History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Part 11

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), 1840-1908
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Pioneer publishing company
Number of Pages: 648

USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907 > Part 11

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 (link on the Part 1 page).

Twenty-First Cavalry .- Four companies from Monroe, under Captains John S. Jennings, Wil- liam Godley, David A. Signor and James 8. Graham, were in this regiment, which was raised in the fall of 1863. Its first lieutenant-colonel was Charles Fitzsimmons, previously of the Third cavalry. Its hardest fighting was in the Shenan- doah valley, where it was left as a guard after Sheridan moved on to Richmond for the final struggle. After Lee's surrender it was sent to Colorado and mustered out in detachments.

Twenty-Second Cavalry .- Seven companies re- eruited partially in Monror were in this regiment

which left the state in March, 1864. Samuel J. Crooks, previously of the Eighth cavalry, was the first colonel, but during most of its service it was commanded by Major Caleb Moore, who had bee 1 detailed from the Eighth, the two regiments being brigaded together in Custer's division and fight- ing in the same battles during the last year of the war. Among the officers were Jacob Fisher, A. K Tower, James H. Nellis, Frank A. Callister, Henry P. Starr and others from this county.

First Veteran Cavalry .- Eight of the twelve companies of this regiment were raised partially in Monroe county. It was recruited by Robert F. Taylor, its first colonel, in 1863, leaving the state in detachments, as the companies were mus- tered in.

The Reynolds Battery .- By this name the com- pany of artillerymien raised here in September, 1861, was always known, at least locally, though 'ts real name was Battery I., First New York ar- tillery, as it was incorporated with that regiment after leaving Rochester. It served with great credit during the whole war after its enlistment, its principal engagements being at Front Royal. South Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg (where it lost one gun, which at a later period of the war was recaptured and restored to the battery), Spott- sylvania, the North Anna and Petersburg. Its first officers were Captain John A. Reynolds (who left the battery in May, 1863, having been pro- moted major and rising afterward to be chief of artillery, first of the twelfth corps, then of Hook- er's command at Lookout Mountain, then of the army of Georgia during Sherman's march to the sea) and Lieutenants Edwin A. Loder and Gil- bert H. Reynolds, the last-named becoming the captain after the promotion of his brother, as Loder had become incapacitated by a wound be- fore that. The battery came home with the fol- lowing named officers: George Breck, captain (brevet major) ; William H. Sheldon, D. M. Per- rine and E. O. Kinne, lieutenants.

Mack's Battery .- This was always the home name of an organization recruited in the summer of 1862 and mustered in on the 13th of Septent- ber. It was not attached to any regiment, and its official title was the Eighteenth Independent battery, New York light artillery. Its first offi- cers were Albert G. Mack, captain: George H Mumford and George S. Curtis, first lieutenants;

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

George P. Davis, second lieutenant; subsequently Franklin Van Dake became first lieutenant, Sta .- ham 1 .. Williams, A. B. McConnell and D. W. McConnell second lientenants.

Barnes's Rifle Battery .- This was officially known as the Twenty-sixth independent battery. It left the state December 4th, 1862, under Cap- tain J. Warren Barnes. Like the foregoing. it served in the far South and was in Banks's expedi- tion.

Eleventh Artillery .- Recruiting for this regi- ment began in Rochester in February, 1862, under Colonel William B. Barnes. Four companies had been raised, under Captains William Church. Seward F. Gould, Henry P. Merrill and William F. Goodwin, up to June 24th, when they were hurriedly ordered to Pennsylvania to assist in re- pulling Lee's invasion. After the Gettysburg cam- paign those companies were transferred to the Fourth New York artillery, and others which had been recruited by Major H. B. Williams were put into the Thirteenth artillery.

