History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Part 7

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 7

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

lowed it. It was only the Erie canal, which was put through a few years later, that determined the question in favor of Rochester, but even then a horse railroad, operated by gravity from the top of the high bank at Carthage to the level below, con- nected the two places and supplied the extensive warehouses of Judge Hooker and others. Finally the New York Central railroad, taking just the line that it did, showed that there was no room for Carthage, even as an appendix of Rochester, and that ended it.

The county at large had before this mani- fested signs of progress. Roads originally Indian trails were gradually widened. straightened and leveled in every direction. In 1813 the legislature granted $5,000 for bridging the streams and clear- ing the path on the Ridge road from here to Lew- iston. Dr. Levi Ward had the contract for carry- ing the mail from Caledonia to Charlotte, before

there was a house in Rochester. After an office war established here the service was, as we have seen. weekly at first, after that twice as often. In 1816 it became tri-weekly, the contract being given by the department to an enterprising company con- sisting of John G. Bond and Captain Elisha Ely to transport the mail from Canandaigua to Lew- iston by way of this village. At first one four- horse coach was used for the purpose, but the travel soon began to increase so greatly that several other similar vehicles had to be added, then the tavern- keepers along the road became interested in the matter and after 1817 for several years the coaches were so numerous that some one of them was al- ways in sight at every mile on the Ridge. The subject of the formation of Monroe county might well be treated at this point, but a chapter on that topie has been kindly contributed by another writer and will he found further on in the volume.

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CHAPTER V

ROCHESTER BECOMES A VILLAGE.

Its Names and Its Charter-Its First Officers -- Ordinances Adopted-The Population-The Second Newspaper-Early Publications-The Three Court Houses-The First Directory- Movements in Real Estate-The Erie Canal --- And the Genesee Valley-The Morgan Affair -- Lafayette and Basil Hall-Sam Patch and Joseph Smith-A Spasm of Morality The Cholera Years.

THE VILLAGE GOVERNMENT.

The act of incorporation was passed by the legis- lature on the 21st of March, 1817. The name was Rochesterville, though that appellation was never used by the inhabitants and no one has ever been able to find out who suggested so cumbersome a term. For five years that form stood, wholly disregarded, and it was not till April 12th, 1822. that it was changed by legislative enactment to Rochester, which it had always been by custom. Although the interests of both sides of the river were almost identical, the new village was entirely on the west side and lay wholly within the town of Gates until 1823, when it was expanded on the east side by annexation, and that portion of the village remained within the town of Brighton till the incorporation of the city in 1834. The aet seems to have been rather paternal in its character, for it begins by saying that it "shall be, and the same is hereby declared to be, a publie act and shall be construed in all courts of justice within this state benignly and liberally to effect the bene-

fieial purpose therein mentioned and contained." Great care was taken to preserve to the people themselves, rather than to the officials whom they might elect, the right of local self-government, for it was "the freeholders and inhabitants" who had the power at their annual meetings to levy taxes -- which should never exceed one thousand dollars in one year ; to make all the appropriations, however small, even for the most necessary ex- penses, and to elect all the village officers-the trustees, the assessors, the treasurer, the collector, the pound keeper, the fire wardens and the con- . stable. At the same time the trustees were not wholly powerless, or merely ornamental, for they were authorized to make laws, to regulate public markets, streets and highways, to pass ordinances relative to "taverns, gin shops and huckster shops" and to the lighting of the streets, to impose rea- sonable fines and penalties, which should not, however, exceed twenty-five dollars for any one offense, and to do many other things.

Five trustees were provided for in the charter, and at the first meeting of frecholders and inhabi- tants, held at the school-house on the 5th of May in that year, the following named were chosen : Daniel Mack, William Cohb, Everard Peck, Fran- cis Brown (afterward elected as president of the board) and Jehiel Barnard. The other officers, elected at the same time, were Isaac Colvin, Hast- ings R. Bender and Daniel D. Hatch, assessors; Ralph Lester, collector and constable: Roswell Hart, Willis Kempshall, John G. Bond, Abner Wakelee and Francis Brown, fire wardens. The trustees were authorized a month later to raise by taxation the sum of $350, for the purpose of

