CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE - AUTHOR TALK

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Genesee Valley Civil War Roundtable presents
Pembroke, New York, speaker/historian Greg Kinal, who will speak on
Lincoln's Assassination

at the American Legion, through the front entrance
53 West Main Street, LeRoy at 7:30 PM

Discussion period to follow.
New members and interested parties welcome.

Wayne County Historical Society Map Club - November Meeting

The next meeting of Map Club will be Thurs. Nov. 19 at 7pm.

The club will be looking at maps of Native American Settlements in Wayne County
and original Sanborn maps of Macedon.
If possible, Gary Fitzpatrick will be showing Postal Route maps.

At the last meeting Sanborn maps of Clyde, Macedon, Lyons and Newark
were projected on a screen for viewing. Members looked at how certain houses
and buildings changed throughout the years.

Anyone interested in any aspect of maps is invited to come.

For more information about this event, call the Museum of Wayne County History
at 315-946-4943 or look at the website, www.waynehistory.org
The Museum is located at 21 Butternut Street, Lyons NY.

Canal Lock in Minetto Renovated

By Richard Palmer

MINETTO - Ninety-two years ago this [past] spring, the completed Barge Canal
was officially opened across New York State. Like anything that is
rapidly approaching the century mark, keeping it properly maintained
is an on-going process that takes a lot of work and millions of dollars.
To do this, several locks are chosen for a major refit, over and
above normal winter maintenance.

This [past] winter and spring, major work has focused on Locks 05 and 08 on
the Oswego Canal. Rehabilitation work on these locks is being done
by Tioga Construction Co., Inc. of Herkimer, who was awarded the
$9,926,614.50 contract last November.

The largest project, is concentrated on Lock O-5 in Minetto, which
will take two seasons to complete. Work here includes rehabilitation
of concrete surfaces, repair of concrete cracks and voids in filling
culvert; rehabilitation of mechanical components; upgrading and
rehabilitation of the electrical system; replacement of lower miter
gates; repair of upper miter gates; replacement of utility bridge;
replacement of railing, ladders and stairs; and replacement of
operator's shelter. This work is slated to be completed in July, 2010.

Work at Lock O-8 in Oswego this past winter included rehabilitation
of concrete surfaces in upper left corner; reinforcing bar drilling
and grouting; sealing of concrete cracks; and reworking and
reinstallation of miter gate, gate machinery and valve machinery.

© 2009 Richard Palmer

History Fair - Revised Schedule / Vendors

Heretics, History and Hallelujas

~ 2009 Regional History Fair ~

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. November 14th

Calvary St. Andrew's Church, 68 Ashland St., Rochester, 14620



REVISED PROGRAM

~ 10 a.m. Alan Illig, The Life of Heretic Algernon Crapsey

~ 11 a.m. Majorie Searl, Artist George Haushalter

~ 11:30 a.m. Valerie O'Hara, History of Stained Glass Art

~ 1:30 p.m. Valerie O'Hara, CSA Stained Glass Tour

~ 3 p.m. Virtual Tour of Mount Hope Cemetery


VENDORS

Ad-Hoc Visions; Susan B. Anthony House; Antique Appraisals by
Yvonne Jordan; Antique Postcards; Authors: Rose O'Keefe and
Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck; Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse and Charlotte
Village & Transportation Museum; Chordteacher.com; Friends of Mount Hope
Cemetery; Friends of the Market; Greece Historical Society; Highland Park Neighborhood Assoc.;
Canal Society of NYS *;
Record Archive; Rochester Museum & Science Center; Rochester Public Library
local history

*Joann and I will be personing the Canal Society table. Stop and say hi.


Hearty chili, scrumptious soup & breads for sale 11 a.m.- 1 p.m.

~ Free admission ~ ~ Proceeds benefit CSA art restoration fund ~



Free parking at the Postler Jaeckle lot on South Avenue at Averill Avenue

VALERIE O'HARA

Valerie O'Hara will be speaking on Stained Glass Art at CSA
at Calvary St. Andrew's Church, at 11:30 AM.

Pike Stained Glass Studios is among the oldest stained glass studios in the country. We are among the leading designers and manufacturers of one of a kind stained glass windows and the most expert and informed restorers of antique windows. In 1908 William Pike, the current owner’s great uncle, moved to Rochester to start his company after working for the legendary Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York City.

