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 13
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
seen enjoying to the full the advantages of what was once the comparatively useless old Brown square. The park system has been lately rein- forced by the magnificent gift of four hundred and eighty-four acres on the shore of the lake, along which its front extends for nearly a mile, while bnek of that are nearly a hundred acres of forest and woodland. It is as yet wholly undeveloped, hut its possibilities are almost illimitable, and in the near future the prople of Rochester will more fully appreciate the benefit bestowed upon them by the munificence of two of their fellow-citizens. It is only fair to add that the credit for all the work done in this entire system is mainly due to the knowledge, good taste, skill and industry of the one who has been the superintendent of the parks from the very beginning.
THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
The most important celebration ever held in Rochester was that in commemoration of the fif- tieth birthday of the city, in 1884. For many days beforehand the people had been perpetually re- minded of the event by newspaper articles describ- ing everything that ever happened here and giving full particulars of what was to be done on the festal days. The celebration really began on Sun- day, the 8th of June, for on that day most of the discourses treated more or less fully of the sun- jeet and at the First Presbyterian church, whose society was the oldest, Rev. Dr. Tryon Edward= preached in the morning. by request. the same ser- mon that he had delivered at his installation just fifty years before, and in the evening the services were conducted by Rev. Dr. F. De W. Ward, who, at that same remote period, had been there ordain- ed as missionary to India. Throughout Monday morning the municipal committee was engaged in receiving invited guests, and at noon the official beginning of the celebration was announced by fifty discharges of cannon and by the ringing of St. Peter's chimes and other church bells for an hour, with the appropriate shrieking of steam whistles and other distracting noises at irregular intervals. The afternoon was taken up with the literary exercises at the city hall, on the platform of which were seated all the ex-mayors then living ; Mayor Parsons gave a short address and Rev. Dr. Shaw, the venerable pastor of the Brick church.
Da zedby Google
VIEW LOOKING SOUTH, HIGHLAND PARK.
Dig zed by Google
10
HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
delivered the invocation; a communication from the town council of Rochester, England, congrat- ulating its namerake, was read and a resolution of- fered by Frederick A. Whittlesey returning thanks to the ancient corporation by the Medway was ulopted; after that came an historical address by Charles E. Fitch, an oration by George Raines, the recitation of a poem by Rev. Joseph A. Ely and complimentary addresses by Mayor Low of Brooklyn and Mayor Smith of Philadelphia, the whole being interspersed with vocal and instru- mental performances, including a festival hymn with a full choir and regimental band, the music being composed for the occasion by the leader. Prof. Albert Sartori.
On Tuesday morning Governor Cleveland with his staff arrived on a special car; he was met at the station by the reception committee, a detach- ment of police and a large military escort under the command of Colonel Francis A. Schoffel and taken to the Powers Hotel, where a re- ception was held. At the firing of the noon- day salute of fifty guns every store in the city closed its doors, a measure that would have suggested itself naturally. for the streets were already filled with a throng of sight-seers, both of residents and of those from the surrounding coun- try who had come in unprecedented numbers, in- tent on nothing but witnessing the parade. This was under the command of the marshal of the day, General Reynolds, with a full staff of aids and deputies, and it embraced all the veteran mil- itary organizations, then the citizen soldiery of that day-with a company of Buffalo Cadets be- tween the lines of their hosts, the Rochester Ca- dets-then the lodges of Odd Fellows, the uni- formed Catholic societies, the German societies of various kinds, the Ancient Order of United Work- men and a number of organizations, social and otherwise, then the Rochester fire department, followed by an endless array of wagons represent- ing the different industries and trades; it was the finest procession ever seen here, perhaps in this wetion of the state, In the evening there was a grand banquet, at which, in response to toasts, short speeches were made by Governor Cleveland. President Anderson, Mayor Edson of New York, Mayor Boswell of Toronto, General Riley, Alfred Fly. Dr. Moore, Patrick Barry, Judge Macomber and others, including Oronoyetkha, then the head
of the Mohawks, from Canada, one of the kindred of Joseph Brant, the old war chief of the tribe.
AS TO DISEASE.
