USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume I > Part 43
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The 126th Regiment was recruited in Seneca, Ontario and Yates counties and was mustered into the service August 22, 1862, and served through three years of war. Colonel Eliakim Sherrill, of Geneva, was in command. Companies D, H and K were raised completely in Ontario County, and parts of E, F and G. The officers of Company D were: Philo D. Phillips, captain; Charles A. Richardson, first lieutenant; Spencer F. Lin- coln, second lieutenant. The officers of Company H were: Orin J. Herendeen, captain; George N. Redfield, first lieutenant; Al- fred R. Clapp, second lieutenant. Company K was officered by Charles M. Wheeler, captain; H. Clay Lawrence, first lieutenant; Isaac A. Seamans, second lieutenant. Henry D. Kipp was captain of Company E. The officers of Company F were: Isaac Shimer, captain; Ira Munson, first lieutenant, and Ten Eyck Munson, second lieutenant. John F. Aiken was captain of Company G. This regiment performed notable service at Gettysburg.
Perhaps the largest regimental representation from Ontario was in the 148th Infantry. William Johnson was colonel of this regiment; George M. Guion was lieutenant-colonel, and John B. Murray, major. All of these men were from Seneca Falls. Dr. Elnathan W. Simmons, of Canandaigua, was surgeon; C. H. Car- penter, of Phelps, assistant surgeon, and Frank Seeley, of Rush- ville, second assistant surgeon. This regiment saw active service first at Gwynn's Island in 1863.
Other regiments in which Ontario County men were enlisted were: The 160th, 179th, 184th, 188th, 194th Infantry; 1st, 2d, 8th, 9th, 15th and 24th Cavalry; 1st Mounted Rifles, and the 4th, 9th, 13th and 16th Heavy Artillery.
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Deeds of valor were performed by Ontario men in the war, and many of them lost their lives, among whom were Colonel Sherrill, who perished from a wound received at Gettysburg, Captain Wheeler and Captain Herendeen. The women at home worked heroically for the boys in the field; the Ladies' Hospital Aid Society was one of the local organizations. Money was con- tributed freely for assistance to soldiers' families and for boun- ties. The news of the end of the war was received in the county with noisy celebrations, only to be followed, too quickly, by the sad news of Lincoln's assassination.
The first newspaper published at Canandaigua was the On- tario Gazette and Genesee Observer, which was started in 1799, having been moved to the village from Geneva by Lucius Cary. Cary had established the paper at Geneva a year or so previous. This sheet was succeeded in 1802 by the Western Repository and Genesee Advertiser, published by James K. Gould. The name was changed a year later to the Western Repository, and in 1804 James D. Bemis became associated with it. He continued the paper after Gould's death in 1908. The name was again changed in 1830 to The Ontario Repository. Jacob J. Mattison came into possession of the paper in 1862 and consolidated it with the Mes- senger. Among the names of publishers of the Repository were Morse & Bemis; Morse, Ward & Company; Morse & Harvey; George L. Whitney ; Orson Benjamin; George L. Whitney & Son, and George W. French.
The Ontario Messenger was established in 1803 as the Ontario Freeman, by Isaac Tiffany. In 1806 John A. Stevens took pos- session and renamed it, and it so continued until 1830. Day & Morse were publishers of this sheet, also T. B. Hahn, Hubbell & Turner, and then Mattison from 1845 until his death in 1879. William H. Underhill, of Bath, then became owner of the Reposi- tory and Messenger; he died in 1883, when his father, A. L. Underhill, took charge until 1885; Herbert Huntington then took it over and continued to publish it until 1907. The paper then became the property of the Messenger Printing Company, W. A. Patton, president, which on December 9, 1907, began its publica- tion as a daily.
The Ontario County Times was started by Nathan J. Milliken in January, 1852, as the official organ of the anti-slavery wing of
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the whig party. Charles F. Milliken, son of the founder, became a partner January 1, 1891. Nathan J. Milliken died in December, 1902, after which the management of the Times devolved upon his sons, Charles F. and R. B. Milliken. The latter died January 2, 1911, since which time the weekly has been issued by Charles F. Milliken.
The Ontario County Journal was started in 1874 by George D. A. Bridgman, as a liberal republican sheet. In May, 1886, it passed into the hands of William G. David, who sold it back to the founder in September following. Bridgman then conducted the paper until July, 1891, when Edwin P. Gardner and William H. Hamlin became the owners. In May, 1899, Mr. Hamlin retired and Mr. Gardner has remained the sole owner.