In 1948, James O’Hara, Pike’s nephew, began working for his uncle and eventually purchased the business from him. Pike continued working at the studio until his death in 1958. Jim O’Hara held a master’s degree in Fine Arts from City College in New York City and had work experience in industrial design and teaching before moving to Rochester. Jim’s mother managed the studio office from 1950-1970 and his wife, Norma Lee O’Hara, assisted in the design of windows and color selection from 1948 to 1976.

In 1966, at the age of 12, Valerie O’Hara began working for her father part-time after school and during the summers. After graduation from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1976, when she began working full time designing and creating one of a kind custom commissions, as well as repairing and restoring stained glass.

The sole owner and director since 1987, when Valerie purchased the studio from her father, Valerie specializes in the art of hand painting on glass to create effects that cannot be achieved through the medium of lead and glass alone. This skill, and her knowledge of religious iconography, make her uniquely qualified to continue the work of her predecessors in stained glass.

For Regional Fair details click on the October arrow to the left of the page, then on the first item – HERETICS, HISTORY and HALLELUJAS.

More speaker bios tomorrow

MARJORIE SEARL

Marjorie Searl will be speaking on Artist George Haushalter at the 2009 Regional Fair this coming Saturday at Rochester’s Calvary St. Andrew’s Church, at 11 AM.

Marjorie Searl is the Curator of American Art and the Chief Curator at the Memorial Art Gallery. Her most recent publication, Seeing America: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, was the culmination of a multi-year research project funded in part by the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. The publication accompanied the reinstallation of the 19th and 20th century American art galleries at MAG. Most recently, she curated the exhibition Maira Kalman: The Elements of Style.

In 2003, Searl organized the exhibition Leaving For the Country: George Bellows at Woodstock , a groundbreaking retrospective of the work of the last five years of Bellows’s paintings and prints that had a national tour. She also wrote for and edited the exhibition catalog. Searl has spoken on George Bellows at the Woodstock Artists Association and Hobart College. Previously, she curated the Memorial Art Gallery exhibition About Face: John Singleton Copley’s Portrait of a Colonial Silversmith, the first in a series of Masterpiece in Context exhibitions, which investigated the Gallery’s portrait of silversmith and engraver, Nathaniel Hurd. This project which was funded by grants from the Museum Loan Network, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. In connection with this exhibition, she has written for the online publication AntiquesAmerica.com. She also edited and wrote for the Gallery’s scholarly journal Porticus: About "About Face": A New Look at an Early American Mystery.

She was the co-curator, assistant catalog editor and writer for the Memorial Art Gallery exhibition Head, Heart and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters, which toured in 1994-6 under the auspices of the American Federation of Arts. Exhibitions that she has curated include: Furniture from Rochester’s Frank Lloyd Wright House; Architectural Drawings of Louis Kahn’s First Unitarian Church, Rochester; and Chaim Gross’ Song of Songs Portfolio.

Searl was formerly the Gallery’s Estelle B. Goldman curator of education, with responsibility for school and adult programs. She has lectured extensively on museum projects and American art and architecture at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester area colleges and universities, and at national conferences including MidAtlantic Association of Museums, the Annual Arts & Crafts Conference in Asheville, North Carolina, and regional meetings of the American Association of Museums. She is active in community initiatives, including the advisory council of the Caroline Werner Gannett project at RIT.

Searl is a graduate of Smith College, Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Cooperstown Graduate Program.

For Regional Fair details click on the October arrow to the left of the page, then on the first item – HERETICS, HISTORY and HALLELUJAS.

More speaker bios tomorrow

ALAN ILLIG

Alan Illig will be speaking on The Life of Heretic Algernon Crapsey at the 2009 Regional Fair this coming Saturday at Rochester’s Calvary St. Andrew’s Church, at 10 AM.

Alan Illig was born and raised in Rochester’s 19th ward. He graduated from West High School, Rutgers University and Harvard Law School. Mr. Illig is a member of Third Presbyterian Church and was the lawyer for Algernon Crapsey’s grandson Arthur Jr. and Hettie Jean Crapsey.

Mr. Illig was a lawyer with Harter, Secrest and Emery Law Office. For the past six years he has been a part-time staff with Life Span.

For Regional Fair details click on the October arrow to the left of this page, then on the first item – HERETICS, HISTORY and HALLELUJAS.