Fourteenth Artillery .- The hideous draft riots broke out in New York in July, 1863, and before the enlistment of this regiment was half cor .- pleted a portion of it, 200 etrong, were ordered off, on a moment's notice, to protect that city against the mob. On August 15th they returned and the regiment was mustered in by companies during the latter part of the year. Its first officers were Elisha G. Marshall, colonel ; Clarence A. Corning. lieutenant-colonel ; William H. Reynolds, major; Job C. Hedges, adjutant. The familiarity of two of those names will show that it consisted largely of veterans, many of the men recruited in Monroe county having been members of the Old That- teenth. Having served during its first winter as heavy artillery in the forts of New York harbor, it went into the field as infantry in April, 1861. Its first engagement was at Spottsylvania and its most brilliant achievement was at Petersburg. where it stormed the breastworks and captured 300 prisoners, but during the fight Colonel Marshall was wounded and Major Hedges was killed, being succeeded by Joseph P. Cleary. Captain Engene T. Curtis, afterward on General Carr's staff, and perhaps other Rochester men also were in the Sixteenth artillery.

Fiftieth Engineers .- This, raised as infantry in 1861, was afterward converted into an engineer

regiment, its original numerical designation be- ing retained-a ridiculous thing, as there were only three engineer regiments in the state. One of the later companies, mustered into service in December, 1863, was recruited partially in Roch- ester.

In addition to the regiments named above there were many residents of the county, both officery and enlisted men, who entered other organizations, but it would be practically impossible to trace them all. Throughout the long conflict the honor of Monroe was well sustained by those of its sons who laid down their lives to preserve the nation and by those who survived to enjoy the blessings of a more perfect Union. Though none of our citizens rose to an independent command during the war, twelve of them acquired the rank of gen- eral officers-John H. Martindale, brigadier and brevetted major-general; Isaac F. Quinby, briga- dier ; Elisha G. Marshall and Charles J. Powers, both brevetted major-generals for desperate bra- very, and the following brevetted brigadier-gen- erals: Harrison S. Fairchild, Charles Fitzsim- tons, W. H. Benjamin, John McMahon, Francis E. Pierce, Edmund M. Pope, Oliver H. Palmer and Elwell S. Otis. Of all these the only one known to be living is the last named, who after the civil war had closed accepted an appointment as lieutenant-colonel in the regular army, in which he rose to the highest attainable grade ; having ac- quired distinction by his long service in Indian campaigns in the far West. he became major- general and for some time occupied the position of military governor of the Philippine istands; on reaching the age limit a few years ago his active connection with the army came to an end and since then he has been living in well-earned retirement on his farm in the town of Gates.

THE GRAND ARMY.

There are a number of posts of the Grand Army of the Republic in Monroe county, those in the city being as follows, with their respective com- manders in 1906: O'Rorke post, number 1, Robert Morgan : George HI. Thomas post, John A. Rey- nolds; Peisener post, John Roppelt ; Charles J. Powers post, Josias W. Jones; E. G. Marshall post, James S. Graham; I. F. Quinby post, L. H. Curtis; F. E. Pierce post, 1. II. Chatfield : Myron Adams post, Henry S. Redman. Those outside of

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

the city are the Lewis Gates post, in Honeoye. Falls, Hinman Smith; the Cady post, in Brock- port, P. Miller ; the E. J. Tyler post, in Pittsford, John B. Bacon; the John H. Martindale post, in Spencerport, Oreb T. Hubbell; the Thomas Farr post, in Webster, Richard Morley, and the E. A. Slocum post, in Fairport, J. J. Fassett. Besides these the Old Thirteenth, the One Hundred and Fortieth and the Reynolds battery have preserved

their independent organizations and are, as well as the W. T. Sherman command of the Union Vet- crans Union, considered as posts of the Grand Army. Then there are the L. Bordman Smith camp of Spanish War Veterans, J. W. Cook com- mander ; four camps of Sons of Veterans, six or- ganizations of Women's Relief Corps and a num- ber of other bodies more or less directly connect? ! with it.

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THE FLOOD OF 1865. MAIN STREET BRIDGE.

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CHAPTER VIII

ROCHESTER AFTER THE WAR.

The Great Flood of 1865-Three Illustrious Citi- zens-Morgan, Green and Douglass-The Water Works-Boards of Administration-Loan As. sociations-The Telephone and Other Strikes- Civil Service Reform-The Park System-The Semi-Centennial-The Grip and Other Diseases -Individual Communion Cups-The Soldiers' Monument-Miscellaneous Items.

