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 17
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George W. Fisher, the veteran bookseller, died February 24; he came here in 1821 and entered the book-store of Everard Peck, whose interest he afterward purchased ; his store was on Exchange street, near Main, and there he remained in the business till 1871 ; when he retired he was understood to be the oldest bookseller, in length of storekeep- ing, in the state west of New York city ; he was one of the early mem- bers of the Rochester Union Grays, a crack military organisation formed in 1838, in which he took great interest to the last. Peter Palmer died March 12, aged ninety- five ; he was one of the first pyro- technists in the country and carried on the manufacture of fireworks in this city for nearly half a century ; for their occasional display and for a promenade and concert hall he built, about fifty years ago, Palmer's Garden on Main street, nearly opposite North avenue. Miss Elizabeth P. Hall died March 16; she was one of the founders of the Humane society, was long identified with other works of benevolence and her name was a synonym for active kindness toward man and beast. On the same day James O'Donoghue died, one of the old residents, who was in the furniture business on East Main street fifty years ago. Rev.
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Dr. F. W. Holland, who at two different periods was the pastor of the Unitarian church in this city, died at Concord, Mass., March 26.
On the same day, at Virginia Beach, whither he had gone for health and recreation, died William S. Kimball; he was one of the most prominent and public-spirited men in the community during the last twenty-five years and identified with a wider range of interests asso- ciated with the modern life of the city than any other man, and his wealth was expended freely in the promotion of all kinds of projects conducive to the general wel'are. To give a list of the organisations with which he was connected would be laborious ; it is enough to say that of each of the following he was at one time the president: The City hospital, the Union bank, the Chamber of Commerce, the Indus- trial school, the Genesee Valley club and the Post Express printing company. Henry L. Fish, a member of the common council and of the board of supervisors for many years, elected mayor in 1867, re- elected the next year and chosen member of Assembly in 1872, died April 1 ; Jeremiah Sullivan, aged ninety-five, one of the organisers of the congregation of the Immaculate Conception church, died April 6; Henry W. Gregg, elected judge of the Municipal court a few months before, the youngest man ever chosen to judicial office in this city, died April 20, aged twenty-seven ; Owen Redmond, a mechanical genius, inventor of numerous machines, died May 27 ; George T. Parker, one of the older lawyers of the city, died May 30, and Mrs Eliza M. Reid, the widow of Dr. W. W. Reid, one of the most eminent of our physi- cians, died May 31, being within three months of ninety-six years old ; at the time of her death she was the oldest resident of Rochester- possibly in the years of her age, certainly in the time of her living here ; she came in 1822, was married in 1830 and was for many years a leader in all social gatherings, as well as prominent in charitable work, for she was the last survivor of the original board of managers of the Rochester orphan asylum. This brings the record down to the Ist of June ; there it ends.
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CHAPTER V.
THE PRESENT DAY.
The Female Charitable Society-The Society for the Organisation of Charity - Orphan Asylums-The Industrial School-Infants' Summer Hospital -- Home for the Friendless-The Church Home-Home of Industry-The Humane Society-Children's Aid Society-Young Men's Christian Association-University of Rochester-The Theological . Seminary -- Wagner Memorial College -- Mechanics' Institute -- Public Schools -- The Reynolds Library -- Academy of Science-The Historical Society -- The Churches -- Clubs of all Kinds -- The Chamber of Commerce-The Banks -- The Parks- The Bridges -- The Railroads -- Municipal Government-The Fire and Police Depart- ments-The City Expenses-Sewers and Water Works -- Miscellaneous Statistics.