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

defraying the expenses of the corporation for stationery, of procuring fire hooks and ladders and of cutting two ditches to drain the swamp lands near private residences, the last named provision indicating that malaria was still prevalent. The next year the tax levy was $1,000, out of which a good fire engine was to be purchased, and from that time it steadily increased, of course. In 1826 the powers of the trustees were greatly enlarged, as they ought to have been before that, so that they had full control of village affairs and coul do whatever they thought necessary for the preser- vation of good order. By the ordinances then adopted no person was to keep above twelve pounds of gunpowder in any house within the village, nor even that quantity except in close canisters, under a penalty of twenty dollars; a fine of ten dollars was imposed for constructing insecure chimneys to any house or manufactory, or for failing to obey the directions of fire wardens in things re- lating to security against fire or for failing to keep fireplaces in good repair so as to be safe, the same amount being levied on each of the fire- men for each neglect of duty at a conflagration, while five dollars had to be paid for every viola- tion of the rules that each house should have a scuttle in the roof and stairs to the same, that fire buckets should be kept in each house, that fireplaces should be cleaned every three month: that no candle or fire should be kept or carried in an exposed manner in any livery stable, that no person should burn shavings, chips or straw within fifty feet of any building, that all bell-ringers were bound to ring on an alarm of fire, that the inhabitants must obey the orders of the chief en- gineer and fire wardens at fires and that no one but those officials must give any orders at such times.

When the village was incorporated it contained probably about eight hundred people, for the cen- sus of 1815 gave 331, while that of 1818 showed 1,049. Subsequent enumerations have been as follows: 1820, 1,502; 1822, 2,700; 1825, 4,274 in February, 5,273 in August; 1826, 7,669; 1830, 10,863; 1834, 12,252 ; 1835. 14.404; 1840, 20,191; 1845, 26,965; 1850, 36,403; 1855, 43,877; 1860, 48,204 ; 1865, 59,940 : 1870, 62,386 ; 1875, 81,722; 1880, 89,363 ; 1890, 133,896; 1900, 162,608 ; 1905. 181,666. The census of the decimal years was that of the United States, and it shows that dur-

ing the last half century the greatest increase in any decade was between 1880 and 1890, about fifty per cent. The population is now, undoubtedly, nearly, if not quite, 200,000.

RENEWED PROSPERITY.

Within the first year of its corporate existence, the little village entered upon a new era of pros- perity. Much of this was owing to traffic that was not entirely local. The whole valley of the Genesee was known as the greatest wheat produe- ing section of the United States, but all the grain that was brought here by a constant succession of teams from every direction was readily bought by our millers, the price for it reaching $2.25 a bushel, and ground up at once. Even then the supply was not sufficient, for Rochester flour had acquired such a reputation that there was a grow- ing demand for it, and great quantities of wheat were imported from Canada, some of it being sent back almost immediately in the shape of the fin- ished product. In 1818 the exports down the Genesve river across the lake to that market dur- ing the season of navigation amounted to 26,000 barrels of flour, 3,653 barrels of pot and pearl ashes, 1,173 barrels of pork. 190 barrels of whisky and 214,000 butt staves, making a total valuation of $380,000, which was raised the next year to $100,000. All kinds of activity increased cor- respondingly. Flouring mills and manufactories multiplied rapidly and churches were erected which are described elsewhere. The Mansion House, the first three-story building erected here, was built in 1818 by D. K. Cartter and Abner Hollister ; in 1819 the Royal Arch Chapter of Free Masons was installed, and the corner lot on West Main street, between Exchange and Aqueduct streets, running back to the canal, was sold for $1,175; the first court of record was held in 1820, when Hon. Roger Skinner presided at a session of the United States district court.

NEWSPAPERS AND BOOKS.

On July 7th, 1818, the second weekly newspaper was issued, by Everard Peck & Co., the Rochester Telegraph, the material for which and for its predecessor, the Gazette, was manufactured by Gilman & Sibley in the paper mill which they built

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ROCHESTER IN 1822, SHOWING FIRST COURT HOUSE.