More speaker bios tomorrow

Not So Nice Accommodations

© 2007 David Minor / Eagles Byte

English author Jeremy Bentham began proposing prison reforms in the 1780s; dying in 1832 he would not see any results. But his ideas were being discussed, even if implemented only at a glacial pace. We’ve seen James Stuart’s interest in New York’s prison at Auburn back in 1828. Now, two years later, John Fowler’s following right in his footsteps, even taking the same 25¢ tour – apparently inflation hasn’t kicked in during the intervening period. The fee is to help offset operational costs.

On August 24th Fowler was right at the front gate at 6 AM. As he passed into the facility he may have glanced up to the roof of the administration building and seen a wooden soldier in Revolutionary War uniform, that had stood guard there for the past nine years. Eighteen years in the future the weather will have done its work and he’ll need replacing. Prisoners in the foundry there will make a copper version, which soon becomes known as Copper John . If you’re sent there as a resident today it will be said by some locals that you’re, “going to work for Copper John”.

First on the tour were the cells. “These gloomy abodes are about seven or eight feet long, by four feet wide, and perhaps about seven feet in height. . . . all the furniture they contain is a hammock, which is let down in the daytime, a stool, and a Bible upon a shelf in one of the corners.”

Fowler is shown the prison’s workshops where, under contract to local stores, prisoners are engaged in various occupations. Fowler lists, “tailoring, shoemaking, weaving, machine, button, cabinet making, &c; coopering, and smiths’ work . . . “. This was the more benign aspect of what was becoming known as the Auburn System.

The other side of the coin was the strict regimentation and isolation of each prisoner. Fowler, quoting an early travel guide, describes prisoners filing in for breakfast. “. . . moving in a single file, with a slow lock step and erect posture, keeping exact time, with their faces inclined towards their keepers (that they may detect conversation, none of which is ever permitted, ) all giving to the spectator somewhat similar feelings to those excited by a military funeral.” After mentioning that the inmates are at no time allowed the opportunity to speak to each other, he goes on to observe, “Some appeared calm and resigned, or sensible of the guilt and degradation of their situation; others displayed an entire indifference to their fate; whilst in a few I noticed the black expressions of obdurate cruelty, ferocity, and revenge, demonstrating but too plainly the justice of the doom which had overtaken them.” In reporter Michael Doyle’s book The Forestport Breaks”, when he describes a prisoner entering Auburn Prison in the 1890s, he tells us, “. . . he would be keeping his eyes straight ahead during meals, eating on tin plates, submitting to the wordless orders communicated by the keepers’ rapping of a staff.” Doyle adds that whippings and cold showers kept obstinate prisoners in line. They probably hadn’t invented waterboarding yet. Might have considered it barbaric, even back then.

By the 1890s reforms were only beginning to be seriously proposed. In 1830 Fowler approves in general with the methods of discipline, “. . . a decided majority, upon leaving the prison, have become reformed and useful members of society.”

Hang in there, Bentham ! !

Steam Boat Launch

Submitted by Dick Palmer


Lyons Republican, Friday May 19, 1820

From the American Journal



On Thursday last, a novel and interesting scene was presented to
the inhabitants of Ithaca and a concourse of strangers and citizens
of the vicinity. It had been previously announced that the Steam Boat
building on the bank of the Inlet near the village, would be launched
at one oíclock. Every thing was in readiness. The day was exceedingly
favorable. It seemed that May had assumed her brightest smiles, and
put on her fairest garments. The banks were lined with spectators;
ladies and gentlemen, young and old, the pride and strength and
beauty of Ulysses, all in anxious expectation.

The word of caution is given, the workmen proceed to remove the
fastings; when by inadvertency the bow is first started, and whiled
from its slider upon the ground near the edge of the water. But the
clouds of disappointment and regret which now shadowed every
countenance, were of short duration. The obstructions were soon
removed; the vessel was again started, gliding with ease and safety
into the water, and the name she is to bear The Enterprise of
Ithaca was announced amidst the firing of cannon, and the loud;
long, and hearty cheers of the spectators:

When we look back for a few years, to the wild, uncultivated,
and unpromising state of this section of country, such a scene as
Thursday presented, is calculated to fill the mind with astonishment,
and to excite reflections which are peculiarly grateful and pleasing.
From the present scene of improvement, we are irresistibly carried
forward to future prospects; and the interesting enquiry suggests it
self what may a few years hence produce! And reverting again to the
present, we acknowledge the full force and comprehensiveness of the
substitute which was proposed for the name of the steam boat who'd
have thought if of Ithaca.

