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 14
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Kodak Park, the largest of the four plants in the city, encloses. 230 acres of land, upon which there are 119 buildings having an aggregate floor space of eighty acres. Here are manufactured motion picture films, dry plates, chemicals and developers. The camera works, on State Street, are devoted to the making of the. Kodak and Brownie camera; fully 3,000 people are employed at this plant. At the Hawkeye works, on St. Paul Street, lenses are. produced. The Folmer-Century works, on Caledonia Avenue, is given over to the manufacture of professional apparatus. This includes motion picture cameras, particularly the automatic film camera designed for aerial photography, and which has been adopted by the United States and Canadian governments for topographic and survey work. In addition to the four Rochester plants, the Eastman Company maintains two large laboratories at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and one on Long Island; branches in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco; foreign branches at. Toronto, Canada; London and Harrow, England; Paris, France; Vacz, Hungary; Naples, Italy, and Melbourne, Australia. Alto- gether, nearly 18,000 people are employed by the company.
In the year 1849, John J. Bausch, then nineteen years of age,. came to Rochester from his native city of Würtemburg, Germany. He had been associated with an older brother in the manufacture of optical instruments. In 1853 he formed a partnership with Henry Lomb for the purpose of making such instruments in Roch- ester. Their capital was small and the obstacles many, but through industry and perseverance the firm succeeded in building" up a large business. The Bausch & Lomb Optical Company was incorporated in 1866, and ten years later began the manufacture of microscopes. In 1890 the company came into possession of the- process for making the Zeiss lens, and from that time on the:
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expansion of the business was almost phenomenal. The company was then turning out lenses from one-tenth of an inch in diameter -the smallest used in microscopes-to the large lenses for gov- ernment lighthouses and naval searchlights. During the World war many of the periscopes in United States submarines, binocu- lars, range finders and gunsights for both army and navy were made by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company.
The making of clothing has been one of the principal indus- tries of Rochester for a period extending back to the days of Jehiel Barnard, the first tailor of the city, although the general manufacture of clothing as a business was begun by Meyer Green- tree in 1840. There are now over sixty manufactories of clothing in the city and it ranks fourth in the country in this trade, as already noted.
The first shoemaker was Abner Wakelee. About 1852, the firm of Pancost, Sage & Morse began the manufacture of shoes on a small scale. This modest beginning was the foundation of a development unparalleled. There are only three cities in the country-Brooklyn and Lynn, Massachusetts, and St. Louis, Mis- souri-where more shoes are manufactured than in Rochester. The local factories confine themselves to the production of women's and children's shoes.
Rochester is the home of the largest manufacturer of tele- phones and telephonic apparatus in the United States. This is the Stromberg-Carlson Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1902 with a capital of $3,000,000. This business had its inception with Alfred Stromberg and Androv Carlson, natives of Sweden, where they had learned their trade, and whence they came to Chicago, entering the employ of the Chicago Telephone Company. They formed a co-partnership in 1892 for the manufacture of telephone apparatus in Illinois, and in 1902 moved to Rochester, where ground was purchased and the first factory buildings erected. This, in brief, is the beginning of the vast enterprise which today is the greatest of its kind in the country.
Another of the older manufacturing concerns of the city which has developed a distinctive field of its own is The Todd Company, Inc., formerly the Todd Protectograph Company, manufacturers of check protectors and similar devices. Libanus M. Todd origi- nated the product of this company in 1899 and coined the trade-
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mark name for the "protectograph." The business of this com- pany, with which George W. Todd is also associated, has reached enormous proportions.
Kempshall and Bush established the first foundry in the city of Rochester and the first stoves were made by Bush Brothers. At the present writing there are over fourteen major foundries and forges, forty-five makers of engines and machinery, and more than a score of tool and die works and boiler and tank factories, which will serve to show the growth of this branch of Rochester industry.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER : MEDICAL PROFESSION.
The story of the early physician in the village of Rochester, as in all of western New York, is an enthralling narrative, replete with romance, incidents of courage and hardihood, and an absorb- ing study of character. No legend or tradition of the pioneer community by the falls is without its mention of the malaria, the dreaded ague, the poverty and squalor, all of which did exist here during the formative days. With these conditions the early doc- tor had to cope. His methods were simple, his medicines consisted of a few standard remedies of the time, and quite often his knowl- edge of medical therapeutics was very meager, but he adminis- tered to the sick with a courage and energy unsurpassed. Medical schools were few in number in the early nineteenth century. Con- sequently, doctors often received their professional education under a preceptor, usually a thorough, experienced practitioner of high standing and repute.
