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 13
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Besides the act of 1822, changing the name of the village, a far more important one was passed on the 10th of April, 1823, by which the village of Brighton, whose interests were always identical with those of Rochester, was annexed to the latter. The law provided that the inhabitants of the territory thus annexed should have all the rights, privileges and immunities enjoyed by those living in the original part of Rochester, · but all the moneys assessed upon the new inhabitants for the improve- ment of streets were to be applied only to streets in what was previ- ously Brighton, and vice versa. Perhaps this peculiar adjustment of taxation was found to work inharmoniously ; certainly no other plausi- ble conjecture can account for the passage of another act three years later, to the very day, incorporating the village of Rochester, as though no such village had ever been heard of before, extending materially the limits on the east side and in a less degree those on the west, but giv- ing, queerly enough, the description of the territory not by metes and bounds but simply by including enumerated lots, the numbers being
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considered, probably, sufficiently descriptive. The second section of this act divided the new village into five wards, the first ward covering almost the same area that it occupies now, the second lying north and west of it, the third south of the first and second, the other wards on the east side of the river, the fourth being south of Main street, the fifth north of it.
Directories were not issued every year in those days, and the first that appeared in Rochester was in 1827, bearing the imprint of its publica- tion by Elisha Ely, from the printing-house of Everard Peck. It con- tained the names of all the male inhabitants over fifteen years old, divided into two lists-first, the householders, alphabetically arranged under the initial letter of the surname but divided into wards under that letter ; second, the boarders, all grouped in like manner, followed by a summary of the principal occupations, from which it appears that, be- sides those who were laborers simply, the largest number were carpen- ters, of whom there were three hundred and four, with one hundred and twenty-four shoemakers, ninety-five masons, and so on. The little book gives in compact form a statement of the principal events in the village up to that time and a list of the societies of all kinds then in ex- istence, together with statistics concerning trade and commerce, and information regarding travel, such as the rates of fare on the canal. These were, on the freight boats, one and a half cents a mile, exclusive of board, for which there was an extra charge of about fifty cents a day, while on the packets, designed for passengers only, the rate was about four cents a mile, including all expenses, the tariff on stage travel being three and a half cents a mile. Ordinances are given for the orderly government of the place-many of which related to the prevention of fires, such as the regulation that fireplaces of every description must be kept in good repair so as to be safe, the penalty for neglect being ten dollars, and must be cleaned every three months, under a fine of five dollars. while at least one fire bucket must be kept in each house and all bell-ringers must ring on an alarm of fire, or pay five dollars-and for the good behavior of the people, such as the prohibition of the keeping of billiard tables for gaming and of nine-pin alleys for any purpose whatever, under a penalty of five dollars a day for each offense, all of which shows that the village was well conducted.
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The regulations alluded to call for some mention of a department that seems indispensable for the preservation of civilised communal life. At the village election of 1817 five fire wardens were chosen to enforce the ordinances and to form, after conflagrations had begun, the line of citizens who were to pass the buckets. This being soon per- ceived to be inadequate, a fire company was created in the following year, of which Daniel Mack was the foreman and the members of which were the most prominent villagers, one of whom, Charles J. Hill, lived till 1883. An engine was purchased, into which water had to be poured from buckets, but, poor as it was, it did duty alone for seven years, being housed first on the court-house square and afterward on Aqueduct street. In 1824 the sum of fifty dollars was voted for one or more ladders, to be placed on wheels ; in 1825 $470 was paid for a new engine and $100 appropriated for its house, located in Bugle alley, where the Corinthian Academy of Music now stands. In the following year, at the time of the re-incorporation of the village, a more regular organisation of a volunteer fire department was effected, consisting of two engine companies ("Ætna" and "Torrent") and a hook and ladder company ("Pioneer "), with Samuel Works as chief engineer ; a new machine was soon bought, which was given to one of the original associations, while a new company, then formed in Frank- fort under the title of "Red Rover," had to be content, at first, with the little old concern, built ten years before, and all the department turned out for its first inspection, in " Mumford meadow," in October, 1828; in 1831 " Cataract " number 4 and " Rough and Ready " num- ber 5 were formed, with " Protection " number 6 in 1833
Sam Patch, after jumping into the Niagara river from a pro- jecting rock more than half the height of the great cataract, made his fatal leap over the Genesee falls on the 13th of November, 1829 ; his bones were broken upon his striking the water, and his body was not found until the following spring, when it was buried at Charlotte. In the same year Joseph Smith, a youth not then known to fame, applied to Thurlow Weed, who was then issuing the Rochester Telegraph, to print for him an inspired book which Smith had copied from golden tablets found by him in the woods in Wayne county, but Mr. Weed declined the offer and the first edition of the Mormon Bible was printed at Palmyra in the following year.