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

for the purpose on the east side. The first daily, the Daily Advertiser, published by Luther Tucker & Co., appeared in October, 1826. An account of the career of that as well as of the two other journals will be found in another chapter. From the press room of the Telegraph issued a number of volumes at different times, the earliest being one printed in 1820, which, from its being the first book published here, deserves that its title- page should be reproduced in full, as follows : "The Life and Adventures of James R. Durand. Dur- ing a Period of Fifteen years, from 1801 to 1816; in which time he was imprisoned on board the British fleet and held in detestable bondage for more than seven years. Including an account of a voyage to the Mediterranean. Written by himself. Rochester, N. Y. Printed for the author by E. l'eck & Co., 1820." The next book as far as is known was Vought's "Medical Treatise," put forth in 1823. It is remarkable that a portion of the first translation of the New Testament into the Hawaiian language should have been printed here. in 1828. The gospel according to Matthew had been translated by Rev. Dr. Bingham, that of Mark by Rev. Mr. Richards, and that of John by Rev. Mr. Thurston (three early missionaries to the Sandwich islands), and the manuscript was sent here to be printed, after which a Rochester man named Loomis carried a printing press to Honolulu to complete the work.

THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE.

The county having been created in 1821, the first thing to be done, of course, was to make for it a building, the court-house, as it was invariably called, and so was its immediate successor, though in each case the court room occupied only an up- per story : in this edifice the basement was oc- cupied by the clerk's office, and afterward the police office also, the first floor being taken up by the jury room and the supervisors' room, the latter being also used by the common council after the city was incorporated. Rochester, Fitz- hugh and Carroll gave the land (one hundred and sixty-six feet on Main street by two hundred and sixty-four feet on Fitzhugh), which is still used for the same purpose, and the corner-stone was laid on the 4th of September, 1821, the build- ing being completed a year later at a cost of $6,-

715.66 It takes a pretty old inhabitant to remem- ber that first court-house, but there are still a few who can do it, and they will be pleased, while the younger generation will be informed, by the fol- lowing description, even though that has been already given by the present writer before this, from the little directory of 1827:

"The natural declivity of the ground is reduced to two platforms the first on the level of Buffalo street, forming a neat yard in front of the building, which recedes seventy-hve feet from the true line of the street, the other raised shout ux feet above the former and divided from it by the building itself and two wing walls of uniform appearance, presenting, toward Buffalo street, the aspect of an elevated terrace, but on a level with the streets immediately adjoining. This last, to- gether with the yard of the First Presbyterian church, now comprehended within the same inclosure, forms a small square, laid out in grass lots and gravel walks, and needs only the further attention of the citizens, in planting it with sha%. trees and shrubbery. to render it a very pleasant and valuable accommodation as a public walk. This is now known by the name of Court square. The court-house building is fifty-four feet long, forty-four feet wide, and forty high. It presents two fronts, the one facing Court square showing two stories and a full basement. Each front is bnished with a projecting por- tico, thirty feet long and ten feet wide, supported by four lonie columns surmounted by a regular entablature and balus- trade, which returns and continues along the whole front. From the center of the building rises an octagonal belfry, covered with a cupola. The basement affords convenient offices for county and village purposes. The court room is in the second story. extending the entire length and breadth of the building, and is a remarkably well lighted and airy apartment."

Some years later two one-story structures were erected on the front corners of the plaza, in the form of Grecian temples of the Doric order of architecture, with porch and pillars and pedi- ment. Doctors Elwood and Coleman built the one on the Fitzhugh street corner and occupied it as their office for some time until it come into use for the county clerk till the second court-house was built, in 1850, and then it was torn down. The other temple, on the corner of Irving place, was raised by Vincent and Selah Matthews, who had their law offices there for many years, after which it was the surrogate's office for several years, then again became a private law office and was at last obliterated during the Civil war be- cause it was in the way of the recruiting tents that covered the square.

THE SECOND COURT-HOUSE.