The first doctor in Rochester was Jonah Brown, who came to the village in 1813. Unfortunately, we know little of his career, but he died within a short time after coming to the Genesee Coun- try. Dr. Frederick F. Backus came to the village in 1815, having graduated from Yale the previous year, and in his subsequent career he won eminence not only as a practicing physician, but as a public-spirited man. As a member of the State Senate, he secured the establishment of a number of state institutions. In fact, he was the first citizen of Monroe County to be elected state senator. His death occurred in 1858. Dr. John D. Henry was born at Stonington, Connecticut, in 1782, studied medicine with Dr. Joseph White, of Cherry Valley, New York, and graduated in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1818. In 1822 he located in Rochester, where he soon was recog- nized as a leader in his profession. He died in November, 1842.
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Another student of Dr. Joseph White was Dr. Anson Coleman. He began his medical career as a youth of seventeen in his native town of Richfield Springs, New York. He came to Rochester after completing his studies with Doctor White and became a practi- tioner known far and wide. In later life he was offered a chair in the medical college at Geneva, which he was compelled to decline. He passed away in 1837, when only forty-two years of age. Dr. John B. Elwood was born in Montgomery County, New York, in. 1792. He received the degree of M. D. from the Philadelphia. Medical College in 1817 and immediately afterward located in Rochester. He formed a partnership with Doctor Coleman, which lasted several years. In 1829 he was appointed postmaster, but. held the position only about one year. In 1847 he was elected mayor. His death occurred in May, 1877.
In 1821, when a county medical society was organized, the following subscribed their names as practicing physicians in this. vicinity : Joseph Loomas, Nathaniel Rowell, James Scott, Allen Almy, Daniel Durfee, Daniel Weston, Isaac Chichester, Alexander Kelsey, John Cobb Jr., John G. Vought, Chauncey Beadle, Theo- philus Randall, Frederick F. Backus, Ebenezer Burnham Jr., Samuel B. Bradley and Ezekiel Harmon. A year later the fol- lowing were recognized by the society: Anson Coleman, Ezra Strong, David Gregory, William H. Morgan, Linus Stevens, O. E. Gibbs, James Holton, William Gildersleeve, J. B. Elwood, Berke- ley Gillette, George Marion and Barzallai Bush. A number of the above were living in the county outside of Rochester, but in those days the field of practice covered a wide district. Of the. group named, records seem to show that only Backus, Morgan, Marion and Bush were holders of the M. D. degree.
Dr. E. W. Armstrong was another early physician of Roch- ester. He was a Canadian by birth and practiced in the city from. 1837 until his death in 1877, at the advanced age of eighty-eight. Dr. William W. Reid, a graduate of Boston Medical College, was another prominent physician in the early days. Dr. Theodore. Francis Hall began his work here in 1856, served with the Union. army during the Civil war, and died in 1869. Dr. Hugh Bradley, who settled in Rochester in 1834, was a native of Scotland, where. he received his professional education and where he practiced for a number of years before coming to America. He remained here:
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until his death in 1883. One of the most notable of the German doctors in Rochester during the last generation was Louis A. Kuichling, a native of the Fatherland, and a man of wide educa- tion in foreign schools. He escaped as a fugitive from Germany, due to his participation in the revolution of 1848. He was en- gaged in professional work in Rochester many years. Dr. William W. Ely, a Connecticut Yankee, came to Rochester in 1838 and became a very popular physician. Dr. Henry W. Dean, who settled in Rochester in the early '40s, had his degree from the Geneva Medical College and practiced in the city until his death in 1878. Dr. John F. Whitbeck, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, practiced in Lima and Avon for a time before com- ing to Rochester some time in the decade between 1840 and 1850. He was an army surgeon for a year during the rebellion. One of the most distinguished of the early doctors of Rochester was Ed- ward M. Moore. A native of New Jersey, he attended Rensselaer Institute of Troy, New York, and began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Anson Coleman at Rochester in 1835. He com- pleted his professional training at the University of Pennsylvania and returned to Rochester in 1840. He held important positions in surgery at various schools and during his career served as president of the county, city, state and national medical associa- tions, as well as of a number of other prominent organizations. He passed away in 1902, after a life of notable achievement in the field of surgery. Dr. E. G. Munn came here in 1837 and became widely reputed as an ophthalmologist; he died ten years after his arrival. Dr. Harvey F. Montgomery, a grandson of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, practiced here from 1842 until 1884, the year of his death. Dr. George G. Carroll began his professional career here about 1870; his death occurred in 1905. Dr. Louis A. Weigel returned from medical school in Maryland in 1875. He experimented much with the Roentgen ray and eventually became its victim, suffering the amputation of both hands. He died in 1906, after a lift of accomplishment despite the handicap placed upon him. Dr. Jonas Jones began his work in the city in 1867 and continued until his death in 1892.