The great war was over, but one reminder of it was yet to come, when the news flashed over the wires on the night of April 14th, 1865, that Presi- dent Lincoln had been murdered that evening, shot by the assassin, J. Wilkes Booth, while he was attending a performance of "Our American Cous- in" at Ford's theater in Washington. Before the next day had closed our city was draped in mourn- ing; on the 19th, the day of the ceremony at the capital, there was a mock funeral here, in which, after services had been held in all the churches, a procession of greater length than that of any known in Rochester up to that time followed a car bearing a cenotaph through the streets to the court-house square, where an oration was deliv- ered by Roswell Hart ; there was an informal turn- ont of large numbers when at 3 o'clock on the morning of the 27th the train passed through here, carrying the remains to Springfield, III.

THE FLOOD OF 1865.

The year of 1865 has always been known here since then as the "year of the flood." There hud Iwen very cold weather with a heavy fall of suou

in the early part of March, when a thaw came on quite suddenly, cansing a freshet up the valley. Such things had occurred here before, so no great alarm was felt until Friday, the 11th, when the bed of the Genesee Valley canal was filled up and the water overflowed its banks, soon after which the Erie canal became unable to contain what was poured into it from the feeder, and the river rose to a height above the tops of the aqueduct arches, so that it spread itself over Exchange street. Through that thoroughfare and State street the water rushed with the greatest violence, submerg- ing all the lower floors in the central part of the city and inundating the gas works, so that the whole town was plunged in total obscurity just as the darkness fell and artificial light was miost needed. During all of that night and through Saturday morning the water kept rising in the streets, where boats were used where the current was not too rapid to permit of it, to rescue people from apparent danger and to supply the hungry with necessary food; late in the day the flood be- gan to abate, but it was not till Sunday afternoon that the streets were entirely clear, not clean, for the alluvial deposit of und was ankle deep. Light was not restored for several days, as many of the gas mains had been broken ; all railroad commuai- cation was suspended for two daya, as the east- ward track was torn up by freshets between here and Syracuse and no trains could get into the old station on the west side, while it was long after that before through travel was resumed, as both the New York Central bridge and the Erie railroad had been swept away at the early stage of the performance : the direct loss to property was

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

over a million dollars, but that was offset by the feeling of satisfaction in the minds of all but the immediate sufferers that amid all the confusion not a single life had been lost.

The trouble being over, Daniel Marsh, the eu- gineer, was employed by the city to examine into the causes of the disaster; he reported that it was due entirely to the encroachments upon the bed of the river between the upper falls and the aqueduct, making the channel too narrow in that space to drain a territory of twelve hundred square miles. To go deeper into the matter and to ascertain the means for preventing a repetition of the catastrophe the legislature appointed a commission of three citizens, with Levi A. Ward as chairman. General I. F. Quinby, the engineer of this commission, having examined the river quite thoroughly between the city and Geneseo, found that the openings in the Erie railroad em- bankment over the flats near Avon were inadequate to carry off the great volume of water that came down, so that a temporary lake had been formed, extending from the embankment as far south ax Geneseo; that the water rose high enough to. sweep away twelve hundred feet of that obstruc- tion and so the vast reservoir, having broke:1 loose, was suddenly precipitated upon the city. After that the openings in the embankment were greatly enlarged, thereby lessening the peril but not eliminating it, by any means. Indeed, it seemed on the point of recurrence only two years later, when the ice became gorged at the piers of the Erie railway bridge, throwing the water into the Genesee Valley canal, which overflowed into some of the streets in the third and eighth wards and filled the cellars and basements of the fac- tories on Brown's race. Since then there have been frequent alarms from the rising water in the spring and the danger of another deluge will never be removed until some radical measures are taken to prevent it.

LEWIS H. MORGAN.

Three distinguished men lived in Rochester during this period, whose fame extended far be- yond the confines of this locality, so that in for- eign lands the name of the city became known by reason of what they had accomplished. Lewis H. Morgan was horn at Aurora, Cayuga county,