There have been a number of unsuccessful newspaper ven- tures in Canandaigua, among which may be mentioned the following: The Ontario Phoenix (1827), united with the Reposi- tory in 1836; The Clay Club of 1844; The Ontario Independent of 1882, of three years' duration; The Daily Chronicle (1898), and the Canandaigua Chronicle (1900-07).
On December 16, 1796, Lucius Cary published the first num- ber of the Ontario Gazette or Western Chronicle at Geneva, which was the first newspaper in the village, and was removed to Canan- daigua, as noted, the following year. The first newspaper in the village to endure was the Expositor, established in 1806 by Colonel James Bogert, who had come to Geneva that year. Three years later he changed the name to the Geneva Gazette; in 1902 it be- came the Advertiser-Gazette. In 1895, Geneva's first daily paper, the Geneva Daily Times (independent republican) was estab- lished; it is now issued by the Geneva Printing Company, of which W. A. Gracey is president. The Geneva Herald was estab- lished in 1920, and the editor and publisher is Edward J. Scheck.
At Naples, in 1833, Charles P. Waterman established a news- paper called the Free Press. It was short-lived, and in 1840 David Fairchild established the Neapolitan. The name was after- wards changed to The Naples Visitor. There are now two news- papers published in the village. The Naples Record was founded in 1870 by S. L. Deyo and at the beginning of 1925 was edited by J. S. Tellier. J. D. Campbell began the publication of the Naples News in 1898. It passed through several changes of ownership and is now issued by L. E. Morey.
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In 1832 Jeremiah O. Balch began the publication of a weekly newspaper called the Vienna Republican. About two years later it was sold to E. N. Phelps, who changed the name to Vienna Advertiser. Between that time and 1887 several changes in ownership and management occurred. The paper then became the property of E. F. and H. C. Bussey. In 1910 E. F. Bussey was succeeded by his brother, A. F. Bussey. Since 1866 the paper has borne the name of the Phelps Citizen.
The Clifton Springs Press was established in the year 1878. P. A. Kemp is now editor. The Holcomb Review began in 1900. The Shortsville Enterprise dates from 1882. The Victor Herald began publication in 1881 and is issued by C. D. and F. H. Smith.
The early banks of the village of Canandaigua consisted of the Ontario Bank, established in 1813; the Utica Branch Bank, started in 1815, and the Ontario Savings Bank, organized in 1830. The early banks of the village were very stable in character and, with the exception of the failure of the H. J. Messenger Bank, in May, 1868, the financial development was uninterrupted. The Canandaigua National Bank was established in 1897; F. H. Ham- lin is the president of this institution, which has a capitalization of $200,000. The Ontario County Trust Company was organized in 1911, and has the same capitalization as the national bank.
The Bank of Geneva was founded in the year 1817; Rev. Henry Dwight was the first president. Reverend Dwight, who served twenty-two years as president of the bank which he founded, and who died at Geneva in 1857, was one of the notable men of early Ontario County. He came to Geneva in 1817, a native of Massachusetts, and graduate of Yale and Princeton Theological Seminary. This bank eventually became the Geneva National Bank and so continued until October 6, 1923, when the institution, through mismanagement, failed. The bank was re- organized, however, as the National Bank of Geneva in the same year. The Geneva Savings Bank was organized in 1910, and the Geneva Trust Company in 1919.
Two banks were organized in Ontario County in 1907, the Ontario National of Clifton Springs and the bank of George R. Granby & Sons at Naples. The Hiram Maxfield Bank at Naples dates from the year 1882. The Phelps National Bank was insti- tuted in 1910, and the Hamlin National Bank in 1911. The State
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Bank of Shortsville was founded in 1920, and in 1921 the Victor State Bank was established.
The first movement for a public library in Canandaigua occurred in the latter part of 1826, when the Canandaigua Mer- chants' Clerks Library was planned, with a nucleus of fifty books given by William Wood. Nothing came of this library. On May 6, 1859, the Wood Library Association, named in honor of the philanthropist who had died two years before, was organized. The association was first incorporated in 1868 and reincorpo- rated as a free public library in 1896. The Ontario County Historical Society was incorporated in 1902, and now occupies quarters in the Wood Library building.
