Harford obviated consider- ably the inconveniences previously experienced. As a contrast to later establish- ments, a description of the early grist-mill of Harford. by Edwin Serautom, whe. living in Rochester to-day, has seen the rise of the city from such like germa, will afford interest. as it sbows ingenuity, and is amusing from its oddity. " The ruain wheel," says Mr. Scrantom, " was a tub-wheel ; in the top was inserted a piece of iron, called the spindle, and the stone that run rested upon it, so that. in mising or lowering the stone to grind coarse or fine, the whole munster wheel, with the stone npon it, had to be raised with the bottom tinibers. This was done with a mon- strous lever, which ran the whale length of the mill, tapering to near the end, which was managed by a leathern strap put twice around and fastened to the timbers at one end, while at the other end hung a huge stone. The holt was carried from a screw made on the shaft under the stone. into which a wooden cogged wheel was geared in a manner sunilar to an old pair of swifts. The ground meal, as it ran troin the stune, fell upon a horizontal strap, about six inches wide, and ran over a wheel at the far end of the bolt. This strap ran in a box at the upper side, and, as it went over the whicel, the meal was emptied into a spout and carried into the bolt. In grinding co n this spout was removed. and the meal fell into a box made for the purpose. The halt, however, had to go constantly, ax the science of mill-making here had not reached that very important improvement of throwing out of gear such machinery as is not wanted running. That was to me a charming mill ! It rumbled and rattled like thunder, and afforded much amusement to the boys, who, like myself, formerly assisted in the ponderous operation of ' huisting the gate.' The gate hoisted with a lever similar to the one that raised the stones; a bag of' heavy weights was hang to it, and then it was a half-hour's job for a man to hoist it alone. When once lwisted it was not shut again till night, the stones brins let together to stop the mill between grists " In 1812 the mill was bought by Francis Brown & Co., who calarged it to three run of stones, and itoprovedl it for flour manufacture. Ir was consumed by fire in IS18, and upon the ruins the Phonix milis were built.

The next settler following Harford, and the pioneer upon the east side of the river, was Enos Stone. His brother. Orange Stone, had located in 1790, near Brighton village, and, erecting a log house, almost at arce began to keep a tavern upon the outskirts of civilization, and receive. as his guests. trapper, hunter. Indian, aud traveler. Enos Stone was one of a party to drive west a large drove of stock. The enterprise was conducted in 1790. From Urica good progress was made to Cayuga lake, where four days were veerpied in crossing the stock in two Durham boats. Provisions failed. and they reached Geneva in i stato nf

HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

semi-starvation. Colonel Enos Stone wecasiorally visitel his brother on the pur- chase, and lived at Lenox until 1810, when, in March. he came out with his family and household goods to the house of his brother. The latter and some of bis neighbors aided to help the pioneer to the river, where he established himself in a log cabin,-himself and family the sole inhabitants of all Rochester east of the Genesee. In 180S, Euos Stone. Sr., had raised a saw-mill on the river-bank, and a freshet had awept it away.

The pioneer suffered some of the most severe hardships and vicissitudes of frontie: life ; and bis experience in attempting to provide food for his family upon a tract where thousands nuw dwell in comfort and abundance examples the swift evolutions wrought hy time aud circuto-tance. During October the need of more room induced Mr. Stone to put up a frame building, in size sixteen hy twenty feet. The timber was felled, the structure raised, and inclosure made withio three days. Four persons were engaged at the raising,-Mr. and Mrs. Stone. a bired man, and a hired girl. This. the first frame building erected upon the site of Rochester, is still in existence, and in use as a wood-shed. Having been well built, it survives to mark the contrast of beginning and present. . A journey made by Mr. Stone for wheat was unsnecessful till his arrival at the house of Judge Chipman, in Pittstown. While Stone, having made known his extremity, sat at a table to atisfy his hunger, Mr. Chipman proceeded to make a visit and obtain wheat of bis neighbors. The amount was sold to Stone, at a dollar a bushel, kas thao the current price. When the grain was taken for grinding to the mill of Zebalon Norton, at Meudon. the honest pailler took no toll, but added a bushel of his owo wheat. Again the meat-barrel became empty. the last of the meal had been taken from the sack, and there was no hread to place upon the table ; the pioneer knew not where the next meal would be found. when, woking out, a Large deer was seen moving slowly up from the river-bauk, and offering a fair shot from the cabin-door. The supply thus afforded was providential, and as such gratefully aud gladly accepted. Mr. Stone died October 23, 1851, aged seventy- six year

James S. Stone, born May 4. 1810, was the first white person native to the area now included by Roche-ter. The tide of settlement and the rise in value uplifted Mr. Stone from his poverty and bore him on to affluence.

The third settler was Isane W. Stove, no relation to Enos, from whom, in 1810, . he bought five acres of land, and on which he engaged some men to build a frame house, the boards being sawed at Stone's mal. With the completion of the structure a tavern was opened, as travel began to teed in this direction ; and Stone's tavern was during the war the pioneer public-house of Rochester, and en- joyed a monopoly of patronage. A comunisioned officer. Mr. Stone was active in measures of defense, aod while on his return from the frontier, in 1813. was taken ill at Sutherland's, near Batavia, and there died. His wife continued the tavern till 1817, and continued to be for many years a resident of this city.

THE TOUR OF DE WITT CLINTON.