While there have been no destructive epidemics in Rochester during the last half century, the city has been by no means free from disease and from alarms over the possible spread of contagion. In the latter part of 1889 the malady known as the grip (an Anglicisation of the French form. la grippe) made its first appearance here, an.l throughout the succeeding winter it was very pre- alent, being directly fatal in many cases but in a greater number bringing with it lifelong infirmity and the susceptibility to other diseases; the next year it was just as bad, twenty-six deaths occurring from it during the closing week of 1891; for some years after that it came back every spring, though never with its original violence. Not to cure, but to prevent, the spread of contagious disease, par- ticularly of tuberculosis, the churches of Rochester, beginning with the North Presbyterian, adopted oni May 6th, 1894, the nse of individual commun ion eups, and that sanitary practice, initiated here, was soon followed in different parts of the country. The diphtheria was always a dreaded visitor, and, when a French physician by repeated experiment- in 1894 found that the blood of horses which had Lern immunized by proper treatment possessed curative properties, the medicul frater- nity experienced a feeling of relief. A small amount of that anti-toxine being brought to this city it was used with good effect in the case of " child who was very ill, whereupon three horses of our fire department were set off for that preuliar service and underwent for several weeks the grad- unted injections of diphtheritic poison that ren- dered them gerin-proof, after which they were bled and the serman was drawn off from the blood, so that before the summer came the wonderful rem- edy was ready for distribution among the doctors.
THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.
This was dedicated on the 30th of May, 1892, in Washington park, which a few years before would not have been in proper condition to contain it. and the delay in the erection was largely owing to the fact that no fitting place could be found for
Digizoo by Google
108
HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
it. On the day named, after a parade of ten thousand people, headed by the war veterans and including a large proportion of the public school hoys, appropriate addresses were made at the un- veiling of the statue, by President Harrison, Gov. ernor Flower and Frederick Douglas, who were present as the guests of the city : John A. Reynolds. the president of the university, Senator Parsons and Mayor Curran. On the northern side of the pedestal, which is twenty-one feet square, set in a base approached by five steps and having at its corners four bronze military statues typifying the infantry. the cavalry. the marines and the artillery, are these words: "To those who, faithful unto death, gave their lives for their country. 1861- 1865"; on the southern face is this inscription : "We were in peril; they breasted the danger. Th - republic called; they answered with their blood": on the east and west sides are displayed the great
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. WASHINGTON PARK.
svals of the United States and the state: from the pedestal rises a granite shaft surmounted by a figure of Abraham Lincoln. Forty-two feet is the total height of the monument. the weight of stone is nearly half a million pounds, and the cost of the whole, defrayed by popular subscriptions and the proceeds of several entertainments, was $26,- 000.
MINOR ITEMS.
On the 9th of March, 1867, a board of trade was established here, with George J. Whitney as president, but it expired in a few months. In May of that year the body of Louis Fox was found in the river at Charlotte; he was a celebrated bil- liard-player who, holding the championship eue of the United States, had lost it the year before that in a contest with Joseph Deery at Washington kall; chagrin over his defeat had caused him to commit suicide in aberration of mind. At mid- night on November 12th Edward Payson Weston, the first of professional pedestrains, passed through here on his rapid walk from Portland, Maine, to Chicago; he still, by the way, believes in that exercise, for in April, 1906, at the age of sixty- nine, he walked from Philadelphia to New York, more than a hundred miles, in less than twenty- four hours. The year of 1868 saw great activity in building. over five hundred structures being erected, at a cost of about a million and a half ; in 1820 the state armory, facing Washington park, was put up and the Powers block was completed to the alley ; in 1887 the Wilder building, the Ell- wanger & Barry block, the German Insurance building and all those on the site of the old Clin- ton Hotel were put up; in 1890 the Young Men's Christian Association building, on South avenue was erected, at a cost of $183,000. In May. 1870, there was quite an excitement