USA > New York > Monroe County > Landmarks of Monroe County, New York : containing followed by brief historical sketches of the towns of the county with biography and family history > Part 12
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LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY.
Barnard. Francis Brown was the first president of the village, his suc- cessors being Matthew Brown, junior, John W. Strong, Elisha Johnson, Joseph Medbery, Nathaniel Rossiter, Jacob Thorn and Fletcher M. Haight. At the time of its incorporation the village contained about seven hundred people, for the first census, taken in 1815, gave a popu- lation of 331, and the next, in 1818, showed that it had grown to 1,049. Successive enumerations since then have been as follows : 1820-1,502; 1822-2,700; 1825-in February 4,274, in August 5,273; 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- 50,940 ; 1870-62,386 ; 1875-81,722 ; 1880-89,363 ; 1890-133, 896; 1892-145,684. The present population (in 1895) is probably a little over 160,000.
CHAPTER II.
VILLAGE LIFE.
The Newspapers of Rochester-The Gazette and the Telegraph-The Principal Journals to the Present Time-German Newspapers-Sunday Journals-Village Churches-St. Luke's, St. Paul's and St. Patrick's-The Second Presbyterian-The Friends, the Methodists, the Baptists and the Unitarians-Lafayette's Visit in 1825- Canal Celebration-Commerce and Transportation-Travel by Canal and by Stage- The Bank of Rochester-The Bank of Monroe-The Morgan Abduction-The Village Divided into Wards -- Directory of 1827-The Village Fire Department-Sam Patch- Beginning of Mormonism-The Cholera in 1832, and in Other Years-Incorporation of the City-List of the Officials and their Successors.
Compared with what it is to-day, the power of the press was slight in the early time of the republic, but even then it made itself felt quite on the frontiers of civilisation, and in every well-settled community the newspaper followed close upon the heels of the school-house and the church. In the year before the incorporation of the village a weekly paper had been started in the little place-the Rochester Gazette, pub- lished by Dauby and Sheldon-two years later, on the 7th of July, 1818, Everard Peck & Co. established the second weekly here, entitled the
-
Young & Moiband
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Rochester Telegraph, and in October, 1826, the Rochester Daily Ad- vertiser appeared, issued by Luther Tucker & Co. There can be no better point from which to consider the progress of journalism to the present time. The Gazette, edited by Augustine G. Dauby and printed at first on the east corner of West Main and Aqueduct streets. was never remunerative and was sold in March, 1821, to Levi W. and Derick Sibley, who changed its name to the Monroe Republican; four years later it came into the possession of Edwin Scrantom and others, and in 1827 its independent existence ceased. The Telegraph was more pros- perous ; in 1824 it was enlarged under the editorial management of Thurlow Weed, who then began the journalistic and political career in which he attained a power never equaled in this country by anyone else not in official station ; the next year he purchased the property from Mr. Peck, the paper became a semi-weekly in 1827, and in 1829, hav- ing in the meantime absorbed a small sheet called the Album, it became merged in the Advertiser.
This Jast named journal, the first daily paper in the state west of Albany, had from its beginning issued also a weekly named the Roch- ester Mercury, and when the Telegraph was consolidated with it the regular hebdomadal edition became known as the Rochester Republican. So many changes occurred afterward in the editorial and proprietary departments that only the principal ones can be noted here, and the same restriction will apply to other journals that shall be mentioned. In 1830 Hoyt & Porter became the owners and Henry O'Reilly was the editor till 1838, when he became postmaster ; in 1845 Isaac Butts be- came the sole owner and editor, and the paper in 1848 supported the Free Soil candidate of that faction of the Democratic party for the presidency ; Gen. Taylor, the Whig nominee, having been elected, Mr. Butts sold the paper to the Hunker element, by whom it was consoli- dated with the Daily Courier, E. Darwin Smith and Horatio G. Warner being the editors, J. Medbery & Co. the publishers. In 1857 the paper was consolidated with the Daily Union, which had made its first ap- pearance on August 16, 1852, the original publishers of the joint con- cern being Isaac Butts, Joseph Curtis and John E. Morey, with Mr. Butts as political editor, George G. Cooper as local editor ; in 1864 Mr. Butts retired, giving place to William Purcell; after the retirement 15
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of Mr. Cooper, in 1872, the city editorship was filled by George H. Lane, George Moss and David L. Hill, successively ; in 1873 a stock company was formed, the publishers and editors becoming shareholders, and the paper is still issued by the Union & Advertiser company, with William F. Balkam as business manager ; William Purcell is the editor, Albert R. Haven associate ; Pierre Purcell city editor.