The Enterprise is acknowledged by all who have examined her, to be a
most elegantly modeled vessel. She is about 90 feet by 30 upon deck;
120 tons burthen; and her engine is of 24 horse power. She will be
completed, ready to run, by the first of next month, when we shall
take occasion to give a more just and particular description of her.

HERETICS, HISTORY and HALLELUJAS

2009 Regional History Fair


10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Nov. 14th

Calvary St. Andrew’s Church

68 Ashland St., Rochester, NY 14620


10 a.m. Alan Illig, The Life of Heretic Algernon Crapsey.

11 a.m. Marjorie Searl, Artist George Haushalter

11:30 a.m. Valerie O’Hara, Stained Glass Art at CSA

1:00 p.m. Cynthia Howk, South Wedge History & Architecture

3:00 p.m. Virtual Tour of Mt. Hope Cemetery


Unique Local Vendors & Antique Appraisals All Day

Chili, soups and breads for sale, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m.

Free Admission

Free parking at the Postler Jaeckle lot on South Avenue at Averill Avenue

Proceeds benefit CSA art restoration fund
www.calvarystandrews.org

WESTERN / CENTRAL New York timeline / 1785-1787

1785

Apr 5
Seneca Indians carry off Mary Jemison from her home near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

July
French traveler and diplomat Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur visits Niagara Falls accompanied by a guide named Hunter. They visit with John Burch, a Canadian farmer. He introduces them to another Loyalist, Francis Ellsworth, who acts as their guide to the falls. They may be the first Europeans to go behind the falls. Crèvecoeur and Hunter ride to the mouth of the river where they catch a ferry back to Fort Niagara.

Oct 2
Rochester businessman-postmaster Abelard Reynolds is born in Red Hook (Dutchess County).

Nov 25
Rochester congressman Timothy Childs is born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

State
Geneva is founded on the site of an Indian village. ** A survey of the New York-Pennsylvania state line is begun by brothers Andrew and Joseph Ellicott. ** Township size in "waste and un-appropriated lands" of the Military Tract is set at 6.1 square miles, with a lot size of 200 acres. Veterans of the Sullivan Campaign begin buying land in the central and western areas of the state. ** Mohawk chief Joseph Brant tours the western tribes of the Great Lakes seeking their support for an Indian Confederation. ** The Genesee River floods. ** The approximate date artist James Peachey depicts View of Fort Niagara from the west.


1786

Feb 4
Geneseo schoolteacher Epaphroditus Bigelow is born in Marlborough, Connecticut.

Mar 18
The Steuben County town of Bath is formed.

Nov 30
The Hartford Convention convenes at Hartford, Connecticut, with New York State commissioners Egbert Benson, James Duane, John Haring, Robert R. Livingston, Melancthion Smith and Robert Yates, and Massachusetts commissioners Rufus King, John Lowell, Theophilus Parsons and James Sullivan present.

December
14 Indian tribes of the western Great Lakes, assembled at the urging of New York's Iroquois Confederation earlier in the year, meet in council near Detroit, make a pact for mutual defense in an Indian Confederation. They write to the U. S. requesting an official treaty and repudiate the treaties of Fort Stanwix, Fort McIntosh and Fort Finney. ** Buffalo merchant and philanthropist Seth Grosvenor is born in Pomfret, Connecticut.

Dec 12
New York governor William Learned Marcy is born in Sturbridge (today’s Southbridge), Massachusetts, to Jedediah and Ruth Learned Marcy.

Dec 16
The Hartford Convention votes for New York to divide the Iroquois lands with Massachusetts, which gets the land (preemptive rights – right to buy lands west of a pre-emption Line (nearly 6,000,000 acres) from the Indians), while New York gets political sovereignty. The 230,400-acre area known as the Boston Ten Towns, between the Chenango River and Owego Creek, is retained by Massachusetts. The western boundary of Montgomery County is extended to the Niagara River. It contain 15,057 people. The Town of Whitestown contains under 200 whites.