The first Masonic lodge in Ontario County was Ontario Lodge No. 23, established October 12, 1792, with Timothy Hosmer as the first master. Following the Morgan affair, the Masonic lodges were dissolved in 1826, and no local organization of Ma- sonry existed until 1853, when Canandaigua Lodge No. 294 was instituted. Ontario Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows was started at Canandaigua in 1844, and was disbanded in 1857; the next Odd Fellow lodge was Canandaigua Lodge No. 236, established in 1870.
The first orphan asylum in the village of Canandaigua was that established by St. Mary's church in 1855. The creation of the Ontario Orphan Asylum was through the work of Mrs. George Cook, who was inspired by the need for such an institu- tion after the Civil war. The first meeting held for the pur- pose of establishing this home was in May, 1863, in the chapel of the Congregational Church. The asylum was incorporated in July following, and the Samuel Greenleaf property at the head of Main Street was bought. The formal opening occurred Octo- ber 27, 1863. Numerous bequests, among them one of $80,000 from the late Commodore James Glynn, U. S. N., have provided a generous endowment for this asylum. The Clark Manor House, a home for aged people, was established in July, 1899, by Mrs. Mary Clark Thompson in memory of her parents, Myron Holley and Zilpha (Watkins) Clark.
Ontario County has always been known as a rich agricultural region. The first wheat was grown within the confines of the present county in 1790, by Abner Barlow. The first move to
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organize a county agricultural society occurred February 18, 1819, when a meeting was held at the court house, and John Nich- olas elected president, and a committee of one member from each of the then thirty-four towns in the county chosen. The 1819 legislature appropriated $1,000 for premiums to be given by the society. On October 18, 1819, the first fair, stock show and plowing match were held. William Fitzhugh, William Wads- worth, Gideon Granger and John Greig were prominent mem- bers and officers of the agricultural society during its early years.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE COUNTY OF MONROE.
The topographical beauty of Monroe County's 663 square miles of soil, watered by the picturesque Genesee, is a thing of pride. The interesting story of her rocks, her unique land for -- mations and her physical history is given in the geological chap- ter of this work, from the pen of one of the state's foremost geologists; it would be wasteful repetition to attempt further com -. ment here. Nevertheless, the reader of today will find it worth. while to note the description given of this land a century ago. In the first Rochester directory, published by Elisha Ely in 1827,. the natural features of the county are thus described :
"The tract of country now forming the County of Monroe extends along the southern shore of Lake Ontario about twenty -. one miles west and fourteen east of the Genesee River; its breadth southward from the lake being about twenty-two miles. The. shore of the lake is indented with numerous bays and inlets, of which Irondequoit Bay east and Braddock's Bay west of the river, are the most considerable. On the borders of the Ironde- quoit and the creek of the same name, which discharges itself here, the surface presents a most extraordinary and picturesque appearance. It consists of a multitude of conical or irregular mounds of sand and light earth, sometimes insulated and some- times united, rising to an average height of 200 feet from a perfectly level meadow of the richest alluvial loam. The rest of the country is diversified with gentle undulations retaining the remnants of their dense forests of beech, maple and oak on a deep yellow loam covered with six to ten inches of black vegetable earth-some light and sandy plains supporting alternately the oak and pine-a portion of the land called 'Oak Openings,' or- sparse and scattering oak woods, on a solid calcareous gravel, and sometimes a lighter sand mixed with clay-occasional patches :
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of black ash swale and pine swamp-and along the river and creeks winding flats of the richest vegetable composition."
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, came to Irondequoit Bay in August, 1669. He had with him twenty-four men, including two Sulpician priests. La Salle was then diligently searching for a route to the Ohio River. In this vicinity he and his party remained for a month at the Indian village of Gannagaro, near the village of Victor. He came again to this region nine years later. Denonville landed at Irondequoit Bay in July, 1687, and there he constructed a small fortification prior to marching into the Seneca country. The Indian trade naturally was the prize sought by both the French and English during this early period. Fort des Sables was built in 1716 by the French on the west side of Irondequoit Bay, about where Sea Breeze resort is located. This displeased the British. In 1721 the New York assembly authorized a trading post on the west side of Irondequoit Creek and Governor Burnet approved an appropriation of 500 pounds for that purpose; he also sent a small company of volunteers, commanded by Captain Peter Schuyler, Jr., to establish the post. The object was to further the trade with the Senecas and to com- pete with the French. These different maneuvers on the part of the rival nations were not concerned with the permanent settle- ment; today they would be termed business campaigns.
