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 II > Part 13
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editor, printer, solicitor and devil, and then Thurlow Weed came to Rochester from New England and applied, successfully, for a job with Editor Peck. By 1825 he owned the paper. The original editor entered other fields, in which he was notably successful throughout a long life. Thurlow Weed, as a journalist, was a genius, and he was destined to become a national figure in the Fourth Estate. He remained in Rochester only until 1827, when opportunity beckoned from larger and more fertile fields. Hav- ing previously disposed of an interest in the Telegraph to Robert Martin in the year mentioned, he sold out completely and removed to Albany to assume the editorship of the Evening Journal in the capital city. It is worth while to mention that Weed stayed with that paper over four decades and became a power of the first magnitude in New York politics. He was a person of influence in Rochester, and history records that his little home-town sheet here was the first newspaper in the United States to mention John Quincy Adams for the presidency, a coup executed by Weed, who was acting as Albany correspondent for his own publication. Thurlow Weed having severed his connection with the Telegraph, this paper was continued for two years, during which period it absorbed the Album, which had been started two years previously by Marshall, Spaulding & Hunt. In 1829 the Telegraph was merged with the Advertiser, which paper was the progenitor of a line of publications reaching down to The Rochester Times- Union of today.
The Advertiser, in addition to its reputation of having been a vital force as a Democratic organ in its heyday, was the first daily west of Albany in the country, and is still in existence, though, of course, under a different title. The first number of the Adver- tiser came off the press October 25, 1826, under the proprietor- ship of Luther Tucker & Company. A weekly, called the Mer- cury, was born at the same time. With the acquisition of the Telegraph in 1829, the name of the weekly became the Republican. The firm of Hoyt & Porter was the next in charge of the Adver- tiser, and in 1840 Thomas H. Hyatt bought the concern. Then followed, in short order, a succession of owners, namely: Hiram Bumphrey, Cephas S. McConnell, Joseph Curtis, Isaac Butts and Harvey L. Winants. In 1848 the Courier was established as an opposition paper, to take the Cass and Butler side of the political
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controversy that year, the cause of Van Buren and Adams having been championed by the Advertiser. After the election the two newspapers were merged, the title of Advertiser being retained. Shortly before 1850 the paper was changed from a morning to an evening edition, and in 1851 Thomas H. Hyatt obtained a con- trolling interest in the business. On August 16, 1852, during the heat of the presidential campaign of that year, the Daily Union came into existence under the management of Jarvis M. Hatch, Orsamus Turner and George G. Cooper, former editorial writers on the short-lived Times. For five years the Advertiser and the Union existed independently as Democratic dailies, but the fact became evident that they could not both be profitably supported. They were accordingly merged under the official title of The Union & Advertiser, with Messrs. Butts, Curtis and Morey as the publishers. Mr. Butts sold his interest in 1864 to William Pur- cell, George G. Cooper and Lorenzo Kelly, and the firm became known as Curtis, Morey & Company. Purcell became the editor. Eventually the paper came under the management of the Union & Advertiser Company, of which Eugene T. Curtis was president, Thomas Flannery vice president, and Wendell J. Curtis secretary and treasurer. From 1908 until the time of its consolidation with the Times the officers were Wendell J. Curtis, president and treas- urer; Wendell J. Curtis, Jr., vice president, and Albert M. Flan- nery, secretary.
On March 10, 1918, the Union and Advertiser was consoli- dated with the Evening Times to form the present evening daily, The Times-Union. It is well at this point to digress a bit to trace the development of The Evening Times.
On November 7, 1887, there was issued a daily in Rochester entitled the Appeal, said to have been the organ of the striking printers of the day. The sheet met with instant success and a week later made its appearance under the name of the Times, with Louis A. Esson as editor. Several changes of ownership followed, the name was successively changed to the Daily Times, the Roch- ester Times, and finally on March 1, 1889, to The Evening Times, at which time John E. Morey and S. Powell Puffer came into pos- session of the paper. Morey was president until the consolida- tion with the Union and Advertiser.