What was originally the National Republican-started as a weekly by Sydney Smith in 1831-became, by consolidation with the Anti- Masonic Inquirer, which had been edited for six years by Thurlow Weed, the Rochester Daily Democrat, the first number of which was issued on February 18, 1834, by Shepard & Strong; soon afterward George Dawson purchased an interest and became the editor, being succeeded by Henry Cook, who was followed by Samuel P. Allen. In December, 1857, the paper absorbed the Rochester American, the firm becoming Strong, Allen & Huntington ; Mr. Allen resigned the editor- ship in April, 1864, and after a brief ownership by William S. King & Co., with George S. Tuckerman as editor, the journal passed into the possession of D. D. S. Brown & Co. in 1865, Robert Carter taking the editorial management and holding it for four years. On December I, 1870, the name was changed to the Democrat & Chronicle, the latter paper having been purchased by Freeman Clarke, and both journals turned in to the stock company that was formed under the name of the Rochester Printing company, Stephen C. Hutchins being the editor till January, 1873, succeeded by Joseph O'Connor and he by Charles E. Fitch, who assumed the position November of that year and held it till 1889, resigning on his appointment as collector of internal revenue. The publication of a Sunday edition was begun July 29, 1879, which, having continued for some years, was dropped and then resumed after an interval ; Ernest R. Willard is now the editor of the paper, with Henry C. Maine and Oliver S Adams as associates, George F. Warren as assistant and Walter Buell as city editor.
Of the two other papers mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the Daily American was established on December 23, 1844, by Leonard W. Jerome and Josiah M. Patterson, Lawrence R. Jerome being admit- ted to the firm a year later ; begun as a Whig paper, it became a "Know-Nothing " journal when that party sprang up; Alexander
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Mann, assisted afterward by Dr. Daniel Lee and Reuben D. Jones, was the editor from the beginning and until 1856, when he was succeeded by Chester P. Dewey, who was in the chair when the separate life of the paper ceased. Owing to factional quarrels in the Republican party, the Daily Chronicle was started in November, 1868, its sole owner being Louis Selye, then member of Congress ; during the whole period of its existence of two years Charles S. Collins, who for a long time before that had been at the head of the local department of the Democrat, was its editor, with William F. Peck and Henry C. Daniels, the veteran city editor of the Express, as his associates, and Isaac M. Gregory, now the editor of Judge, for the same period after the first two months.
In the autumn of 1859 Charles W. Hebard began the publication of the Times, the name being changed a few months later to the Evening Express, which was sold for one cent and devoted largely to the inter- ests of the workingmen ; in the next year the price was raised to two cents and the paper became distinctively. Republican, with Francis S. Rew as its editor and, a year later, William J. Fowler as his associate ; in 1865 the Wilder brothers (A. Carter and D. Webster) became half owners of it, Webster going on to the editorial staff; in 1874, the Wilders having withdrawn, the paper passed into the hands of a stock company, and in 1882 into those of another, the name being changed to the Post Express and Daniel T. Hunt becoming the business manager, with George H. Ellwanger as managing editor; George T. Lanigan was the editor for one year, then Isaac H. Bromley, then William Mill Butler, then Joseph O'Connor, who took the editorial charge in 1886, when the paper became independent in politics; a reorganisation of the company was effected in 1889 and still another in 1894, by the last of which Louis Wiley became the business manager ; the principal mem- bers of the journalistic staff at this time are Joseph O'Connor, editor ; William H. Samson, associate; Charles M. Robinson, assistant; Jacob A. Hoekstra, city editor ; George S. Crittenden, news editor.
On the 5th of August, 1879, the first issue of the Rochester Morning Herald appeared, published by a company almost all the members of which were editorially connected with it; Samuel H. Lowe was the editor-in-chief, Samuel D. Lee the managing editor, C. Smith Benjamin city editor, Jacob A. Hoekstra taking the place of the last-named after
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the first three months; three years after its inception the patronage of the paper increased so much that it removed from Smith's arcade, where it started, to its present building on Exchange street; soon thereafter it began the publication of a Sunday edition, which has never been intermitted ; in the fall of 1892 its original owners sold the paper to another company, by which change it became Democratic in politics and its name was altered by dropping out the word Morning; Mr. Lowe retired from the editorship and was succeeded by John B. Howe, besides whom the present editors are Franklin P. Smith, associate and managing editor, and Robert K. Beach, city editor; Louis M. Antisdale is the business manager.