And what shall be said about Rochester at the present day ? What has gone before might be considered as leading up to this, but so much has been told of its progression, of the events that have made the city what it is, that a rapid survey of the most prominent institutions now existing here seems to be all that is required. The oldest organisation now extant is the Female Charitable society, which was formed on February 26, 1822, with a board of twelve directors-of which Mrs. Levi Ward was president and Mrs. Everard Peck treasurer-and fifteen visitors. The object of the association was the relief of the sick poor, and this purpose has been maintained to the present day ; in addition to this, however, the society was instrumental in the promotion of enter- prises not directly within its scope, for it started almost immediately a charity school and conducted it until the common school system was established ; in 1844 it sent to the common council the first petition for a work-house to take the place of the jail as a location of confinement for convicted criminals, and in May, 1847, the City hospital was incor- porated as the outcome of the society, though the building was not be- gun till ten years after that and was not completed till 1863; its entire management, with the exception of the medical department, was turned over to the Charitable society, in whose hands it still remains. The
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present officers of the society are as follows: President, Mrs. Oscar Craig ; vice-presidents, Mrs. Adolphus Morse, Mrs. W. C. Rowley and Mrs. Charles H. Webb; recording secretary, Mrs. Jane H. Robinson ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Thomas Chester ; treasurer, Miss Sarah Frost.
Of a nature cognate to that of the Female Charitable, but working on different lines, is the Society for the Organisation of Charity, which came into existence in the autumn of 1890 and began active work in the following February, with Dr. E. V. Stoddard as president and Mrs. Helen D. Arnold as secretary. Its object is not to give aid direct but to help the poor to help themselves, to maintain correspondence among the various charities of the city and to protect those societies, the city authorities and individual givers from imposition by the solicitation of persons unworthy of relief or those who, though destitute originally, were receiving aid from a number of sources. With this end in view the organisation had got nicely at work in its investigation of all claims made upon it and in classifying the city poor, when the severe weather of January, 1893, compelled it to depart from its original purpose and to issue a special call for money to be used as an "immediate relief fund." The manner in which it disbursed this fund met with so much public approval that in the following winter the society obtained nearly $1,500 for that purpose, and in the last winter as much more-both of these sums being in addition to the similar amount which is necessary for the current expenses of the association-and when the Chamber of Commerce raised the fund of more than ten thousand dollars in the early part of 1894, as told in the previous chapter, there was universal acquiescence in the proposition to turn it over to the society for distri- bution. The present officers are John W. Oothout, president ; William F. Peck, George Darling and Miss C. L. Rochester, vice-presidents ; Mrs. Helen D. Arnold, general secretary and treasurer ; William R. Seward, treasurer of the immediate relief fund
As death has been always in the world, so there have been orphans always, but these must have been cared for by relatives in our village days, or more of them kept in the alms-house, for it was from that in- stitution that nine little ones were taken to be the first inmates of the Rochester orphan asylum, when it was established in 1837, with a large
Geo Taylor
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board of lady managers, of which Mrs. Samuel D. Porter was the secre- tary and Mrs. Everard Peck the treasurer. In the next year the society was incorporated, with seven trustees-Mayor Elwood, ex officio, Thomas H. Rochester, Everard Peck, Silas O. Smith, Silas Cornell, David Scoville and Moses Chapin. In 1839 John Greig, of Canandai- gua, gave an acre and a half of land on Hubbell park, and there the asylum building was erected which is still standing, many enlargements and improvements having been made to it since then. Up.to 1869 no provision had existed for the reception and care of infants, the minimum of age before that having been two years, but since then the nursery has constituted one of the most important parts of the institution. What care is taken of the health of these wards of the city may be judged from this, that the report of the secretary for the year ending last February shows that with an average of one hundred and fifty two children, forty of whom were less than five years old, there had not been a single death during the previous sixteen months. Dr. Seelye W. Little is the physician of the asylum ; the matron is Miss Dinehart ; for the past year the expenses were $15,605 80, the receipts were $20,- 639.83. The present officers of the board of managers are : Presi- dent, Mrs. George C. Buell; vice-presidents, Mrs. S. B. Roby, Mrs. H. A. Smith, Mrs. H. F. Smith ; recording secretary, Mrs. E. B. Fen- ner ; corresponding, Mrs. O. H. Robinson; treasurer, Mrs. E. W. Mulligan.