JUNIUS JUDSON.
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In 1832 the cholera appeared here for the first time; its approach had been heralded and Dr. Ward, Dr. Coleman, Dr. Reid, Everard Peck and Ashbel W. Riley were appointed a board of health ; Dr. Coleman went to Montreal, where the malady was then prevalent, to learn the accepted mode of treatment ; all possible precautions were taken, the physicians did everything in their power to stay the ravages of the disease, and Dr. McPherson came in from Scottsville to devote himself wholly to the cause, but nothing seemed to do the slightest good ; one hundred and eighteen died of the plague during the sum- mer and General Riley, who had given himself up to the work, put eighty of them into their coffins with his own hands. In 1834 the pestilence came again and fifty-four were carried off by it ; a third time in 1849, when one hundred and sixty deaths resulted, and still again in 1852, when over four hundred (it is not known exactly how many) perished, the scourge being fatal to more than half of those who were smitten by it.
As all things grow, Rochester outgrew its village condition, and on April 28, 1834, the act of incorporation of the city of Rochester, con- taining its charter, was passed. This action was not premature, for the the population and the volume of business fully warranted it. The number of inhabitants was 12,289, there were thirteen hundred houses, fourteen churches or meeting- houses, nine hotels-the Eagle, the Roches- ter, the Clinton, the Mansion, the Monroe, the Arcade, the Franklin, the City and the Rensselaer-ten newspapers (so called) and two banks ; in the previous year $290,000 had been invested in mills and flouring machinery, $1,413,000 paid for wheat, barrels, etc., and 300,000 barrels of flour manufactured ; $157,000 had in that year been put into cotton and woolen mills, $31.000 invested in leather and skins. $25,000 in boat building, and so on, nearly $2,000,000 of merchandise had been sold and one-sixth of all the canal tolls in the state had been received here. The corporation was organised by the election of a board of aldermen, consisting of Lewis Brooks for the first ward, with John Jones as assistant ; Thomas Kempshall for the second, Elijah F. Smith assistant ; Frederick F. Backus for the third, Jacob Thorn assistant ; A. W. Riley for the fourth, Lansing B. Swan assistant; Jacob Graves for the fifth, Henry Kennedy assistant; this common council selected the
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following officers: Jonathan Child, mayor; Vincent Mathews, attor- ney and counsel ; Samuel Works, superintendent ; E. F. Marshall, treasurer ; John C. Nash, clerk; William H. Ward, chief engineer. Mayor Child was inaugurated on the Ioth of June, and each year there- after his successor was elected by the board of aldermen until 1841, when he was chosen by the people and has been so ever since. It may be as well to give in this place a list of the successors of these officers, except of the city attorneys, who will be found in another part of this work.
The mayors have been : Jacob Gould, in 1835-36 ; A. M. Schermer- horn and Thomas Kempshall (in place of Schermerhorn, resigned), 1837; Elisha Johnson, 1838; Thomas H. Rochester, 1839; Samuel G. Andrews, 1840; Elijah F. Smith, 1841 ; Charles J. Hill, 1842; Isaac Hills 1843 ; John Allen, 1844; William Pitkin, 1845-46; John B. Elwood, 1847; Joseph Field, 1848; Levi A. Ward, 1849; Samuel Richardson, 1850; Nicholas E. Paine, 1851; Hamlin Stilwell, 1852; John Williams, 1853 ; Maltby Strong, 1854; Charles J. Hayden, 1855; Samuel G. Andrews, 1856; Rufus Keeler, 1857; Charles H. Clark, 1858 ; S. W. D. Moore, 1859 and 1866; Hamlet D. Scrantom, 1860; John C. Nash, 1861 ; Michael Filon, 1862; Nehemiah C. Bradstreet, 1863; James Brackett, 1864; D. D. T. Moore, 1865 ; Henry L. Fish, 1867-68; Edward M. Smith, 1869; John Lutes, 1870; Charles W. Briggs, 1871; A. Carter Wilder (two years' term after this), 1872; George G. Clarkson, 1874; Cornelius R. Parsons, 1876-89; William Carroll, 1890; Richard Curran, 1892 ; George W. Aldridge, 1894; Merton E. Lewis, acting mayor, 1895, Aldridge having been appointed superintendent of public works of the state.