November 21st, 1818. Having graduated at Union college in 1840, he came to Rochester and settled down to the practice of the law, in which he soon acquired an enviable position, but he gradually withdrew from that to devote himself to the ethnological studies in which he took a constantly growing interest. Even in early life he had been attracted to the Indian race, associating much with them and becoming intimately acquainted with their habits, their customs and their language. This knowledge took shape in papers that he read before learned societies and these essays were finally given to the world in book form, in 1851, under the title "The League of the Iroquois," +o which reference has been made in an earlier chap- ter. In that he described minutely the constitu- tion by which that remarkable confederacy was held together and more particularly the peculiar relationship by which persons who had never seen or heard of each other were supposed to be de- scended from a common animal ancestor and therefore, being in that sense brothers and sisters, precluded from marrying or mating with each other. This discovery, which was absolutely orig- inal with him, only stirred him to further investi- gation in the same line, and the inquiries that he made in all parts of the world among the most primitive races that could be found, through the medium of missionaries, consular agents and trav- elers, tended to show that a similar system had entered into the life of all peoples as the earliest stage in sociological development. From this he formed the opinion that the original unit of so- ciety was not the family, as had been previously held by all writers on sociology, but the clan, or " the gens, as he called it. This idea he elaborated more fully in his "Ancient Society," which is by far the greatest of all his works and which, while it did not possess the novelty of his first book, aroused in Europe a much greater degreee of comment, which was diverse in its character, for, while the Germans generally were disposed to ac- cept his conclusions, the English writers mainly refused to do so and in some instances combated his views with the greatest violence. At the re- quest of the Smithsonian institution he prepared for publication by that body his "Systems of Con- sanguinity of the Human Family," an immense quarto of many hundred pages, in which be traced out minutely the systems of kinship of more than

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THE FLOOD OF 1865. LOOKING UP STATE STREET.

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

four-fifths of the world, a work of great research and of much value for reference, though not adapt- ed to general reading. In the midst of these la- hors he found time to write a book ou the Amer- ican beaver, which was translated into various languages, gaining for him the warmest recogni- tion by Darwin and the honorary membership of several foreign scientific societies. But he soon returned to his first love, and his last volume was on the "Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines," the result of his latest inquiries into the habits of the western Indians and the Aztecs. Having no fondness for political life, it was rather against his will that he was elected a member of the Assembly in 1861 and of the state Senate in 1825, honors which he prized far less than that of the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which he received in 1879. He was the most distinguished writer on anthropology and ethnology that this country ever produced and the forenost in the world ar the time of his death, which occurred on the 18th of December. 1881.

SETH GREEN.

It is always pleasant to the residents of any city to remember that it was the birthplace of some benefieent agency. Seth Green, who was born March 12th, 1817, lived here from an early age till the time of his death on the 20th of Au- gust, 1888. He was not a scholar, like the one we have just been remembering, but he found his "hooks in the running brooks," and old Izaak Walton would have hailed him as a pupil who had improved upon his master in his skill with the rod and his knowledge of the finny tribe. While conducting a fish market on Front street he cop- ceived the idea of an artificial propagation and devoted his attention to the means of protecting the spawn of salmon from the males, who ate it as soon as it was cast. That led him to the dis- envery in 1864 of artificially impregnating dry spawn and he began the propagation of fish as a business in his trout ponds at Caledonia. In 1867. on the invitation of the fish commissioners of fout of the New England states. he went to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and although he was viciously op- posed by the professional anglers, who, foreseeing that he might diminish their profits, repeatedly

broke his nets and threw other obstacles in his way, he succeeded by his improvements in hatett- ing fifteen million shad in a fortnight, thereby quadrupling the natural product of the Con- necticut river. His work was shortly afterward extended to other important streams, such as the Hudson, the Potomac and the Susquehanna, where he propagated fifteen of the more common species with vastly increased production. In 1868 he was appointed, with ex-Governor Seymour and Robert B. Roosevelt, one of the fish commissioners of New York and superintendent of fisheries of the state, which purchased his hatchery at Caledonia for the purpose of facilitating his labors. In 1871 he transported by mechanical contrivances perfected by himself and his brother, the late Monroe Green, the first shad over taken to California, a feat re- markable in itself but mainly noteworthy from the fact that within a few years afterward mil- lions of that fish were sold on the Pacific coast, where the commodity had been unknown before. He suceeded by repeated experiments in hatching the spawn of about twenty kinds of fish and also in hybridizing several different varieties that had little resemblance with each other. His achieve- ments were recognized in other countries as of the highest utility and he received several gold and silver medals from societies in Paris and Berlin, but these he valued far less than the consciousness. in which he often expressed the keenest satisfaz- tion, of having cheapened a necessary article of consumption for millions of his fellow men.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