The Rochester Daily Times was started a few years ago as a work- ingmen's paper ; it has always been issued at noon ; it consists of four pages, and it is sold for one cent; its present business manager is G. A. Tanner.
A German paper was issued here in 1848, called the Allgemeine Handelsblatt, and another, named the Anzeiger des Nordens, was estab- lished in 1852, but both expired within a few years. In 1852 the Beobachter am Genesee appeared as a weekly, published by Blauw & Haass ; four years later Adolph Nolte became the editor and proprietor, dropping the last two words of its title ; since 1864 it has been issued as a daily ; in 1883 it became consolidated with another journal, started the year before, the name of the new concern becoming the Abend-Post und Beobachter; Herman Pfäfflin is the present editor, Julius Stoll the publisher ; it has a Sunday and weekly edition.
As an offset to the foregoing, which was always Republican in poli- tics, the Rochester Volksblatt came into existence in 1853 as a Demo- cratic journal ; it was published by W. L. Kurtz and was a daily issue from the beginning ; some years later Louis W. Brandt became the possessor and the editor of it and remained so until his death in 1881 ; his widow sold it in 1883 to Dr. Edward H. Makk, who has owned and edited it since then ; it publishes a Sunday and a weekly edition.
Sunday journalism was a thing unknown in Rochester till 1871, when Charles S. Collins, mentioned above, started the News Letter as editor and publisher, but he went to Troy in less than a year, when the prop- erty was purchased by others and the paper became the Sunday Times,
Of. Hughes
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VILLAGE LIFE.
continuing under that appellation, with a great number of successive owners and editors, till 1878, when the title was changed to the Sunday Tribune and it so remained till the enterprise was abandoned in 1882. The Sunday Morning Herald, which never had any connection with the daily of a similar name (except that they occupied the same rooms and used the same press for two years) began publication in 1876 under Barber & Benjamin ; Joseph L. Luckey became the editor a little later and continued so for several years; the journal was discontinued a year ago. The Sunday Truth was begun in 1880, under the editorship of Hume H. Cale and was maintained for several years in the labor in- terest.
In the foregoing record of Rochester newspapers it may be observed that no mention has been made of the evanescent periodicals that sprang up from time to time and passed away, having served their pur- pose or ending in the disappointment of their projectors. The multi- tude of these, most of which were very short lived, precludes even a classification of them in this place. Neither is it deemed worth while to give any account of the special papers that are published here to further some particular cause-religious, educational, industrial or other- wise-for they are not newspapers in any sense of the term.
To return to our village. The first Episcopalian society was formed and the parish organised, as St. Luke's, by the efforts of the Rev. H. U. Onderdonk, in 1817, although the Rev. Francis H. Cuming, the first rector, did not enter upon his duties till 1820, when the church building was erected ; this was a wooden structure standing in the rear of the present stone edifice on Fitzhugh street, which was built three years later. In 1822 the Friends (or Quakers) built their meeting- house, on Fitzhugh street, near Allen; Isaac Colvin was clerk of the meetings. In the same year the Methodists began theirs, on St. Paul street, just south of the present site of the opera house, but it was 1826 before it was finished and dedicated ; in 1831 the same society, its numbers having increased, built a spacious tabernacle on the corner of Fitzhugh and West Main streets, which was burned in 1835 and an- other erected just four years later, which stood till 1854; the first class- leader was the Rev. Elisha House. St. Patrick's church, the predeces. sor of the cathedral, was completed by the Roman Catholics in 1823,
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the Rev. Patrick Kelly being then the pastor of the congregation , though the Rev. Patrick McCormick was the first priest of the society in 1818. In 1825 the First Presbyterian society, being cramped for room, erected its church in the rear of the court-house (where the city hall now stands) and gave up its former quarters to the Second Presby- terian society, under the pastorate of the Rev. William James, which occupied them till the Brick church was built in 1828. In 1826 the Dissenting Methodists began the erection of a chapel. In 1828 the Baptists, having met in different places for a few years before that, pur- chased and occupied, under the ministrations of the Rev. Dr. O. C. Comstock, the building on State street that had been used by the two Presbyterian societies, and there they remained till 1839, when they built on Fitzhugh street. St. Paul's Episcopal church was begun in 1828, but not finished till 1830, when it was consecrated, with the Rev. Sutherland Douglass as the first rector. In 1829 the Unitarians, having purchased the old wooden building originally used by St. Luke's people, moved it to West Main street, near Sophia, and occupied it for a year or two, with the Rev. James D. Green as pastor, when the society was disbanded ; it was not reorganised till 1841 and the church was built, in the following year, on Fitzhugh street, where St. Paul's German church now stands. About 1829 (the records do not show just when), during the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, the Third Presbyterian society, which had been formed in 1826, built on the northeast corner of Main and Clinton streets, but in 1834 they sold the church to the Second Baptist society ; it was burned December 10, 1859. A small African Methodist church was built on Ely street in 1828, but for some cause was abandoned and another erected on Favor street in 1831 ; the first pastor was the Rev. Isaac Stewart.