The roll of physicians who have practiced in the city of Roches- ter is long. Hundreds have done their part in maintaining the high standard of the profession. It is regrettable that all cannot
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be mentioned within the limited field of this survey, but they are typified in the brief description of those who were especially prominent during the first fifty years of Rochester's existence. They laid the foundation for the honored traditions of the pro- fession.
In 1853 the first Rochester medical society was organized, but after a few meetings it disbanded. It was reorganized, however, February 14, 1866, with Dr. John F. Whitbeck president and Dr. Charles E. Rider secretary and treasurer. It was active for about ten years and again subsided. The Rochester Pathological Society dates back to 1870, when a group of young physicians began to hold regular meetings for the discussion of pathological subjects. The society was incorporated on May 25, 1889. No records were kept prior to 1876. In that year Dr. T. A. O'Hare was elected president; Dr. B. I. Preston, vice president ; Dr. L. A. Weigel, secretary, and Dr. Charles Bulkley, treasurer.
On July 10, 1899, the Rochester Academy of Medicine was formed, with Dr. W. S. Ely, president; Dr. H. T. Williams, secre- tary, and Dr. Edward B. Angell, treasurer. This institution was the outgrowth of a movement started in 1892, when Dr. John O. Roe and others made an arrangement with the Reynolds library to establish and care for a medical department. The library board and the Monroe County Medical Society appropriated funds for the purchase of standard medical works, and many physicians contributed to the library, both by money and books. After the Academy of Medicine was organized, it became the custodian of the library.
The Monroe County Homeopathic Medical Society, founded in 1866, has been described in another chapter of this volume. In 1886 the Rochester Hahnemann Society was organized for the study of homeopathic medicine. The Rochester Medical Associa- tion was incorporated in 1914. The existing associations have the earnest support of the profession.
The largest hospital in the city at the present time is the Gen- eral Hospital, whose beginnings may be traced back to 1845, when an organization of women rented quarters and opened a hospital for friendless sick people. This was the City Hospital, which was incorporated in May, 1847. Subsequently the municipal council donated the old cemetery lot on West Main Street and the first
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building thereon was completed in the fall of 1862. Improve- ments and new buildings were, from time to time, added to the institution which thus became the Rochester General Hospital. Ambulance service was introduced in 1896 and, three years later, the first nurses' home was opened with the gift by James C. Hart of a building as a memorial to his wife. In 1925 a second and larger nurses' home was added.
St. Mary's Hospital was established by the Sisters of Charity in 1857, the first patients having been received on the 8th of September. The next year a large addition was constructed and the main building of the present hospital was erected in 1862. In February, 1891, the hospital buildings were almost entirely de- stroyed by fire and a new hospital, with accommodations for three hundred patients, was built upon the site.
The Homeopathic Hospital was incorporated May 25, 1887, but was not opened until September 18, 1889. This was the first hospital in Rochester to establish a training school for nurses, and, in April, 1890, a free dispensary was opened. Extensive building additions for this popular institution are planned for the year 1925.
In July, 1887, the Infants Summer Hospital was opened at Ontario Beach. Permanent buildings were erected the next year on land donated by H. S. Greenleaf. It is recognized that the con- ception of this institution originated with Dr. Edward M. Moore. In 1900 Louis N. Stein built and donated a nurses' home, and the late Frederick Cook bequeathed $10,000 to the hospital.