From March, 1918, until January, 1924, the officers of the
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Rochester Times-Union were Frank E. Gannett, president ; Wood- ford J. Copeland, vice president; Erwin R. Davenport, secretary and treasurer; Roy C. Kates and John E. Morey, in addition, as directors. Since January, 1924, the officers have been Frank E. Gannett, president; J. Arnot Rathbone, vice president; Roy C. Kates, secretary; Douglas C. Townson, treasurer; and John E. Morey, additional director.
The morning daily-the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle- at this writing bears on its first page the words "93d Year." In January, 1828, D. D. Stephenson began a movement to establish a newspaper, and, on March 8th, the first number of the Rochester Balance and Western General Wanderer was issued by the firm of D. D. Stephenson & Company. A few months later the prop- erty passed into the hands of Thurlow Weed and Samuel Heron, whereupon the name of the paper was changed to the Anti- Masonic Inquirer. Weed dropped out in 1830, and thereafter for a period of several months the paper was conducted by Daniel N. Sprague. In 1831, on October 20th, the sheet was bought by Erastus Shepard, who came here from Palmyra with his Spec- tator and Anti-Masonic Star and merged them with his new pur- chase. In November, 1832, Alvah Strong was admitted as a partner and the firm became Shepard & Strong. On February 8, 1834, the Anti-Masonic Inquirer absorbed the National Republi- can and the name of the weekly changed to the Monroe Democrat. (For the sake of clearness it is well to repeat here that the Na- tional Republican was begun by Sidney Smith as a weekly in the spring of 1831, and the same editor began the issue of a daily on January 1, 1833, known as The Morning Advertiser. The morn- ing paper, upon the absorption of the Republican by the Anti- Masonic Inquirer, was renamed the Daily Democrat. )
On May 1, 1836, George Dawson bought an interest in the Democrat, became editor, and the firm was then Shepard, Strong & Dawson. August 8, 1837, witnessed the removal of the plant. to a stone building on the corner of State and Main streets (El- wood Building site). In August, 1839, Dawson sold his interest. to his partners; three years later Shepard & Strong dissolved partnership, and at the same time Dawson reentered the business by buying Shepard's half interest, the firm then being Strong & Dawson.
The year 1846 brought disaster to the plant of the Democrat,
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when, on May 1st, fire destroyed the stone building in which the paper was quartered. A new location was immediately found in the rear of the Reynolds Arcade. In the latter part of this year, also, the new firm of A. Strong & Company was announced, Editor Dawson having sold his interest to Henry Cook and Samuel P. Allen. It is an interesting fact that in June of this year the first through telegraphic dispatch was received by the Democrat. On May 11, 1847, the paper was moved the second time to the new Burns Building, on the site of the stone building which had burned. Edward T. Huntington became one of the proprietors of the publication January 1, 1850; Henry Cook died three weeks later, and shortly after Alvah Strong purchased his interest from Mrs. Cook. Still another removal of the plant was made April 11, 1856, this time to the new Eagle Bank Building, at the corner of Main and Exchange streets (Wilder Building site). However, for the second time, fire was to destroy the Democrat offices; the conflagration occurred November 21, 1857, but such was the efficiency of the staff that not a day of publication was lost.
On December 5, 1857, the Democrat purchased the plant and good will of The Daily American and occupied its quarters in the Thalman Block, opposite the Reynolds Arcade, and now the site of the Central Bank Building. At the same time the name of the paper was changed to the Rochester Democrat and American. (The Daily American had been started December 23, 1844, by Leonard Jerome and Josiah Patterson, with Alexander Mann as editor. Two years later the firm of Jerome & Brother, consisting of Leonard and Lawrence Jerome, became the owners. Just be- fore its absorption by the Democrat, Chester P. Dewey was editor and proprietor of the American.)
After the various business changes mentioned, the new paper -the Democrat and American-was issued by the firm of Strong, Allen & Huntington, which persisted until 1864. On April 1st of this year the business was bought by William S. King, of the State of Minnesota. During the previous year the Democrat and Amer- ican owners had purchased from Dewey N. Walbridge a part of the Eagle Hotel property (now a portion of the Powers Building site), and thereon erected a building, from which publication was begun January 1, 1864.