Of the city treasurers, after E. F. Marshall, who held the office again in 1838, there have been Theodore Sedgwick, in 1835; Erasmus D. Smith, 1836; W. E. Lathrop, 1837 and 1859; Eben N. Buell, 1839- 42 ; James M. Fish, 1843-44; Hiram Wright, 1845-46; Matthew G. Warner, 1847; Clarence H. Sweet, 1848 ; Elbert W. Scrantom (term two years then), 1849; Charles M. St. John, 1851-54; P. M. Bromley, 1855; Abram Karnes, 1857; Thomas Hawks, 1861 ; Christopher T. Amsden, 1863; Harvey P. Langworthy, 1865-70; John Williams, 1871-74; George D. Williams, 1875-80; Ambrose McGlachlin, 1880-
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84; John A. Davis, 1885-90; Valentine Fleckenstein, 1890; Samuel B. Williams, 1891 to the present time.
The city clerks who succeeded Mr. Nash have been Ariel Wentworth, 1835 ; P G Buchan, 1836; J. W. Gilbert, 1837; Isaac R, Elwood, 1838; T. B. Hamilton, 1839; W. R. Montgomery, 1839 ; J. A. East- man, 1842 ; A. S. Beers, 1843 ; Chauncey Nash, 1845 ; James S. Tryon, 1846; H. L. Winants, 1848; Newell A. Stone, 1849 and 1861; John N. Drummond, 1850; E. B. Shepardson, 1851; Washington Gibbons, 1852, C. N. Simmons, 1856-58 and 1862; Francis S. Rew, 1859; B. Frank Enos, 1864; Richard H. Schooley, 1868 ; William F. Morrison, 1870; Edward Angevine, 1876; Lucius M. Mandeville, 1880; James T. McMannis, 1881; Frank N. Lord, 1883; Peter Sheridan, 1885 ; Henry W. Gregg, 1892 ; Theodore S. Pulver, 1895.
After Mr. Ward the chief engineers were Theodore Chapin, Alfred Judson, P. W. Jennings, A. J. Langworthy, George W. Parsons, T. B. Hamilton, S. M. Sherman, James Cowles, William H. Sprung, Zachariah Weaver, George B. Harris, John McMullen, P. H. Sullivan, Wendel Bayer, Law S. Gibson, Samuel Bemish and James Malcolm, the present chief.
As superintendent of the city, Mr. Works was succeeded by Kilian H. Van Rensselaer, Theodore Chapin and Pardon D. Wright; the office was abolished after a few years.
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CHAPTER III.
CITY LIFE.
Changes in the Charter-Extension of the Limits-The City Fire Department -- The Volunteer System-Change to the Paid Department-Notable Fires-Amusements- Early Theaters-The Museum-Corinthian Hall-Early Schools-The Old High School -Catholic Schools-The Free Academy-Early Burying-Grounds -- Mt. Hope -- Catholic Cemeteries -- Railroads -- The Tonawanda -- The Auburn & Rochester -- The New York Central and Others -- The Carthage Road -- The First Telegraph -- The Western Union and Speculation therein -- The Patriot War -- The Mexican War -- The Civil War -- Anti-Slavery and the Underground Railroad -- The Rochester Knockings -- Disastrous Floods -- Water Works -- Our Semi-Centennial.
By its original charter in 1834 the city covered about four thousand acres, the same ground that was embraced within its limits for the next forty years, except for the addition that was made in 1836. John C. Spencer, in spite of his hostility to the erection of Monroe county in 1821, had been selected to draw this act of incorporation, and his char- acteristic of accuracy precludes the possibility of his having made a mis- take in describing the limits of the city, so that in all likelihood he had been directed to follow the general line that excluded all land then used for agricultural purposes. The eastern boundary was quite irregular, starting on the Ridge road, thence with many sharp turns getting on to what is now Alexander street and following that till it reached the Pitts- ford road (now East avenue), up which it passed till it arrived at Good- man street, along which it pursued its way to the southern limits. To remedy an apparent omission and to straighten in part the eastern boundary line, an act was passed April 19, 1836, the first section of which is here given, as showing an utter absence of legal phraseology and interesting from the fact that this extension and subsequent com- prehension have never, so far as is known to the writer, appeared be- fore in any sketch or history of the city. The section is as follows :
" The boundaries of the city of Rochester are hereby extended so as
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to include within the limits thereof the farm of William Pitkin, situate in the town of Brighton, and also all the land lying between said Pit kin's farm and the eastern boundary of said city."
The " farm " thus alluded to, which comprised just one hundred acres and was afterward exchanged by Mr. Pitkin for a lot on South Washing- ton street, was not as speedily built up as some other parts of the city, but it became long since completely occupied and a part of it now con- sists of the university grounds.