Although out of place chronologically it seems as well to describe here the successors of this court and county building. That was expected at the time of its erection to last for a century, but it stood for less than thirty years, as the corner- stone for the second was laid on the 20th of June, 1850. This was done with much ceremony. At half past ten in the morning the city and county

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

officials, together with the pioneers of Rochester then living, were escorted from the city clerk's office to the rendezvous on Clinton street, where they were joined by the Grays, the Light Guards, the German Grenadiers, the German Union Gnards and Hibernia fire company number 1. Thence, headed by General Lansing B. Swan. the marshal of the day, the procession moved to the ancient corner, where a prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. A. G. Hall of the Third Presbyterian church, a short address was made by Lyman B. Langworthy, the stone was laid, an eloquent ora- tion was delivered by Judge Moses Chapin and the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Mr. Smith. The erection of the building took a year and # half, for it was opened by a session of the Supreme court on December 2d, 1851, and when it was finished it had cost seventy-two thousand dollars. It was quite a creditable affair; the foundation, the steps and the pavement of the portico were of Onondaga limestone, the superstructure was of brick,, three stories above the basement; four mas- sive stone columns npheld the roof of the portico and gave an air of dignity to the whole; the west half of the first floor, containing the clerk's rec- ords, was made fire-proof twenty years later; the eilifice was snmuounted by a wooden dome and that by another, the two being so proportioned that the effect was quite pleasing and was rendered still more so by the imposition of a figure of Justice upon the upper dome. When the building was taken down, nearly forty-four years after- ward, the corner-stone was opened and it was found that those of its rontents the material of which was paper, whether books or manuscript, were badly injured. even reduced to pulp, both paper and binding, by the moisture that must have penetrated the solid stone, the ink ou many documents being wholly effaced and the likeness of the faces on the daguerreotypes obliterated. while many of the articles which had been placed in the foundalion of the first court-house and afterward transferred to this one, including .. parchment containing statistics of the village, were admirably preserved. This ancient docu- ment, an old map of Monroe county, a few city directories and several articles relating to the then present time, were put into an ahuninum box and that into a copper receptacle, which was deposited in a cavity hewn in the corner-stone of

THE THIRD COURT-HOUSE.

This, too, was laid amid impressive surround- ings, on the Fourth of July, 1894. That patriotic occasion gave opportunity for a revival of the old- fashioned celebration of the anniversary in the morning, with fire companies, military and all that; in the afternoon, an address having been made by Mayor Aldridge, an invocation pro- nounved by the chaplain, Rev. W. C. Hubbard, an oration delivered by George Raines and appro- priate pieces sung by the public school children, the stone was carefully placed, with the full Ma- sonic ritual used on such occasions, under the direction of John Hodge, the grand master of the grand lodge. The contract called for the com- pletion of the building by April 1st, 1896, but there was the customary delay and it was June 27th of that year when the surrogate, George A Benton, formally opened it for occupancy by mov- ing into his office. The cost of construction was $: 19,945,02, the fixtures and furniture came to $110,212.48, making $830,137.50, to which should be added $10,533,33 that was paid for rent for the various public offices while the building was go- ing on and enough incidental expenses to run the bill up to 8881,560.86 to be paid by the county. The structure, which is fire-proof throughout, is much larger than either of its precedessors, though lack of room is beginning to be felt already ; it has a frontage of one hundred and forty feet and a depth of one hundred and sixty feet, coming al- most Bush with the sidewalk on West Main street and leaving but little open space in the rear, be- tween it and the city hall; with a high basement and four stories on the Main street front, eighty- seven feet of altitude in all; built of New Hamp- shire granite, all smooth dressed, and with a heavy cornice of the same stone. In general design it is Romanesque, with four polished columns on the north front, guarding a vestibule that opens into a central court covered by a skylight ninety- two feet above the level of the ground floor; it is finished inside with marble throughout ; the first floor is used by the county clerk, the county treas- urer and the surrogate; the trial courts occupy the second floor; the third is taken up with the gen- eral and special term and the law library, and the fourth is devoted to the supervisors, the district attorney, the grand jury and the jury commis. sioner.

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SECOND MONROE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

THE FIRST DIRECTORY.