The third illustrious citizen was of another race, another color. Frederick Douglass, born a slave on the eastern shore of Maryland in February, 1815, escaped from bondage when twenty-one years old. Finding his way up to New Bedford, Massy- chusetts, he lived there for several years and came to Rochester in 1847, establishing here a weekly journal, which he called at first the North Star, but afterward Frederick Douglass's Paper, of which he was always the editor and the principal The common prejudice against anything like social in- timaey with the negro gave way in his case before the uniform urbanity of his deportment and the dignity of his manner, while the mental ability

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

that he possessed caused him to be treated with clined to remain, resist arrest and make a fight for his permanent liberty, which would undoubt- edly have brought on a bloody riot, but he yielded to the advice of friends who nrged that he owed too much to the hospitality of the city to bring it into trouble and disrepute, so he got across the Canadian border at night and went to England, where he stayed for months; while there his free- dom was purchased by the duchess of Sutherland unvarying respect and he never experienced here the animosity that sometimes assailed him in other places. In addition to his editorial labors he was frequently called away not only to attend anti- slavery conventions, where he was always a promi- uent figure, but to deliver lectures on various subjects usually connected more or less directly with the wrongs of his race. In this he was at his best, and he never failed to receive. at least in . and other women, to which he consented with great Rochester, the fullest admiration of attentive andi-

THE DOUGLASS MONUMENT.

ences, even where many of his hearers failed to agree with him, for he was an orator of the high- est grade, excelled, perhaps, by no American of his time except Henry Ward Brecher in the per- suasive force of his delivery. In 1859 a requisi- tion from Governor Wise of Virginia was sent to Albany demanding the surrender of Douglass on the charge of complicity in the raid of John Brown, of which he was undoubtedly innocent and which was probably made the excuse for obtain- ing possession of him quietly and then holding him as a runaway slave. He was strongly in-

reluctance, unwilling to acknowledge that he or anyone else could be the property of another man. In the early part of the Civil war, while a strong friend of the Union, he took no active part in the matter, but after the emancipation proclama- tion came out he threw himself into the cause and promoted enlistment by his appeals of passion- ate eloquence. In 1870 he removed to Washing- ton and became the editor of the New National Era; in 1872 he was chosen presidential elector at large for the state of New York; in 1876 Presi- dent Hayes appointed him United States marshal for the district of Columbia, which office he held till President Garfield five years later made him recorder of deeds in the district; in 1889 Presi- dent Harrison appointed him minister to Hayti and after he had resigned that position the black republic named him as one of its commissioners to the Columbian exposition at Chicago. He died at Washington on the 20th of February, 1895: the remains were brought back here for interment and after the body had lain in state in the city hall the funeral was held in the Central church, which was crowded long before the services began ; Rev. Dr. Taylor made the prayer, Rev. William C. Gannett delivered the address over the casket, Miss Susan B. Anthony pronounced a eulogy, and the benediction was spoken by Rev. Dr. Stebbins. His life-size figure, molded in bronze, stands in the open triangle in front of the New York Central station, recalling to those who knew him his ad- mirable characteristics and furnishing to the down trodden an incentive to rise to independent man- hood.

THE WATER WORKS.

Early in the life of the city the need of some regular water supply for the extinguishment of fires was appreciated, and as far back as 1835 the

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THE FLOOD OF 1865. ANDREWS STREET BRIDGE.

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

legislature incorporated the Rochester Water Works company, with a capital of $10,000, James Seymour, Isaac Hills, Isaac R. Elwood, George W. Pratt and Charles J. Hill being designated to re- ceive subscriptions. But nothing came of this and for nearly forty years the city and the insurance companies had to take their chances, relieved only by the free use of the Erie canal during the season of navigation, at the close of which some of the water would be retained during the winter by the construction of dans across the channel. A little later the river was drawn upon at intervals, its contents being distributed in iron pipes to reser- voirs in different parts of the city, the principal one of which, as our older readers will remember, was sunk under the pavement in front of the court-house, where the present building now stands.

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History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Part 11

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), 1840-1908 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Pioneer publishing company Number of Pages: 648

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), 1840-1908
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Pioneer publishing company
Number of Pages: 648