Long before the Erie canal was finished, commerce began upon it A preliminary survey was made through the village in September, 1819, the ditch was dug by sections, as described in a previous chapter, and on the 29th of October, 1822, the first canal boat left Rochester for Little Falls, laden with flour. Early in 1825 the piece immediately west of here was so far finished that on June 7, of that year, Lafayette came on a boat from Lockport and was welcomed by the entire popula- tion, a staging having been erected over the aqueduct, from which
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William B. Rochester delivered an address, after which the nation's guest, having been escorted through the streets by the villagers, was entertained at dinner at the Mansion House, kept by John G Christo- pher. On the 27th of October the local celebration connected with the completion of the entire canal took place, all the uniformed militia turning out as the squadron of boats from Buffalo appeared in sight ; the entrance to the aqueduct being guarded by a vessel called the Young Lion of the West, the approaching fleet was halted and a pre- arranged colloquy ensued between those on board of that craft and the officials on the Seneca Chief, the leading boat of the procession, after which they all entered Child's basin, at the end of the aqueduct, where congratulations were formally tendered by Gen. Vincent Mathews, on behalf of Rochester, and John C. Spencer for Canandaigua ; all then adjourned to the First Presbyterian church, where Timothy Childs de- livered an oration; the proceedings closed with the inevitable banquet at the Mansion House, where Gov. De Witt Clinton and Lieut .- Gov. Tallmadge offered the principal toasts.
The rapid growth of transportation may be judged by a list given in the Daily Advertiser of October 24, 1826, of the canal commerce of the day before, in which twenty-two vessels arrived and twenty de- parted, most of them being in both lists; the articles brought here were of all kinds of merchandise, while those carried away consisted largely of flour and of potash, the manufacture of which was a specialty with the farmers, and occasionally a cargo of rattlesnakes, destined for the European markets. So much were the church-going people an- noyed by the blowing of horns and bugles by the captains of outgoing and incoming vessels on Sunday that a village ordinance was passed in 1827, forbidding the distracting melody on that day ; a few years later a line of Sabbath- keeping boats was established, and shortly afterward, in connection therewith, the Pioneer line of stages, with the same de- vout object in view.
Travel was maintained on the canal from the beginning, the easy passage of the boats rendering it a favorite mode of locomotion for those with plenty of time on their hands and who had no objection to spending two weeks, which was the usual time, in going to New York; at a later period the Red Bird line of packets, with excellent sleeping
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quarters and good meals, came into operation and for a long term they held a high place in the estimation of those whose journeyings were for pleasure rather than for business. But for those whose time was pre- cious and whose preference was for a more rapid conveyance another means was provided, the swiftness of whose flight may be appreciated. In the journalistic issue mentioned above is the announcement of three daily lines of coaches, starting from the regular Mail and Pilot coach office, opposite the Eagle Tavern (which stood on the present site of the Powers block and was then kept by Russell Ensworth), the vehicle for Albany being guaranteed to arrive at the capital in three days, while that for Buffalo was promised to get to its destination on the very day of its departure, though it had to leave at 3 in the morning to do it; the coach for Olean, however, notwithstanding the fact that it started at the same bewitching hour, was compelled to " sleep " at Hor- nellsville (as the advertisement had it), reaching its objective point on the following day.