among the Fenians here, those ardent patriots attempting to revive the performance of four years before when they had an inglorious battle with the "Queen's Own" on the other side of the lake; this time several car- loads of warriors passed through and others were preparing to follow from here, when the United States marshal interfered and arrested the com- mander, Captain (or "General") O'Neil; that end- el the last attempt at an invasion of Canada. In June of 1873 Susan B. Anthony was convicted of illegal voting in the previous year. In 1876 the officers of the coast survey used the figure of Jua- tice, which then surmounted the upper dome of the court-house, as one of the points of triangu- lation to determine the exact meridian of Roch- ester, which was found to be 27° 36' 50.97" of west longitude, 43º 9' 22.44" of north latitude. What was probably the heaviest and most prolonged xHow-fall ever known here was during the last week of 1878 and the first week of the next year; the
Dioszoo by Google
109
HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
snow drifts were thirty feet in the surrounding country, where many people were frozen to death ; several fatal accidents from trains running off the track and a railroad blockade from the 5th to the 10th of January; the executive board paid thir- teen hundred dollars for shoveling and carting away the snow during the week. Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish leader, had a warm reception here on January 26th, 1880, and made an address in the city hall, giving a temperate statement of the wrongs of Ireland. Rochester's first Chinese voter was naturalized here in 1883. On August 10th, 1884, the remains of Lieutenant F. F. Kis- lingbury, the second in command of the Greely relief expedition to the Arctic sea, lay in state at the city hall; four days later the body, which had been interred at Mt. Hope, was exhumed, to settle the question as to cannibalism on the part of the surviving members of the crew; the flesh was found to have been stripped from the bones, af- fording ghasily proof of the truth of the rumors, The first dog show ever given here was held March 14th. 1889; in that year the largest three brewer-
ies in the city were sold to an English syndicate for about four million dollars. The financial stricture of 1893 was felt here as elsewhere, but the banks pursued a conservative policy, refusing to make any loans but the very smallest, while the savings banks paid all demands without delay, so there was no panic; the distress was felt much more in the early part of the following year, when the lack of employment became so general that the Chamber of Commerce raised, by appeal to the citizens, a fund of nearly twelve thousand dollars, the common council appropriated ten thousand dollars for the winter work on buildings in the parks, and the mayor sent around wagons through the streets to collect discarded clothing; all this, joined to the charitable efforts of private individ- uals, kept the actual suffering within a small com- pass. In 1894 the East Side trunk sewer was com- pleted, at a total cost of $949,220.63.
This brings the record, meager though it may be down to the beginning of 1895, since which time the more important events will be given in the next chapter.
Dlg ized by Google
CHAPTER IX
THE LAST TWELVE YEARS,
Resignations of Pastors-The Storage Dam Proj- ect-The Good Government Movement-Long Death List of 1895-The High License Low- Ballot Machines -- The Cuban War-Services of Our Military Companies -- The Voting Machine Mother Hieronymo - Dissatisfaction with the School Board-The Rochester Telephone- The White Charter-Its General Character- Semi-Centennial of the University-Otis Day- Dr. E. M. Moore -- The United States Independ- ent Telephone Company-Building Operations in 1905-The Heresy Trial of Dr. Crapsey- The Evangelistic Campaign-Conference of Charities and Corrections-The Soft Coal Ordi- nance-Building in 1906-Susan B. Anthony -- Dr. Louis Weigel-Henry 1. Ward -- George Ellwanger.
In preparing the previous chapters constant ure was made of former works by the present writer. In those last mentioned the chronological order of events was maintained. and the annual record closed with the mention of the death of prominent citizens during the year. In this book the narra- tive has been hitherto mainly subjective and the meerological list has been omitted, partly because it seemed to be a needless repetition and partly because it would have been so cumbersome as to be disproportionate in view of the extreme con- densation that had been otherwise used. In this present chapter we shall return to the narration of incidents in the regular order of time, except as they may be left for insertion in succeeding chapters devoted to special subjects, and the obit-
uary record will be confined to those who lived here in the early days or who were in some way connected with the life of the city.