Having had a taste of amending the charter, the people kept on with the pernicious habit and have continued it to the present day, but few of the amendments need be mentioned here. The distinction be- tween aldermen and assistant aldermen was abolished after four years of trial, and from 1838 two aldermen were chosen from each ward till 1877, since when one has been found sufficient. In 1874 the area was increased by the acquisition of territory that nearly trebled its dimen- sions, the land that was added on the west being formed into the fif- teenth ward, that on the east into the sixteenth. A few additions have been made since then, but of no magnitude except as to the parks, which will be mentioned later. This did not, however, prevent an in- crease in the number of the wards, in order to overcome the power of the town members in the board of supervisors; in 1892 the boundary lines of the wards were so changed as to make twenty of them, instead of sixteen, but the demarcation was governed by political partisanship and the projectors of the enterprise were overwhelmed at the polls at the following election; much of the resentment against them was owing to the wanton alteration that had been made in the designations (except in the case of the first ward) of the five wards antedating the city's life by eight years, though the boundaries were practically un- touched; two years later the rights of sentiment and tradition asserted themselves, and the historic wards received back their ancient titles.
The thread of the fire department, like a length of hose, may be taken up at this point, the change from village to city making but little differ- ence except to give the chief engineer a second assistant in addition to the one that he had before. An engine, tub and hose company, two bucket companies and another for hose alone were soon formed, and in 1838 "Storm 7" blew into existence, a tumultuous combination that 17
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did not contribute to the quiet of the Third ward. It was disbanded again and again, but in 1861 it was large enough to furnish from its own ranks a full company, officers and men, for the " Old Thirteenth "; its record in the war was not wholly creditable, for its turbulent spirit made it insubordinate and many of its members were court-martialed and sent to the Dry Tortugas. " Osceola 8" was the next and " Champion 9" was the last engine company under the volunteer system. Connecting that system with the new were two companies that sprang into being in 1858, after the general disbandment of the old department-the Protectives, organised for the preservation of property during and after fires, and the Alert hose company, to which was ad- ded, ten years later, Active hose company number 2, for the east side, as the others were on the west. These three were wholly volunteer companies, their services being gratuitous and the city paying only a part of their expenses for buildings and apparatus, while they acted in friendly rivalry with each other and in entire harmony with the paid department.
This was fully organised in 1862, after an indefinite state of affairs for four years, during which two steam fire engines were brought to the city in February, 1861, and worked so well that six have been added since then. After the introduction of the Holly water works in 1874 the attendance of steamers at ordinary fires in the center of the city was dispensed with till recently, the pressure being considered sufficient, but that plan has been given up and now not less than two steamers turn out at every alarm, while four respond to the call of the central boxes. The three volunteer companies were disbanded a short time ago, the Protectives being succeeded by a sack and bucket company, which, though the old name still clings to it, is now a portion of the regular department. A valuable adjunct to the service is the fire alarm telegraph, which was introduced in 1869, the superintendent being B. F. Blackall from the beginning till 1881, when he was succeeded by Charles R. Barnes, who still holds the position. The Firemen's Benev- olent association was organised in 1835 and incorporated in 1837, its object being to provide a fund for the relief of widows and orphans of firemen and for disabled members of the department ; from that day to this it has carried out admirably the purposes of its formation.
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Of fires in Rochester, the first one recorded was on December 5, `1819, when the office of the Gazette was destroyed, and the first fatality at a fire was on December 21, 1827, at the burning of Everard Peck's paper mill on South Water street, when Thomas M. Rathbun, of the hook and ladder company, was killed by a falling chimney. On February 2, 1844, the old Mansion House, on State street, was de- stroyed ; May 2, 1846, the old stone block built by Hervey Ely in 1817, where the Elwood building now stands, was burned; in July, 1847, Grace church (built as St. Paul's and standing on the site of the present edifice) was consumed ; April 29, 1853, the Rochester House, on Ex- change street, extending from the canal to Spring street, was burned, with four of the domestics; January 24, 1854, the Blossom House, on the northeast corner of Main and St. Paul, went up in flames-a long fire, the mercury falling to zero during its progress, so that men and machines were almost encased in ice; November 21, 1857, the Eagle bank block, where the Wilder building now stands, was destroyed, two firemen losing their lives; on the night of August 17, 1858, a blaze started in a livery stable on Minerva alley and the sun rose on the ruins of five blocks, twenty stores, Minerva hall and the Third Presbyterian church, everything on the south side of Main street, from St. Paul to Stone, being swept away ; the Unitarian church, on Fitzhugh street, was burned November 10, 1859; the Second Baptist just a month later, the Bethel church, on South Washington street, November 24, 1861, Washington hall (where the Second Baptist had stood) May 4, 1867, three fremen perishing in the flames ; St. Peter's (Presbyterian) church March 17, 1868 ; the Democrat office and most of the old Eagle Hotel block December 19 in the same year; the First Presbyterian church May 2, 1869; the opera house November 6 of that year, the old Hervey Ely mill, at the east end of the aqueduct, November 26, 1870, and the "Beehive," at the west end (the old mill of E. S. Beach and Thomas Kempshall, built in 1827 and used after 1865 for miscellaneous manu- factures), April 7, 1880. Those were the most notable fires up to eleven years ago; those since then will be mentioned in the chronological record of events.