With the advent of Mr. King, the title of the newspaper again
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became just the Democrat, the "American" having been dropped. At the beginning of the year 1865 a new firm assumed control, composed of Dyer D. S. Brown, Alonzo Chapman and William S. King, and styled D. D. S. Brown & Company. By December 6th following Brown became sole owner.
Destructive fires were apparently destined to be a regular occurrence in the career of the early Democrat, for on December 19, 1868, flames again visited the home of the paper, when the Eagle Hotel Block was destroyed. By the 30th of the same month, however, the paper was being issued from a new location, at Main and Graves streets. W. H. Mathews was admitted to part- nership with the beginning of 1870. On November 1st of this year The Rochester Printing Company was organized, and to it was transferred the properties of two papers, the Democrat and the Rochester Chronicle. December 1st the first number of The Democrat and Chronicle was issued, with Stephen C. Hutchins as editor. The Chronicle was started in November, 1868, by Louis Selye, who had been elected to Congress and desired a newspaper in the local field to represent his cause. Mr. Selye failed to make a profit from his sheet, and in November, 1870, he sold the prop- erty to Freeman Clarke, who disposed of it to the Democrat, as above stated. The new paper was soon to be baptized in fire, as its predecessor had been many times; this fourth blaze occurred December 26, 1870, and in the month following the company bought the Pool Building, at the rear of the Main Street property and facing Graves Street. The year 1873 brought two new editor- in-chiefs in succession, Joseph O'Connor and Charles E. Fitch. Beginning July 20, 1879, and continuing until June 29, 1890, a Sunday newspaper was issued by the printing company; it was resumed January 7, 1894, and on February 4, 1906, the first colored supplement was published in Rochester. Ernest R. Wil- lard became editor of the Democrat and Chronicle in 1890 and continued as such for twenty years, when he was succeeded by Oliver S. Adams. Allan C. Ross assumed the chair of editor-in- chief in January, 1925. In 1921 W. Henry Mathews retired as president of the Rochester Printing Company and was succeeded by Herbert J. Winn. New editorial quarters were occupied on the fifth floor of the Main Street building, when it was constructed in 1922, and in 1923 the new business office was also occupied.
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In the fall of 1859 Charles W. Hebard established a news- paper called the Times, although he changed the name very shortly to The Evening Express. The avowed purpose of the sheet at the beginning was to provide an organ for the working class, and, in harmony with this intention, it was started as a penny paper, although the price was later raised to 2 cents. Within a few months after its inception, Francis S. Rew, Clark D. Tracy and William H. Beach joined Hebard in the conduct of the paper, and, in 1865, A. Carter Wilder and his brother, D. Web- ster, bought a half interest; their connection, however, was short- lived. Then, until 1874, the paper was issued by the firm of Tracy & Rew, and in that year a stock company was formed, con- sisting of Tracy, Rew, George H. Ellwanger and William C. Crum. The last named remained but a short time. Eight years later a syndicate bought the property and gave the name of the Post Express to the publication. There were a number of changes in editorial and business management and eventually George T. Lanigan became the editor, and was succeeded in a year by Isaac H. Bromley. Notable among those who served were William Mill Butler and Joseph O'Connor. A reorganization of the company occurred in 1889, and again in 1894, when the paper was taken over by William S. Kimball and his partners. It was thereafter issued by The Post Express Printing Company.
William Randolph Hearst issued the first number of the Roch- ester American June 25, 1922. On September 11, 1922, the Eve- ning Journal made its appearance under the Hearst banner. On July 15, 1923, Mr. Hearst took over The Post Express and com- bined it with his own paper, the first issue under the title of Journal and Post Express appearing at that time. The Sunday American and this daily are now issued by the Rochester News Corporation, of which Mr. Hearst is president.