Not until after the Revolution did permanent settlers come into the Genesee Country. We have noted the career of "Indian" Allan, who must be credited with having been one of the first set- tlers within what is now Monroe County. He cleared space enough for a small cabin near Scottsville and laid claim to nearly 500 acres. He sold this tract to Peter Sheffer when he came to the Falls to construct his mill. Sheffer was from Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania, and had with him his two sons-Peter and Jacob. A few months before the advent of the Sheffers, in 1789, a company com- posed of Caleb Hyde, John Lusk, Enos Stone, Job Gilbert and a few others, of Lenox, Massachusetts, bought 1,500 acres near the head of Irondequoit Bay. Lusk, accompanied by his son, Stephen, a lad of fifteen, built a home and sowed a few acres of wheat, the seed for which he obtained from Allan. Lusk brought his family out the following spring and shortly afterward built the first distillery and opened the first tannery within the present limits of Monroe County. In 1807 he moved to the town of Pitts-
SECOND MONROE COUNTY COURT HOUSE
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ford, where he continued making leather and whiskey until his death in 1814, at the age of sixty-six years. In the spring of 1790 the Schoonovers settled on Dugan's Creek, near the Sheffers. Young Peter Sheffer quickly found favor in the eyes of Elizabeth Schoonover and before the close of the year they were married, which is said to have been one of the first marriages within the county limits. Peter Sheffer, the elder, constructed one of the first frame houses in the western part of the county in 1797, and in this dwelling the first town meeting west of the Genesee was held. Sheffer brought his lumber from the mill at the falls and obtained his glass from Geneva.
The history of the settlement at Charlotte, the story of Wil- liam Hincher, the Grangers, King's Landing and Hanford's Land- ing, appear in the early settlement chapter of Rochester.
The date of the coming of Salmon Tryon from Ballston, New York, has been variously stated as 1794 and 1795. He purchased land on the Irondequoit from John Lusk and laid out the city of Tryon near the old Indian landing. In August, 1795, according to one record, he sold a lot to Abraham Harding, who was an ancestor of the late President Warren G. Harding. Salmon Tryon parted with his holdings here in 1797 to John Tryon, who opened a store about two years later, said to be the first mercan- tile establishment in what is now Monroe County. So far as known, John Tryon was not related to Salmon Tryon. Asa Day- ton, a mulatto, kept a tavern, which was well patronized. The village of Tryon for a few years thrived and was the shipping point of considerable merchandise and flour to Canadian ports, but soon after the village of Rochesterville began to develop, its importance ceased. Most of the substantial settlers who had located in the vicinity moved into other parts of the county. On the meager books kept by John Tryon at his store are found such names as William Davis, Josiah Fisk, Polly Hopkins, Silas Losey, the Hinchers, Glover Perrin, Pioneer Seth Perrinton, Captain Benjamin Pierson, Captain Simon Stone, Ezekiel Taylor, James Wadsworth, Moses Taylor, Lewis Morgan, Isaac Stone, Joel Scud- der, Nathan Fisk, Job Northrup, Oliver Phelps, Giles Blodgett, Major William Shephard, Captain Silas Nye, Caleb Hopkins, Joseph Palmer, Otis Walker, Reuben D. Hart, Samuel Lattie, Rufus Messenger, Caleb Martin, Nathan Nye, Leonard Stone-
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burner, Orringh Stone, John Strowger, Abner White, Ruth North- rup, Miles Northrup and Augustus Griswold. Many of these men were from distant points, some of them navigators on the lake, but most of them lived within easy distance of the village of Tryon.
By the year 1815 there were several hundred inhabitants within the present limits of Monroe County. The territory com- prising the county was included in the Phelps and Gorham Pur- chase of 1788, and was made a part of Ontario County in January, 1789. That part west of the Genesee River was taken to form Genesee County in 1802. Batavia and Canandaigua were the county seats of Genesee and Ontario counties, respectively, and the collective population of the two counties in 1816 closely ap- proached 80,000. The citizens of Rochester, situated midway be- tween the two, had to go to one or the other to transact county business and for court purposes. The long distances to be traveled over bad roads naturally created a desire for a new county ; more- over, Rochester people felt a justifiable pride in their growing community and its increasing importance as a grain center. To be hampered by a remote county connection was awkward and undesirable. In December, 1816, the matter of separation began to be agitated. Subscriptions were taken for the building of a court house and jail "provided the legislature should erect a new county." In 1816 a petition signed by several hundred of the voters and taxpayers was prepared, asking for the establishment of a county. Colonel Nathaniel Rochester and Dr. Matthew Brown, Jr., were selected as agents for the petitioners, and early in 1817 they went to Albany to present the plan to the legis- lature, but the lawmakers from Genesee and Ontario counties opposed the project so vigorously that it was defeated. Rochester and Brown did secure the incorporation of Rochesterville at this time.