CHAPTER XXX. LIVINGSTON COUNTY : INDIANS AND EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The Indians residing along the Genesee River were known to the Jesuits as the Senecas of the Je-nis-hi-yuh,1 and were noted for their thrift and husbandry * as well as for their warlike deeds. The corn grown by them was of a superior qual- ity. In destroying their crops General Sullivan's soldiers found ears of their grain full twenty-two inches in length, and the first sweet corn ever seen in New England was carried thither, it is said, in a soldier's knapsack from Beardstown in 1779. Squashes, beans and melons were also raised in great abundance. Orchards of apple and peach trees, produced from seeds or sprouts, grew near every village, their location being still marked, here and there, by an apple tree; and sometimes a small group remains, which escaped destruction from Sullivan's soldiers. Peas, too, had been introduced, and there was no lack of wild fruits, such as plums, grapes, and cranberries. Tobacco was successfully raised by the Indians here. Indeed, the natives considered the quality of their article produced by our rich, warm valley soil so fine that they gave it a name signifying "the only tobacco." In- dian cultivation, however, embraced but a very limited share of the territory, for, beyond an occasional spot on the river flats, tilled by squaws, this region remained essentially a wilderness until the advent of the whites.
"The Senecas were not only the most populous nation of the League, but were foremost on the warpath and first in warlike deeds. They gloried in their natural title of Ho-ran-ne-ho-ont, or 'the doorkeepers,' for, as guardians of the upper entrance, they stood interposed as a living barrier between the hostile natives of the west, and the eastern tribes of the confederacy. And in later
1 Doty's History of Livingston County, whose author there gives these variants of the word, as written by the Jesuits and others: Jo-nis-hi-yuh, Chenussio, Cenosio, Chinossia, Jenesio, Chenessios, Tsinusios, Tsinontouans, Sinnodowane.
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times they proved a safeguard to the whites from incursions of the French and allies of the latter. The Senecas not only defended the western door, but often, on their own account, carried their arms into the country of the southern and western nations, while 'other tribes sat smoking in quiet on their mats'."2
We shall refer briefly to some of the principal Seneca towns in the county as the same were occupied before the white settlers displaced them. Dyu-do-o-sut, meaning "at the spring," was one of the four villages destroyed by Denonville, and was located very near the Avon and Lima town line and about two miles north of Livonia Station, and six miles distant from Totiakton. In 1677 there were twenty-four houses here. Denonville destroyed all the houses and crops stored here and "a vast quantity of hogs." "In- fluenced by superstition, never a solitary hut was rebuilt, but the Senecas sought now the banks of the Genesee, along which they reared their villages, and for ninety years remained undisputed masters of the region."
Can-a-waugus (also written Ca-no-wa-gas and Ga-no-wa-gas, meaning "stinking water") was on the west bank of the Genesee River opposite the Avon sulphur springs; it was the farthest north of all the river towns, and the great trail between the Hud- son and Niagara rivers passed through it, as did the principal pathway leading from the falls at Rochester to the homes of the tribes on the upper Genesee. Colonel Hosmer said that at the period of its greatest importance its population was about one thousand, and he recalled the council house location in the village, which he described as follows: "The building was low and about sixty feet in length. In the center of the roof, which was bark bent to a rounded form over the ridge pole, was an open place for the escape of smoke, when the elders of the tribe convened. Here Cornplanter and his half-brother, Handsome Lake, the peace prophet, were born and here the latter received his revelation and here often came the wise men of the Senecas to counsel with these and other noted residents."
Dyu-ne-ga-nooh, meaning "clear, cold water," was near the northwest margin of the great spring at Caledonia, and here stood the "fatal post to which the condemned prisoner was fast-
2 Doty's History of Livingston County.
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ened for torture, and hither from other Seneca towns were brought captives of consequence, prisoners of state."
O-ha-gi was on the west side of the river in the town of York, a mile or so north of Big Tree Town.
Ga-on-do-wa-nuh, also west of the river, was the village of Big Tree, a Seneca chieftain of great influence and one of the few friends of the American settlers in pioneer days. A mile north on the east bank of the river stood the traditional great oak and directly to the east of the present village of Geneseo. While the tree is supposed to have given the name of the village on the east shore of the river, it is believed that it took its name as a matter of fact from the chief.