The daily morning newspaper known as The Rochester Herald was founded August 5, 1879, as the Rochester Morning Herald, the "Morning" having been dropped from the title in 1892. The publication was established by a stock company, the members of which and their positions on the staff having been as follows: Samuel D. Lee, managing editor; Samuel H. Lowe, chief editorial writer; C. Smith Benjamin, city editor; Frank T. Skinner, busi- ness manager ; D. S. Barber, mechanical foreman; Fred M. South-
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gate, assistant foreman. Later Jacob A. Hoekstra was taken in as a stockholder and became city editor. The Herald was the first 2-cent newspaper in Rochester. Quarters were originally found in the Reynolds Arcade, and on March 1, 1882, the plant was moved to 30 and 42 Exchange Street. The equipment was con- siderably enlarged and the size of the paper increased; a Sunday edition was added, and by many Rochester readers was confused with the Sunday Morning Herald, an entirely different publica- tion, which was also issued in the city. For thirteen years the original group of founders conducted the Herald without a change in business personnel. In March, 1892, the paper was sold, and on April 1st following was issued by The Rochester Herald Pub- lishing Company, Ltd., of which Gilman H. Perkins was presi- dent; Henry D. McNaughton, vice president, and John E. Morey, secretary and treasurer.
On November 1, 1892, Mr. Morey retired from the company and Harold P. Brewster succeeded him as secretary and treas- urer. One year later Mr. Morey was again taken into the com- pany, this time as president. The other officers then were Henry D. McNaughton, vice president; Marcenus H. Briggs, secretary ; Harold P. Brewster, treasurer. Subsequently Morey, McNaugh- ton, Briggs and Brewster sold their stock to Erickson Perkins, who became president of the company in 1894, with Louis M. Antisdale as secretary. In 1897 the paper passed to the control of a company whose officers and principal stockholders were John David, William G. David and Clement R. Sherwood. This organi- zation was known as the Flower City Printing Company. In 1898 Louis M. Antisdale bought the interest of C. R. Sherwood and suc- ceeded him as director and editor-in-chief.
In 1899 the present Rochester Herald Company was founded and purchased the entire assets of the Flower City Printing Com- pany. The principal stockholders and officers were John and William G. David, Louis M. Antisdale and Bruce Potter. In August, 1916, Messrs. Antisdale, Potter and Edwin C. Mason acquired the interests of the Davids and the company was re- organized with Antisdale as president, Mason vice president, and Potter treasurer. Mr. Antisdale died in June, 1923, after having served twenty-five years as editor of the Herald. M. Bruce Potter
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succeeded him as president, Edwin C. Mason is now vice presi- dent, and W. DeWitt Manning secretary.
A German paper called the Allgemeine Handelsblatt was established in 1848, but was short-lived. This was followed by the Anzeiger Nordens in 1852, and the Beobachter am Genesee started the same year. The former suspended after about nine years and the latter was consolidated with the Abendpost, which had been started the year before by Julius Stoll. The Abendpost is still published in Rochester.
In addition to the newspapers mentioned, Rochester has a number of other publications of merit and during the years past has had numberless publications of brief existence. The Catholic Journal was founded in 1889; the Labor Herald in 1913; the American Nurseryman in 1904. Most of the general list of weekly and monthly publications are devoted to such interests as trade, commerce, fraternal matters, insurance, sports, education, professional and literary subjects.
13-Vol. 2
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER : COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
The business growth of the city of Rochester, using the term as synonymous with commercial and industrial development, has been remarkable. Rochester at one time was known as the "Flour City," which indicates the then dominant character of her in- dustry. This appellation gradually, and oddly, became meta- morphosed into "Flower City," because of the centralization here of the nursery business. Many have been confused by the two sobriquets. Rochester also has been frequently and aptly called the "Kodak City," for certainly no one thing has carried the name of the place into so many corners of the globe as Kodak. It is to Rochester what Ford is to Detroit-the city's greatest advertise- ment.
Rochester was well started on the road to prosperity shortly after the first settlement, but the opening of the War of 1812 completely demoralized the business of the village. Newcomers hesitated to penetrate this hostile country, and those who were here were more concerned with guarding their personal welfare than in developing the village commerce. With the close of the war, however, the situation underwent a change and settlers came in great numbers. The fortunate location of the place was a strong contributing factor in its rapid growth during the next few decades.