Charles J. Hill built the first brick house in the village-on the west side of Fitzhugh street, between Spring and Troup-in 1821, and from that time there was a steady increase in the erection of private dwell- ings, churches and commercial structures. As trade advanced, as the merchants set up new shops, as flouring- mills multiplied and grain was brought here in immense quantities, the demand for banking facilities became urgent. As early as 1817, in the very year of the incorpora- tion of the village, application was made to the legislature for a bank charter by Harvey Montgomery and others, and the request was re- newed six years later, but the demand, reasonable as it was, was rejected, through the selfishness and greed of the Ontario bank, at Canandaigua, and two smaller concerns at Geneva and Batavia, all of which grew rich by discounting the bills of our merchants. On Febru- ary 19, 1824, a charter was finally granted to the Bank of Rochester, with Matthew Brown, Nathaniel Rochester, Elisha B. Strong, Samuel Works, Enos Pomeroy and Levi Ward as incorporators, the capital be- ing fixed at $250,000. A. M. Schermerhorn was its cashier, John T. Talman its teller; Colonel Rochester was its first president, but he retired within a few months and was succeeded by Elisha B. Strong, he by Levi Ward, and he by James Seymour; the location was on Ex-
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change street, where the Bank of Monroe now stands ; the charter of the bank, once renewed, expired in 1846 and its affairs were then wound up. There was one other financial institution in the village, the Bank of Monroe, organised in 1829, with a capital of $300,000; its successive presidents were A. M. Schermerhorn, Alexander Duncan, Moses Cha- pin and James K. Livingston ; its location was on the present site of the Powers banking house ; its charter expired in 1849.
In 1826 a mysterious affair occurred in this vicinity which stirred the hearts of the community to their depths, causing more dissensions and having a more wide-reaching effect than any other event connected with this region. Early in 1817 Wells lodge of Free Masons was instituted in the little settlement; on March 23, 1819, Hamilton Royal Arch chapter was installed here, and in June, 1826, Monroe encampment of Knights Templars was organised, these events indicating the rapid growth of the order in numbers and influence. Among its members was William Morgan, at first a resident of Rochester, though he had removed to Batavia before he became prominent by the announcement that he was writing a book to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry. In- tense excitement was roused by this, and Morgan was subjected to all kinds of treatment calculated to make him forego his purpose; all failed, and an attempt to burn the printing-office in which the book was being put in type was equally abortive. Finally he was arrested for petty larceny and taken to Canandaigua, where the offense was alleged to have been committed ; once there, the charge was dismissed but he was immediately re-arrested and imprisoned for a debt of two dollars, which he admitted; the next night four men came to the place and paid the debt, with the costs, after which they seized Morgan as he was leaving the jail and threw him into a carriage, which drove rapidly away ; he was never seen in public again.
Indictments for the abduction of Morgan were found by the grand jury of Ontario county against four persons, three of whom pleaded guilty, although they had before that engaged several of the most emi- nent lawyers in the state as their counsel. The carriage containing the prisoner was traced to Rochester, where it was driven down to the old Steamboat Hotel at Hanford's Landing, whence it took the Ridge road for Lewiston, where, as seemed to be shown by the evidence brought
16
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out at subsequent judicial trials, he was taken across the Niagara river into Canada; so strongly was this indicated that Governor Clinton, himself a Mason and the highest authority in the order in the United States, wrote to the Earl of Dalhousie, the governor of Lower Canda, stating the known facts in the case and asking for the liberation of Mor- gan if he could be found, but nothing further was learned in the matter. Morgan's fate was never known, except to those who decreed it and those who executed the decree, but the most prevalent belief has always been that he was brought back from Canada, secreted for some time and then drowned in the Niagara river. That the great body of the Masonic fraternity were not only innocent of the conspiracy but abso- lutely ignorant of its existence, no one has now the slightest doubt, but in that unhappy time the charge of general knowledge, if not participation, was widely credited ; Rochester was the very center of the anti-Masonic fury, and Timothy Childs was twice elected to Congress from this district as an Anti-Mason ; so great was the hostility to the order that all the lodges in Western New York, with the commendable object of allaying the turmoil, surrendered their charters to the grand lodge and it was not till 1845 that Masonry revived here and acquired a stronger position than it had possessed before in this community.
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