Beardstown, or Little Beardstown (Dyu-non-dah-ga-eeh), meaning "where the hill lies upon it," was the Seneca town of greatest importance, known to General Sullivan in his expedition in 1779 as the Genesee Castle, the capital of the western Indians, and his final destination. It occupied the eastern part of the site of Cuylerville . "Here lived the noted chieftain, Little Beard, and about him had gathered the wise and the brave of his tribesmen. Here were planned their forays and here they met for consulta- tion, and, whenever the Senecas were summoned to the warpath, the Beardstown braves were always among the foremost. Quar- tered for security at this village for months, perhaps for years after the Revolution began, were families from Nunda and other outlying towns, while their natural protectors were absent haras- sing the eastern settlements, and from this spot went out Brant and the Butlers to the massacre of Wyoming, and to engage in other bloody work. From this spot, too, in the rain of an autumn day, fled the panic-stricken women, children and old men of the Senecas, and others who had sought its asylum, to escape the 'Yankee army' when it broke camp at Conesus lake," and which was on its way to avenge the torture of Boyd and Parker, which occurred in the village on Monday, September 15th.
De-yu-it-ga-oh, meaning "where the village begins to expand or widen out," known to the whites as Squawkie Hill, was on the west side of the river opposite Mount Morris. A part of the log hut of Thomas Jemison, grandson of the White Woman, is still standing on the east side of the upper road leading from Mount Morris to Leicester Village.
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O-non-da-oh (meaning "where many hills come together," also written Nundow and Nundey) was near the present village of Nunda, although about two miles nearer the river than the latter place.
Ga-da-oh was on the river and within the Gardow reservation, granted to Mary Jemison at the Big Tree Treaty of 1797.
Ga-nos-ga-go occupied the site of the present village of Dans- ville, and was an Indian town of small importance.
Sho-no-jo-waah-geh (meaning "the town of Big Kettle") oc- cupied both sides of Damon's Creek, which runs on the northerly edge of the village of Mount Morris.
Gah-nyuh-sas, or Conesus, was a small Seneca town, half a mile south of the head of Conesus Lake. Sullivan's army camped here on its invading march to Genesee Castle.
Dyu-hak-gaih, a village of the Oneida Indians, located on the east side of the river a mile or so below the bridge at Geneseo.
Jo-nis-hi-yuh, supposed to have been located near the Spring lot east of Mill Street in Geneseo Village.
Gan-she-gweh-oh was at the confluence of the Genesee River and Canaseraga Creek opposite Williamsburg, on the east side of the river.
Sga-his-ga-aah, meaning "it was a long creek," was a modern Seneca town occupying the site of the present village of Lima.
Ga-non-da-seeh was located near the present village of Lei- cester and was a favorite resort of the Indians in the season of pigeon shooting.
Deo-wes-ta was on the site of the present Portageville.
Gah-ni-gah-dot, meaning "the pestle stands there," was lo- cated near the present site of East Avon.
Some of the most important of the Seneca chiefs and council- lors lived in the villages mentioned or in other villages in the county, and deserve passing notice.
Perhaps the most distinguished of all the Senecas as an orator and diplomat was Red Jacket (Sa-go-ye-wat-hah), although he cannot be claimed as a resident of this region; he was, neverthe- less, identified with it in many ways. His history is too well known to need recounting here.
Cornplanter (Ga-yant-hwah-geh) was a leading chieftain and one of the wisest and best of Seneca notables. He ranked above Red Jacket as a warrior, and was little inferior to him as an
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orator. He was partly white, his father having been a white trader named O'Bail, and his mother a Seneca squaw.
Handsome Lake (Ga-nyu-da-i-yuh), the peace prophet, was a half brother of Cornplanter, and stood high with his people as a medicine-man and a spiritual guide.
Little Beard (Si-gwa-ah-doh-gwih) resided at the town, in Leicester, to which he gave his name. He was noted both as a warrior and councilor. While a bitter foe of the settlers and sup- porting the British cause in the Revolution, yet after the close of that war he proved friendly to the pioneers and was esteemed by them for his good faith.
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