Of the three Roman Catholic orphan asylums in the city the oldest is St. Patrick's, for girls only, which was founded in 1841, with a board of managers of which the president was Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, the pastor of St. Patrick's church; the vice-president Rev. Charles D. French, the treasurer George A. Wilkin and the secretary Patrick Barry ; four years later the association was incorporated under the title of " the Roman Catholic orphan asylum society of the city of Roches- ter." The location of the building has always been on Frank street, at the corner of Vought, the most extensive additions having been made to it in 1865. In 1864 the entire management of the asylum was put into the hands of the Sisters of Charity, who conducted it till 1870, when it was turned over to the Sisters of St. Joseph. Before 1864 the Catholic orphan boys of Rochester were sent to Lime Stone Hill or to 22
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Lancaster, both in Erie county ; in that year Bishop Timon of Buffalo, then in charge of the diocese, established an orphan asylum for boys on South street, near St. Mary's church, but four years later the old Halstead Hall, on West avenue at the corner of Genesee street, was purchased and the institution occupied it till 1871, when the quarters became too narrow and a new building was erected on the site. Like St. Patrick's, St. Mary's is conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The German Catholics of Rochester have an asylum of their own, on An- drews street, near Franklin, the main part of which was built in 1874 and enlarged four years later; before that it was located near the pres- ent site, in a frame house, used, apparently, for the first time in 1866, though the society was incorporated in 1863. The asylum is under the management of the Sisters of Notre Dame.
In November, 1877, the Jewish orphan asylum association of Western New York was started, the union of the three societies of that character in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Seven years later its first object was obtained, the accumulation of a fund sufficient for the purchase of a building, so the house was bought in that year, on North St. Paul street, near Evergreen, and put in proper condition. It has been occu- pied ever since then, the inmates being not only the orphans of Roch- ester but those sent hither from Buffalo and Syracuse. The trustees are distributed among the three places. the Rev. Dr. Max Landsberg of this city being the secretary.
To provide for the crying needs of those who were not orphans-in the words of its constitution "to gather into the school vagrant and destitute children, who, from the poverty or vice of their parents, are unable to attend the public schools, and who gather a precarious liveli- hood by begging or pilfering ; to give them ideas of moral and religious duty, to instruct them in the elements of learning and in different branches of industry and thus enable them to become useful members of society "-the Industrial school was established at the close of 1856, by a board of ladies of which Mrs. D. C. Alling and Mrs. Alfred Ely were the directors, Mrs George H. Ely the treasurer, Mrs. Seth H. Terry the corresponding secretary and Mrs. Gilman H. Perkins the recording secretary. The last-named still retains her original office, with Miss Julia Little as assistant, the other principal officers being
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Mrs. William Alling, president; Mrs. George Moss, treasurer, and Mrs. H. F. Huntington, corresponding secretary. At the beginning, rooms were used by the school, rent free, in the old Rochester House, on Exchange street, but two years later a site was purchased on the same street, opposite Court, and a building erected, which, with addi- tions made at different times, particularly the Sibley-Watson wing in 1881, constitutes the present home of the institution. Until recently children were lodged in the building, but of late years they have been brought there only for daily instruction-for which the board of educa- tion appropriates $600 a year-and for dinner, the younger ones being taken care of in the kindergarten and the infants in the day nursery. During 1894 two hundred and sixty-four children were registered there.
The four regular hospitals of Rochester-the City, St. Mary's, the Homeopathic and the Hahnemann-are mentioned in another part of this work, but allusion should be made in this place to a most admirable charity that has been carried on for a few seasons past, the Infants' Summer hospital, which is open for three months of the year, situated in a salubrious locality on the bluff overlooking the lake just west of the village of Charlotte ; there the babies of the poor that are suffering from infantile diseases are received and kept for a time until the malady, if temporary, has passed away, the lives of great numbers being saved in this way; the medical attendance is wholly free, and so is the care of the babies and the board of the mothers who may have to be with them, except when it is possible for a reasonable sum to be paid by the parents.