State
The approximate date followers of Jemima Wilkinson hire Abraham Dayton, Thomas Hathaway and Richard Smith to travel to Yates County to scout a site for a New Jerusalem. ** Gilbert Stuart paints a portrait of Mohawk Indian chief Joseph Brant (Thayendorogea). ** Future governor William C. Bouck is born to Samuel and Margaret Borst Bouck in Schoharie Valley. ** The Office of Land Commissioners is established. ** William Harris settles at the confluence of the Tioga and Conhocton rivers, the site of the future Painted Post. ** Pioneer Anna Mathilda Stewart (Church) is born in Philadelphia to General Walter Stewart and his wife. ** Township size in the "Old" Military Tract and in "waste and un-appropriated" land in the rest of the state, is increased from 6.1 to 10 square miles and from 200 to 640 acres. ** The Seneca confer with the British, arrange for refuge in Canada if relations with the U. S. sour. ** Judge and representative Moses Hayden is born in Conway, Massachusetts.

Syracuse
Trader-interpreter Ephraim Webster, along with Benjamin Newkirk, arrives from Schenectady and establishes a trading post among the Onondaga Indians on the east bank of Onondaga Creek, near Onondaga Lake.


1787

Feb 14
The tenth session of the New York State Legislature passes a law appointing a coroner for each county.

Mar 6
The state's Assembly and Senate each vote to name state Supreme Court judge Robert Yates, John Lansing, Jr. and Alexander Hamilton as delegates to the U. S. Constitutional Convention.

May 20
Early Cohocton settler and granddaughter of Indian captive Jemima Howe, Martha Howe (Fowler) is born in Vernon, Vermont, to Squire and Martha Field Howe.

July 25
Followers of Jemima Wilkinson, the Universal Friend, travel from Connecticut to the Mohawk River, then to Seneca Lake where they settle near today’s Dresden.

Jul 26
New York becomes the eleventh state to enter the Union.

Sep 17
The U. S. Constitution, in a final draft by Gouverneur Morris, is signed by delegates in Philadelphia, who then resolve to forward it to Congress, in New York City. New York dos not formally endorse the document.

Nov 30
The New York Genesee Land Company, an independent group of lessees, negotiates a 999-year-lease on the majority of Iroquois lands in New York State for an annual payment of 2,000 Spanish milled dollars. State governor George Clinton will declare all company transactions null and void.

State
Settlers, mostly from New England, found a settlement at Binghamton. It will be named for landowner William Bingham, who donated land to the village. A Mrs. Blunt is the first resident to die. ** Feudal tenure is abolished. ** A conference meeting at Hartford, Connecticut, sets the western boundary of Indian lands one mile east of the Niagara River, between lakes Ontario and Erie. Rights to the Mile Strip are reserved for the state. ** Great Lakes steamboat operator Josephus Bradner Stuart is born. ** Genesee Valley pioneer Nicholas Hetchler is born in Pennsylvania. ** Painted Post is included in the Albany County town of Whitestown. ** Job Smith, traveling north from the Chemung River, settles at the falls of the Seneca River (today's Seneca Falls), to open a mill. ** The state creates a Board of Regents to oversee schools, setting rules for the incorporation of colleges and academies (high schools), paving the way for a state university system. ** Tioga County’s Boston Ten Towns tract is sold to a company of 60 men, most of them from Massachusetts. ** The first settlement in the Genesee Country is made at the Indian village of Kanadesaga (later Geneva). ** Buffalo merchant and library benefactor Seth Grosvenor is born. ** Lieutenant John Enys of the 29th Regiment of Foot visits Niagara Falls.

© 2008 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Rochester Museum and Science Center

Subitted by Rosemary O'Keefe

Rocheseter Museum and Science Center has a new site:
www.libcat@rmsc,org/
that is an astounding online library catalogue of their photos
and book collections.
The Stone photo collection is on there and they are in the process
of adding their Native American collection.

Shacksboro Schoolhouse

On the way home from a recent Canal Society of New York weekend field trip to central New York, Joann and I happened upon a Baldwinsville museum, at noontime on Sunday, which happened to opening just at that time for the afternoon. We stopped in for a visit and were shown around by docent Mary Hartigan.

Their current exhibit is entitled, “Math 101: The 3 R's + Community = School", featuring “A photographic history of Baldwinsville's schools and students with special emphasis on the rural schools that dotted the countryside until consolidation was completed in 1952.”