Among distinguished persons who made journeys during 1810 to Genesee Falls was De Witt Clinton. A journal, treating of localities and experience in detail, attracts the reader in a reference to the falls, and recounts a troublesome and far from solitary experience of a night's lodging in flea-haunted bed in the tavero of S. Felt, in Perrinton. We qquote a day's visit to the site nf Rochester : " We departed from here ( Feld's tavern'i at seven o'clock. after breakfast ; and, after a ride of eight and a half miles, arrived at a ford of the Genesee river, about half a mile from the great falls. and seven and a half from Lake Ontario. This ford is one ruck of limestone; just below it there is a fall of fourteen fect. An excel- lent bridge of uncommon strength is now creeting at this place. We took a view of the upper and lower fall -. The first is ninety-seven and the other is sev- enty-five feet. The banks on each side are higher than the falls, and appear to be composed of slate, but principally of red freestone. The descent of the water is perpeodieular. The view is grand, considering the elevation of the bank and the smallness of the cataract or sheet of water." The description deals in genlogie remark, which found no notice io a -uh-quent visit, when a different scene -- the Wonderful transformation wrought by mau-met his gaze. Clinton refers to Hanford as a merchant as well as landlord, and further says, " There is a great trade between this country and Montreal in staves, potash, and flour. Mr. Hop- kins, customs officer, states that one thousand barrel of flour, the sune oumber each of pork and of potash. and upwarth of one hundred thousand staves, had been already sent this season from here to Montreal, that staves Bow sold there for one hundred and forty dollars per thousand, and had one time brought four hundred dollars. Trinspuntation of staves to Montreal is eighty-five dollars to ninety dollars per thousand ; across the like, forty-five dollars to fifty dollars, that of a hurrel of potash, two dollars ; pork, two dollars ; and of flour, one dollar and twenty-five rente; but the cheapness of this article is owing to competition,

and is temporary & ton of goods can be transported from Canandaigua to Ital by land for twenty five dollars " Thus are afforded glimpses of a coming trale. which in later years poured, and still pours, by a magnificent canal and an exert- lent railway, betveen Rochester and the Hudsuo.

THE FIRST PUBLIC WORK ON THE SITE OF ROCHESTER.

From the Falls of the Genesce the river flows between precipitous banks, which gradually approach the water level as they near the lake. At Rochester was the only point where dredging was practicable between Avon and Lake Ontario. 1u 1809, the Ridge road, elsewhere treated of, began to assume importance, and with increase of travel came desire for a better crossing of the river thao a dangerous ford. The settlers of Pittsford, Perrinton, and other northern towns of Waym. and of Monroe, put in circulation a petition for an act to authorize the construction of a bridge across the Genesee at Rochester. The session of the legislature .if Albany was attended by both the elder aud younger Enos Stone, whose intuehre aided to secure the passage of a bill legalizing a tax upon Ontario and Gebesre counties for building the bridge. The law was denounced in severest terms; the folly of taxing the people for a bridge in "such an outlandish place" was In. quently reprobated during the election canvass of the following year. and resulted in the defeat of the Demweratie members, und determined the ascendancy of the parties in the legislature. Opponents of the bridge alleged that there was nothing about the place to justify its construction at that point. The opposition finn those along the Buffalo road was from fear of a diversion of travel from that main thoroughfare, and from the south as an entirely unnecessary expense. The exit- gerated representations of Rochester, as nofitted for the "abode of man er best. coincided with prevalent belief; but while a portion of the city lands were wet and marshy, eligible sites are rare where equal territory more abounds with health- ful and beautiful locations for residence or business. The hill had passed by t cluse vote, und the bridge, commenced in 1810, was completed just prior to the war of 1812. The expense to the two counties was twelve thousand dollars. The builder was named Hovey, and the building commissioners were Dr. Zuccheut+ Colby, of Genesce, and Caleb Hopkins, of Ontario. The bridge speedily began to) bring travel to the frontier upon the northero route, and, but for the war, would have hastened settlement. The first company of troops marching to Lewiston crossed the river on the uucovereti timberz. We have remarked the peril of the! old ford, which was a few rods south of the canal aqueduct. During the spring freshet of 1805, three meo in a canoe narrowly escaped being hurried into eternity over the awful chaser. Two were passengers-Willis Kemp-hall and William Billinghurst ; the third, William Cole, was the ferryman. Au nar broke while in the flood, and but for the branches projecting from Brown's island. by which the party arrested their descent, they would have plunged over the cataract. At the same pLice, during the spring of 1812, before the bridge was finished. a farmer with his team and wayor was swept over the falls where Sam Patch later lost his life while endeavoring to illustrate the saying that " some things can be done as well as others." Till work was finished upon the bridge. few indulged sanguine expectations of a village growth, and the rise in values was as surprising .. pleasant to the few early occupants. It is said by Elisha Ely, . It may tend to give an idea of the commercial and civil importance of all there points at that time, to state that the mail was theu carried from Canandaigua mee a week, horseback, and part of the time by a woman."

To those conversant with the importance early attached to water-power and the convergence of travel routes. it is not surprising that the one hundred deres with its valued adjunets, mill-sites, should have attracted public attention andl stim .. lated private enterprise. Experienced and far-seeing, Mr. Wadsworth, having hes interests at Charlotte and Castletoo. saw the gravitation of trade down the valley towards the navigable waters of Lake Ontario, and expressed his mind in a letter written August, 1810, to Mr. Troup : " I wish that tract of one hundred dere- could be purchased of the Maryland gentleman. The bridge and mill-seat render it very valuable indeed."

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History of Monroe county, New York with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, Palatial residences, Part 28

Author: McIntosh, W. H. cn; Everts, Ensign, and Everts, Philadelphia, pub Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign and Everts Number of Pages: 976

Author: McIntosh, W. H. cn; Everts, Ensign, and Everts, Philadelphia, pub
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign and Everts
Number of Pages: 976