The Home for the Friendless is the third, in date of beginning, of the existing benevolent institutions of Rochester, having been founded in 1849, with Mrs. Samuel L. Selden as president of its first board of managers, Mrs. Charles Church treasurer and Mrs. S. D. Porter secre- tary. Its beginning was very humble, as it occupied only half of a rented house on Edinburgh street, then it moved to Monroe, thon to Adams, and in 1853 became possessed of its present location on East avenue, at the corner of Alexander street, the commodious structure which it occupies being erected several years later, in place of the old tavern building that was used at first. A departure has been made
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from the original purpose of the institution, the educational feature and the provision of employment for those out of work being wholly aban- doned, and, although friendless and homeless women are sometimes sheltered there temporarily, the real province of the establishment is to furnish a home for aged persons of that sex, who, on entering, make over what property they may have, or whatever sum may be con- tributed by relatives, and are then maintained in comfort for the rest of their lives. The present officers are : President, Mrs. Mary S. Porter; vice-presidents, Mrs. J. R. Chamberlin and Mrs. J. H. Hopkins ; record- ing secretary, Mrs. C. D. Van Zandt ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Henry C. Munn; treasurer, Miss M. A. Bellows.
Similar in character to this is the Church Home, a denominational establishment under Episcopalian control, which was founded in 1868 and has been during all of its existence located on Mt. Hope avenue, where, on the spacious lot given by George R. Clark and George E. Mumford, a house costing $15,000 was erected, in which destitute chil- dren have been taught and aged communicants have found an, abiding- place. Of the first board of managers the president was Mrs. George H. Mumford, the vice-president Mrs. D. M. Dewey, the secretary Mrs. Edward M. Smith, the treasurer Miss Mary J. Clark; the present officers are Mrs. William L. Halsey, president; Mrs. Hiram Sibley and Mrs. T. G. Moulson, vice-presidents ; Miss'M. A. Doolittle, correspond . ing secretary ; Mrs. W. C. Rowley, recording; Mrs. W. S. Dewey, treasurer. Of the board of trustees the first officers were George R. Clark, president ; Rev. Dr. Israel Foote, vice president ; George H. Humphrey, secretary, and John H. Rochester, treasurer ; H. F. Atkin- son is now the president, Rev. Dr. Henry Anstice the vice-president, George H. Humphrey the secretary and W. W. Mumford the treasurer.
A very beneficent institution and of far-reaching usefulness is the Home of Industry, which came into being in 1873 and was located at first on North St. Paul street, though a few years ago it moved to its present comfortable and attractive house on East Main street, just beyond Prince. Its object, which is well carried out, is the protection of young girls, their education in household work and the procurement of employment for them ; it is under the care of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the superior being Sister Hieronymo, the real founder of St. Mary's hospital.
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For the prevention or mitigation of cruelty toward animals the "Bergh association of Rochester " was formed in 1873, with William H. Cheney as president ; in 1880 a similar organisation was created to extend pro- tection to children, and the two were soon united under the presidency of the Rev. N. M. Mann and under the name of the Humane society, its declared objects being " to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals and children ; to enforce all laws enacted for the protection of dumb animals and children, and to secure by lawful means the arrest, conviction and punishment of all persons violating such laws; also, the prevention of all cruelty by humane education." The present officers are : President, Rev. J. H. Dennis ; vice-presidents, J. B. Y. Warner, Rev. Thomas A. Hendrick and others; corresponding secre- tary, Miss Ida Adams ; recording, Miss Edith Hopkins; treasurer, Mrs. George Moss The home, or shelter, of the society is on Sophia street, and there three hundred and sixty- six children were brought during the past year, investigation being made into the cases of as many more.
While the Humane society has been able to accomplish much in the way of preventing the ill treatment of children and removing them, by direction of the court, from improper surroundings, it had in most cases no suitable place to send them and no means of providing for their future. To remedy this deficiency the Children's Aid society was organised and incorporated in the early part of this year, which fur- nishes these unfortunate little ones with desirable homes, the county paving $1.60 for their support and families being found, generally in the country, to take them in and oftentimes to adopt them permanently. The officers of the society are Mrs. E V. Stoddard, president; Mrs. Alexander Prentice and Mrs. William N. Cogswell, vice-presidents ; Miss Mary A. Farley, secretary ; Miss Bertha Hooker, treasurer; Miss Alice Bacon, chairman of children's committee.