In the early part of 1895 several prominent clergyinen severed their connection with their con- gregations, Rev. Dr. Hutton, of St. Peter's Pres- byterian, preaching his farewell sermon on Jan- mary 28th; Rev. Lonis C. Washburn, of St. Paul's Episcopal, doing so on February 25th, and Rev. Dr. Asa Saxe, of the First Universalist. on March 2d: the last named was at the time of his retire- ment the oldest minister in the city and had been the pastor of his church for the past forty-three years. During the first three weeks of April the Mechanics Institute held a pure food show, which was very successful; on the 29th of that month there was an unusual display of confectioners by the association of cooks and pastry-cooks of Rochester at their first ball and reception. The lack of a sufficient supply of water in the river during the summer season to provide for the needs of the mills and manufactories upon its banks had long been felt and had finally caused the adop- tion of a plan for the construction in the gorge of the river near Mt. Morris, about forty miles south of Rochester, of a storage dann fifty-eight fert in height; the legislature passed a bill appro- priating $150,000 for the purpose, it being stated that the object was to provide a uniform supply for the owners of water rights on the river and also for the Erie canal, the latter reason being given to account for the expense being borne by the state: Governor Morton vetoed the bill, greatly to the disappointment of many citizens, though it was admitted that he had good grounds for his
Do voo by Google
111
HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
action. A Good Goverment movement took place in September, which was a revolt against the ad- ministration of municipal affairs and in direct opposition to the two political parties, which, as was alleged, had united in a corrupt league for the division of publie plunder ; it put a full city ticket in the field, including several aldermen, making its selections from both parties but being non- partisan in the sense that its nominees were not known as machine politicians, and it held enthu- siastic meetings in different parts of the city; the public conscience was aroused and the Good Government ticket was successful not only at the election two months later, but at the next two which followed it. Dr. David Jayne Hill resigned the presidency of the University of Rochester on the 25th of November, to accept the position of assistant secretary of state of the United States,
Death reaped a plenteous harvest in this year. Samuel C. Worden died January 14th, the best- known restaurateur of the city, who had been in business through the lifetime of more than one generation, having been one of the early landlords of the old National Hotel and after that the keeper of Oyster Bay and other eating saloons of irreproachable character. On February 13th died John H1. Gordon, the inventor, in connection with his brother James, of the Gordon harvester, the predecessor of the famous McCormick reaper, which was an infringement upon it, so that the brothers recovered nearly half a million dollars in damages and acquired a large fortune from the invention. Frederick Douglass, a sketch of whose life has been already given, died February 20th, and George W. Fisher on the 21th; he came here in 1821 and was a clerk in the book store of Everard Peck, on the west side of Exchange street near the corner of Main, and on that spot he conducted the business, which he had pur- chased, until 1821, when he retired. being then understood to be the oldest bookseller, in length of storekeeping, in the state west of New York city: he was one of the carly members of the I'nin tirays, in which he took a keen interest to the last. Peter Pahner died March 12th, nged ninety-five, one of the first pyrotechnists of the country ; shortly after he began the manufacture of fireworks, nearly half a century before, he erected, for their occasional display und for a promenade and concert hall, Pahner's Garden, a
fashionable resort in that day, on East Main street, nearly opposite North avenue. Miss Elizabeth I'. Hall, one of the founders of the Humane Society and long identified with other works of beuevo- lence, died March 14th; on the same day James ('Donoghue, one of the old residents, who was in the furniture business on East Main street fifty years before that. Dr. F. W. Holland, twice pastor at different times of the Unitarian church in this city, died at Concord, Mass., March 26th, and on the same day, at Virginia Beach, William S. Kim- bail; he was one of the most prominent men in the community and identified, perhaps, more than any other mmun, with a wide range of interests con- nected with the modern life of the city, giving freely of his wealth to all kinds of projects for the general good; in addition to many other or- ganizations with which he was associated he was president at one time of the City hospital, the Union bank, the Chamber of Commerce, the In- dustrial school, the tienesee Valley club and the Post Express printing company. In April there died, on the 1st, Henry L. Fish, a member of the common council and of the board of supervisors for many years, elected mayor in 1867 and ngain in the following year and chosen member of As- sembly in 1872; on the 5th, Henry Michcels, a highly respected Jewish merchant; on the 6th, Jeremiah Sullivan, aged ninety-five, one of the organizers of the congregation of the Immaculate Conception church ; on the 20th, Henry W. Gregg, aged twenty-seven, chosen judge of the Municipal court a few months before that, the youngest man ever elected to judicial office in this city.