Public sentiment in the early days of Rochester was decidedly ad- verse to dramatic representation. The directory of 1827 remarks :
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" The theater is situated on Carroll street, a few rods north of Buffalo street. It is open but part of the season, the company of per- formers not being permanently settled here and only exhibiting a few weeks at a time. Of the influence of theatrical exhibitions upon the habits and morals of a young community it does not become us to speak, but we are constrained to say that the character of the per- formances at this theater has not generally been such as reflects credit upon the taste of our citizens."
These observations are preceded immediately by a description of a sulphur bathing establishment on Buffalo street, near Washington, the advantages of which are said to be that "it consists of a bar-room, a ladies' drawing- room and bathing-rooms" The incongruity in the standards of morality thus displayed is further exemplified by the devout thankfulness expressed in Henry O'Reilly's "Sketches of Western New York," published in 1838, that " neither theater nor circus can now be found in Rochester," while then, before and afterward, the little press teemed with enticing lottery advertisements which at this day would ex- clude the newspapers from the mails, though at that time the system was patronised by the religious and was keeping thousands in hopeless poverty. Apart from occasional concerts, the first source of amuse- ment in Rochester may be said to have consisted in a museum opened in the Eagle Tavern in January, 1821, where thirty- four wax figures were displayed. with a representation of the duel between Commodores Barron and Decatur. But this must have been short-lived, and so was the circus, in a frame building on Exchange street, where the jail now stands. In 1825 the Rochester museum was opened by J. R. Bishop on Exchange street, on the present site of the Smith & Perkins building ; some years later a large room in connection therewith was used for dramatic performances, but that was only transient, while the museum itself, with its attraction of wax figures, persisted till 1852. Two theaters were established in 1826-one, which opened on April 8, three months before it came to an end, with Richard III., probably the first Shakespearean play given here, was on Buffalo street, where the Young Men's Catholic association building now stands ; the other dramatic temple, which lasted longer, being the place alluded to in the directory of 1827, was on the west side of State street, nearly opposite Market ;
Henry A Langslow
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it may have endured for a year or two, no one can tell just how long, for the newspapers advertised the stage only by denouncing it as "a noisome sink of immorality," and a proffered benefit for the Female Charitable society was rigidly declined, though one might think that Edmund Kean had dignified the little house by acting there the part of Sir Edward Mortimer in the " Iron Chest."
The foregoing allusions appertain more directly to village life, but the connection with subsequent amusements seemed to warrant their dis- position here. In 1837 the part of Helen McGregor, in " Rob Roy," was played somewhere here, probably at the Museum theater, by Mrs. McClure, afterward Mrs. Noah, the first histrionic genius that Roches- ter ever produced, and the only one except her superior, Julia Dean, afterward Mrs. Hayne, who made her first appearance as a little child at the theater of her father, Edwin Dean. This was opened in 1840, in the building still standing on Exchange street, at the foot of Spring, and there Edwin Forrest, the elder Booth, Grattan Plunkett and other bright stars appeared, but public opinion was too strong for it and the house closed at the end of the third year. After an interval of five years, during which the moral inhabitants recreated themselves with itinerant concerts, circuses, panoramas and other shows of a harmless character, in which time also the Atheneum lecture course began, which held its own for nearly half a century, the theater was revived, and this time permanently. It opened on Christmas week, in 1848, under Carr and Warren, on South St. Paul street, and continued at the same spot up to the present day, without interruption except for the summer recess and the compulsory vacations caused by the fires of 1869 and 1891, followed by the rebuilding, in each case, of the ruined structure. Its boards were trodden by all the great actors of America and most of those of Europe, not with their own companies, as now, but acting in the leading roles, while their support came from the stock company, which, up to twenty years ago, it was the custom to main- tain constantly at the theater, sometimes playing it without the added light from an imported star and sometimes sending it to Buffalo or any other neighboring city for a week, while our house was given up to some traveling troupe or combination.
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