Similar petitions in 1818 and 1819 had no better result. In January, 1819, Elisha Ely, Roswell Babbitt, Elisha Johnson and Doctor Brown went to Albany and again presented the matter to the legislature. The bill was referred to a committee and became hopelessly enmeshed in "red tape." In fact, the scheme of the Rochesterians for a separate county had become a political foot- ball, the Senate and Assembly were antagonistic, and Colonel
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Rochester, Ely and the other influential men of this section could not overcome this settled opposition. In January, 1820, Levi Ward, Elisha Ely and Enos Pomeroy journeyed to Albany, with like result.
On August 23, 1820, a meeting of citizens was held at Roch- ester and a resolution adopted favoring another venture. This time the petitioners were more urgent in their request. They set forth that the counties of Ontario and Genesee contained a popu- lation of more than 80,000; that many of the residents were sub- jected to "great inconvenience, trouble and expense in transacting business with the public offices and courts; that cases are often adjourned from term to term, making it necessary for parties and witnesses to repeat the toilsome journey ; and that often this jour- ney had to be made by persons who had no other business in the county seat except attendance upon the court." Another reason assigned for the creation of a new county was that the court dockets of Genesee and Ontario were crowded, and that new courts would relieve this congestion. It was further made to appear that at the falls of the Genesee there were five flour mills, with an annual capacity of 23,648 barrels; that there were 256 arrivals and departures of lake vessels in 1820, and that the ex- ports of grain, flour, lumber, whiskey, pork and dairy products amounted to $400,000 in the preceding year.
On October 28, 1820, Colonel Rochester and Elisha B. Strong were appointed agents to present the petition to the legislature. No name for the proposed county was suggested in the petition, but, as James Monroe had just been elected President for his second term, Rochester and Strong advised "Monroe." Assembly- men John C. Spencer and Myron Holley, of Ontario County, and Samuel M. Hopkins, of Genesee County, led the opposition. They argued that it would be a great mistake to erect a county with territory lying on both sides of the Genesee River; that it would be needless and unjust, in time of financial depression, to impose upon the citizens of the proposed county the expense of erecting new buildings for public use ; that it would be unwise to make any division of the territory until after the completion of the Erie Canal, and that the larger the counties the more easily titles could be examined. Notwithstanding that the petition bore the names of several thousand citizens, these gentlemen insisted that the
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inhabitants did not really desire a new county, but had been in- duced to sign by a few who held large landed interests, the value of which would be greatly enhanced by the erection of a new county. They derisively referred to Rochester as "Shingletown," and declared that there were numerous villages better adapted for a county seat. The county officers in Genesee and Ontario were active in their efforts to defeat the bill. Peck states: "The judge of the county court of Ontario County opened his court at sunrise and continued the sessions day after day until late at night, giving those in attendance scarcely time for food or sleep. His calendar was soon exhausted. The people of Canandaigua were highly elated and boasted that the evils complained of were only imaginary, and that any court anxious to complete what business was before it could easily do so. The county clerks kept their offices open early and late."
On February 13, 1821, Colonel Rochester wrote a lengthy letter to Abelard Reynolds, stating the various schemes launched to defeat the bill. Among other things he wrote: "Our opponents are now turning their attention to take from Monroe the whole of Caledonia and Rush, together with Penfield and Perrinton, so as to destroy our application in that way if they cannot in any other. They urge that as we take the breadth of three towns west of the Genesee River, we shall have territory enough along the lake without Penfield and Perrinton, and that these two towns will be wanted to make a respectable county east of us. Mr. Holley is at the bottom of this project, with a view to making Palmyra a center for such county, where he has a store and con- templates settling (as I am informed) ; he will be supported in this measure by Spencer, Hopkins, the Palmyrians, etc. Hopkins and Ganson are at the bottom of the other project and will be sup- ported by both the Spencers, Holley, etc. Mr. Strong and myself have to contend with a great deal of management and intrigue and what will be the result of our application is uncertain. I do not despair, however, of success before the end of the session, not- withstanding the different plans to defeat us."
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