Of a character benevolent rather than charitable is the Young Men's Christian association, which was organised in 1875 and fifteen years later was able to complete a handsome edifice on the corner of South St. Paul and Court streets, costing, with the land and the furnishing of the house, $180,000, the money being obtained by continued applica- tions to the citizens; this building contains a gymnasium, swimming- bath and bowling alley, with a well-stocked reading-room and an
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assembly room called Music hall, for public entertainments. For this year the officers are Joseph T. Alling, president ; John F. Dinkey and Edward Prizer, vice presidents ; Edward Wheeler, recording secretary ; Robert S. Paviour, treasurer ; Alfred H. Whitford, general secretary. As an outcome of this is the Young Women's Christian association, which has the occupancy of a house on Franklin street, where meals are served to working girls at cost price, sewing is taught and lodging is given to those who cannot afford to pay for it. Following somewhat in this line is the Women's Educational and Industrial union, with its "working-girls' rest" on North Clinton street, but it extends its labors to the continual inspection of the public schools, which are much ben- efited by its thoughtful and kindly criticisms.
The Art Exchange is an association that has existed here for several years, for the purpose of disposing, particularly at the holiday time, of fancy work that has been left with it by the makers, All these methods of helpfulness are supplemented by Christian reform, Jewish charity, and temperance associations, rescue missions and many other organi- sations which accomplish great good, the amount of which will never be known.
Although the University of Rochester is far from being one of the oldest institutions here, it is certainly one of the most important and is perhaps the one with which the name of the city is most closely asso- ciated in the minds of those at a distance. The title is peculiarly incor- rect, unfortunate and misleading, for the institution is a college and nothing else ; it is not, never has been and in all likelihood never will be a university, there being no thought in the minds of the trustees, as far as is known, of expanding its scope so as to include any department or any school beyond the academic. Why the term " university " was given to it has never been explained satisfactorily, the only thing look- ing to a solution being the expression of a delusive hope that it might some day comprehend a number of colleges or seminaries. That no at- tempt has been made to carry out that idea is to the credit of those in control, for its strength, its reputation and its usefulness are far greater than they would have been had its energy been frittered away in at- tempts at undue expansion. In 1847 an effort was made to transplant to Rochester a small college at Hamilton, in this state, which went by
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the name of Madison university, but the project was resisted so stren- uously by the villagers of that little place that the idea was abandoned after some animosity had been engendered, and the board of regents of the university of the state granted in 1850 a provisional charter, which was afterward made permanent, to the University of Rochester. The trustees organised in September of that year, with the following officers of the board : President, John N. Wilder ; vice-president, Frederick Whittlesey ; secretary, William N. Sage; treasurer, Edwin Pancost- who resigned in a few months and was succeeded by Mr. Sage, who held the treasurership till his death. The faculty consisted of Ira Harris, of Albany, as chancellor (without a professorial chair) ; Asahel C. Kendrick, professor of Greek ; John F. Richardson, of Latin ; John H. Raymond, of history and belles lettres (those three being taken directly from Madison university, where they had taught for many years) ; Chester Dewey, of the natural sciences, and E. Peshine Smith, of mathematics- temporarily till Prof. Quinby came in the following year.
For the first eleven years all the classes were taught in the old United States Hotel building, on West Main street-the Commence- ment exercises being held in Corinthian hall-but in 1861 the removal was effected to the new quarters on the east side of the river. There the university has its home, with a campus of more than twenty-three acres in extent, back of which stand three buildings of pleasing appear- ance-Anderson hall, for general instruction; Sibley hall, which con- tains the library of nearly thirty thousand volumes, and the Reynolds memorial laboratory-the material value of this and other property belonging to the college being about $1,200,000. The faculty, as now constituted, consists of David Jayne Hill, president ; A. C. Kendrick, professor of Greek; S. A. Lattimore, of chemistry ; A. H. Mixer, of modern languages; J. H. Gilmore, of logic, rhetoric and English litera- ture ; Otis H. Robinson, of mathematics and natural philosophy ; W. C. Morey, of history and political science; H. F. Burton, of Latin ; H. L. Fairchild, of geology and natural history ; George W. Forbes, of Greek ; A. L. Baker, of mathematics; C. W. Dodge, of biology; K. P. Shedd, instructor in modern languages; Ryland Kendrick, in Latin and Greek ; H. E. Lawrence, in physics; Adelbert Hamilton, in classics; H. K. Phinney, assistant librarian. While the university has always been
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