The year 182? was rendered memorable, at least for old book lovers, by the publication of the first village directory. It is, however, much more than its name implies, for although it is a very sinall volume, easily carried in the pocket, and contains only one hundred and forty-one pages, it is a gazetteer and a local history as well. The title page does not indicate the author, but says that the book is published by Elisha Ely and printed by Everard Peck. Prefaced by a well-executed map drawn by Elisha Johnson, the directory proper fol- lows, in which the names of the householders, of whom there are 1,123, are given alphabetically, but divided into the five wards under each initial letter of the surname, followed by a list of the boarders. who are almost equally numerous, with the names of those whom they favored with their company. In all cases the occupation of the person is given, from which it appears that there were three hun- dred and four carpenters, one hundred and twen- ty-four shoe-makers, twenty-five physicians, twen- ty-eight lawyers, thirty-one printers, seven clergy- men, and so on. After this comes a description of the county of Monroe and of Rochester, followed by a yearly record of events from the beginning of the settlement. It is this last which gives to the work its real value, for the facts therein presented could not be obtained from any other source, and the book therefore forms the foundation for every history of the city that ever has been or ever will be written. The work became out of print imme- diately, and for the last fifty years the few copies in existence have been in the hands of those who prize them so highly that the book is prac- tically unobtainable.

The first deed recorded here, which was imme- diately after the formation of the county, was dated March 21st, 1821, and put on record April 6th. It conveyed, from Elisha Johnson and Bet- sey, his wife, to Andrew V. T. Leavitt, for the consideration of one hundred dollars, thirty-seven feet and four inches of land on St. Paul (then Canal) street at the corner of Mortimer (then Mechanic street. The purchaser sold the lot in 1850 to George G. Clarkson, afterward mayor, who had his residence there for many years, till the house gave way to a business block. Charles J. Hill built the first brick house in the village

in 1821, on the west side of Fitzhugh street, be- tween Spring and Troup, and from that time there was a steady increase in the construction of all kinds of buildings. The second church, St. Luke's (Episcopal), was erected in 1820, the socie- ty having been organized three years previously ; the first court-house was begun in 1821. the first bank was established in 1824, the last of which is more fully treated of in another chap- ter. When Brighton was annexed, in 1823, the act made the provision that the street im- provements on each side of the river should be paid for by the taxes imposed only on that side. Perhaps that worked inharmoniously ; at any rate, for some reason a new act was passed in 1826, in- corporating the village of Rochester, just as though there had never been any such thing be- fore, extending its boundaries on the west and much more on the east and dividing it into five wards, the first three being on the west side, as now, the other two on the east, divided by the river.

THE ERIE CANAL.

To no other one thing was Rochester so much indebted for its prosperity as to the Erie canal. The paternity of this enterprise cannot be dis- tinctly established, but the floating ideas on the subject of a connecting waterway were crystallized in a series of articles by Jesse Hawley, published in a Pittsburg and a Canandaigua paper in 1807- 08. They aroused sufficient interest to cause the appropriation by the legislature in the latter year of $600 to pay for an accurate survey to be made for a canal that should connect Lake Erie with the tide-waters of the Hudson river, James Geddes, who was appointed to do the work, did it in the most foolish manner possible. In a long report he discussed every conceivable plan but the right one, and ended by recommending the very worst of all, in which Mud creek, Black creek, Tonawanda swamp and other sluggish waters, as well as a portion of Lake Ontario, were to consti- tute a great part of the channel. This was too ridiculous to be seriously discussed, and so the matter slumbered for two or three years, till De Witt Clinton made in the state Senate a powerful speech in favor of the original project, which earned for him the enduring title of "the father .

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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.

of the Erie Canal." The matter was agitated fre- quently after that, but the war with Great Britain delayed all internal improvements, and it was not till 1817 that the next decisive step was taken. On the 8th of January of that year a meeting of the citizens of Ontario county was held at Can- andaigua, at which Robert Troup presided, Col- onel Rochester was secretary and the opening ad- dress was made by Gideon Granger, lately post- master-general. John Greig then offered a series of resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, written by Myron Holley, in which the arguments in favor of a canal were presented in a most clear and convincing manner. It was these reso- Intions, with their eogent reasoning, that pre- pared the way for final success, so that Myron Holley may share with De Witt Clinton the honor of promoting the great work and particularly of bringing about, by subsequent efforts, the line of ronte that was adoptedl.

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History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Part 7

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