In May, on the 18th. William Keyes died, aged ninety-five, born a slave in Virginia; his free- dom was promised to him when he should become twenty-five, but it was not given, so he escaped and with great difficulty reached Canada, eross- ing Lake Erie in an open boat, and came to Rochester in 1831, living here ever since; on the 27th, Owen Redmond, a mechanical genius, the inventor of several machines; on the 30th, George T. Parker, one of the older lawyers; on the 31st, Mrs. Eliza M. Reid, the widow of Dr. W. W. Reid, one of the most eminent of our physicians; at the time of her death, being within three months of ninety-six years old, she was, in point of residence, the oldest in the city ; she enme here in 1822, was married in 1830 and was through
Dla ized by Google
112
HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
the early part of her life a leader in all social gatherings and at the same time prominent in benevolent work, being the last survivor of the original board of managers of the Rochester or- phan asylum. John D. Fay, one of the canal commissioners of the state for two terms, died on the 6th of June ; Alexander MeVean in the same month, while holding the office of county treasurer, to whieb he had been first elected in 1879; Bryan O'Reilly on the 26th of July, the oldest undertaker in Rochester. On the 21st of October the city lost one of its ripest scholars, Aanhel C. Kendrick ; born in 1809, he graduated at. Hamilton college, was for several years a member of the faculty of Madison university, which his cousin had founded, and was one of the original faculty of the Uni- versity of Rochester in 1850, occupying the chair of the Greek language and literature, which po- sition he filled, with the exception of two years spent at Athens and Rome for the purpose of studying antiquities, till 1882, when he retired from active participation in the work of the col- lege, being made professor emeritus, though he occasionally gave instruction to honor elasses after that; he was not only one of the foremost Greek scholars in the country, recognized as such by being placed on the American commission for the revision of the Bible, but was versed in many branches of literature and was the anthor of num- erous works on different subjects. Plymouth church lost its beloved pastor, Myron Adams, on the 29th of December; he was born March 12th, 1841, and was graduated at Hamilton in the class of 1863; while still in his junior year he entered the army and served with distinction, first in the infantry, then in the signal corps and afterward aseadjutant of a negro regiment, from which he was transferred to the navy, where he acted as chief signal officer of the department of the gulf; after the war he entered the ministry and accepted a call to Plymouth church in 1825; his theologient views became more and more li !- oral and he preached a number of sermons in opposition to the belief in the eternal duration of punishment, which attracted wide- spread attention and much antagonism, end- ing in the severance of his relations with the main Congregational body, but the consistency of his Christian character cansed the feeling against him to pass away before his death, so that his
funeral services were conducted by clergymen of different denominations ; he was the author of " Continuous Creation" and "The Creation of the Bible."
In 1896 the west side sewer was begun and mainly built, a much needed improvement, though very costly, as it ran from Lincoln park, using Deep Hollow creek for a great part of the way, and emptied into the river just below the lower falls; finished the next year at a cost of over $600,000. On the Ist of May the Raines law went into effect, by which every saloon was compelled to pay a vastly higher sum for a license than ever before, so that it brought in quite a revenue to the city and state, between which it was divided; all licenses had to be conspicuously displayed, and free lunches to be abandoned; even purely social clubs, as was decided in a test case brought by the Rochester Whist eluh, bad to take out a license to sell liquor to their own members; as to the lower class of resorts this law in its effect supple- mented the municipal reform of the year by which all curtains and partitions in stall saloons had been removed. An interesting state convention of deaf mutes was held here July 31st, largely attended, all the proceedings carried on in the manual sign language. William J. Bryan, the national cham- pion of free silver, spoke to a large crowd at Jones park on August 26th. The Myers ballot machine was used for the first time at the Novem- ber election; it was far from satisfactory in its operation, breaking down until it could be repaired in several instances and failing entirely to record the vote in one district, so that many votes were lost thereby. The death roil this time will be as much below the average as the last one was above it. Bartholomew Keeler, who had been police justice for eight years, died on the 15th of Jan- uary ; Alexander McLean on March 2d, chief of police from 1874 to 1885; David Rosenberg, July 30th, an old-time jeweler. having been in that business for more than half a century; Maria G. Porter, December 14th, who had harbored prob- ably more fugitive slaves than any other person in the city except Amy Post.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.