Ira West opened the first store in Rochesterville in 1813, in a small building erected for the purpose by Silas O. Smith. West had previously conducted a store at the old settlement of Tryon, near Irondequoit Bay. Another of the prominent merchants of the early days was Samuel G. Andrews, who came here from Connecticut in 1815. He was elected mayor in 1840 and at the close of his term was appointed postmaster. In 1856 he was again chosen for the mayoralty and during the same year was
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elected to Congress. In addition to his business and political activities, Andrews built mills on the east side of the river. He was one of the founders of St. Luke's Church, in 1817, and the same year he built a large residence on the corner of St. Paul and Andrews streets (the latter named in his honor). This old home was sold in April, 1924, to make room for a commercial building. Through the influence of the Rochester Historical Society, the house was thrown open to the public during the first week in May, before it was demolished. Each visitor received a booklet giving the history of the building and a list of the noted people who had enjoyed its hospitality.
Preston Smith, leader of the first band in Rochester, was a popular pioneer merchant. Sill brothers, George G. and Horace L., opened the first book store. Captain Basil Hall, of the Royal British Navy, in an account of his visit to Rochester in the sum- mer of 1827, makes a survey of the business field there, which includes the names of seventy-four merchants, eighty-four gro- cers, twenty-three clothiers, forty-eight tailors, sixteen goldsmiths and many smaller shopkeepers.
The first factory of any kind within the present limits of the city was the old mill built by Ebenezer Allan and described in a preceding chapter. Its career was closed before the village was platted by Colonel Rochester. At that time the Genesee Valley was recognized as the great wheat field of the country ; the natural water power of the Genesee River offered inducements for the establishment of other flour mills and enterprising pioneers were not hesitant in taking advantage of the situation. Peck, in his History of Rochester, states: "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 great 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 finished product."
Flour mills, however, were not the only manufacturing con- cerns in the early days. Ely's directory of 1827 enumerates more than one hundred. There were barrel factories, blacksmiths, breweries, cabinetmakers, combmakers, cooper shops, copper-
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smiths, cotton mills, distilleries, foundries, gunsmiths, harness shops, hatters, mirror factories, nail mills, oil mills, pail and tub factories, paper factories, plow factories, printing offices, sad- dlers, saw mills, scythe, axe and edge tool works, shoe-last fac- tories, soap and candle factories, stoneware factories, tanneries, trip-hammers, window sash factories and woolen mills. Many of these plants were operated by water power.
From this point the development of Rochester's industries and her growing importance as a commercial center of the Genesee Valley are matters of common knowledge. There are nearly 2,000 manufacturing institutions in the city today, making an endless variety of articles. The wholesaling feature of its business may be mentioned in this connection. Although Rochester is sur- rounded by such mammoth centers as New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, the jobbing trade has grown steadily and there are over 200 companies engaged in this alone. The commodities handled include clothing, coal, confectionery, crockery ware, dental materials, drugs and drug supplies, dry goods, groceries, hardware, leather, lumber, men's furnishings, millinery, notions, paints and varnishes, provisions and shoes. There are also about forty large nurseries in the immediate vicinity, and a number of seed houses which might appropriately be included in the wholesale trade, as their output is shipped to all parts of the United States and Canada. The pioneer nursery firm of the city was Ellwanger & Barry.
The annual pay roll of the Rochester manufactories is in excess of $110,000,000, a truly staggering sum. The city stands fourth in the Union in the manufacture of men's clothing and women's and children's shoes. Manifestly, it would be impossible to present in this brief survey a history of all the hundreds of manufacturing enterprises in Rochester, but there are a few whose magnitude or unusual character deserve more than passing mention. The reader is referred to Volumes III and IV of this work for a detailed mention of others.
Foremost among these institutions is the Eastman Kodak Company, the largest producer of cameras and photographic materials in the world. This tremendous business had its incep- tion in 1878, when George Eastman, then a bank clerk, became interested in amateur photography. During the following two years he spent most of his leisure time in experimenting, with
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the result that the Eastman Dry Plate Company (George East- man and Henry A. Strong) began business in 1880. The first. place of business was a small building on Voight Street, near State. Secret processes were used in the manufacture of gelatine. dry plates, which proved to be a notable improvement over the old. methods. When the company was four years old it employed about forty people, and in 1884 the value of the output was. $300,000. The first Kodak was made in 1888, the term Kodak. having been coined by Mr. Eastman for his new camera.
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