There’s lots more to see on their web site

www.shacksboromuseum.com/

including Historical Overviews of Baldwinsville, the Shacksboro Schoolhouse itself (the museum’s home), the latest newsletter, the area’s flower farms and cemeteries, and the current lecture series on “Remembering Baldwinsville”.

So, check out their web site or pay them a visit if you get a chance sometime. I sense a future New Society destination.

A MONSTER CANAL BOAT

Submitted by Dick Palmer

Oswego Commercial Times, Monday, March 8, 1861

The largest canal boat we have ever seen, and we think the largest
afloat, was launched on Saturday from the boat yard of Samuel Miller
in this city. The new boat is called the Abraham Lincoln bears a
handsome portrait of "Old Abe" on the stern, and belongs to Alderman
George S. Alvord of this city. She is 96 feet 6 inches long, 17 feet
5 inches wide, 9 feet and 2 inches between decks. Notwithstanding
her size, she draws only about thirteen inches of water. The boat
is capable of carrying 11,500 bushels of wheat.

One gains a good idea of the progress of inland navigation as
fostered and encouraged by the State of New York by examining this
craft, which is probably twice as large as the vessel in which
Columbus crossed the ocean and discovered a new world, or one-third
larger than the Mayflower which landed at Plymouth Rock.

Altogether the boat is the handsomest canal craft we have ever
seen, and reflects much credit upon Mr. Miller's yard. Ald[erman]. Alvord
has a consort for the Lincoln on the stocks at the same yard, which
when completed is to be called the Hannibal Handin.

By visiting this yard, one may learn something of Oswego's
activity and enterprise. Mr. Miller has three canal boats now on the
stocks for repairs, and is putting the finishing touches upon a small
fleet of boats. Some fifty or sixty men are kept constantly at work,
getting craft in readiness to transport the surplus grain to tide-water.

November 14, 2009

History Fair in Rochester's South Wedge

Watch here for details as the date approaches

Nice Accommodations

© 2007 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Leaving Syracuse and passing through the outlying settlement of Salina, John Fowler’s coach heads southwest, passing through Marcellus and heading into Skaneateles, at the northern end of the lake of the same name, the town formed back in February from the aforementioned Town of Marcellus. The village itself, which Fowler calls pleasantly situated, will be incorporated three year from now. He’s impressed with its “several genteel residences” and mentions its Friends (or Quaker) boarding school. He may also have passed by a brick Baptist Church and Solomon Earll’s gristmill, both built this year. He probably also went past the Sherwood Tavern, built in 1807. It’s still there now - considerably enlarged - in the twenty-first century.

Continuing on they reach the Cayuga County village of Auburn around 8:30 in the evening. Fowler is fairly satisfied with that day’s progress, seventy miles in twelve-and-a-half hours, “which, taking into account the state of the roads, the heat of the day &c. is by no means to be complained of.” There they check into the American Hotel.

The Sherwood tavern he’d passed back in Skaneateles had been built by Isaac Sherwood. Auburn’s American Hotel where Fowler will spend the night, was completed this year by stagecoach magnate John M. Sherwood, son of Isaac. Fowler is impressed.

“ . . . an establishment upon a very extended scale . . . of freestone, five stories high, with piazzas, twenty feet or more in width, up to the third story. Many of the apartments are large and elegantly furnished, and I am informed they can, if requisite, make up 250 or 300 beds. It has been recently erected, and, excepting at New York, is quite the best inn I have seen in the State . . .” It probably should go without saying, that as passengers on the “Old Line” of coaches, also owned by Sherwood, they were expected to stay at the American.

There was competition. Directly across Genesee Street stood the Western Exchange hotel, now owned by the rival Pioneer Line. Richard F. Palmer’s [yes, our Dick Palmer] 1977 book The “Old Line Mail”: Stagecoach Days in Upstate New York”, contains illustrations of the two buildings. It’s obvious the two were attempting to one-up each other, with their multiple columns, chimneys, balconies and cupolas. The American won out as far as entrances are concerned – it had two. But the Exchange did win out on tradition. Lafayette had stayed here on his 1826 American journey.

Fowler’s certainly impressed enough with the American. “. . . so much has it pleased me, in fact, that I am tempted to forego my half resolve, not to make trial of a public dormitory again in the country. I shall adventure this once upon the credit of fair promise and will report progress in the morning.” Any bets?

You’re probably betting the bugs would once again drive him bonkers. You lose. “For once appearances have not been deceitful. I have slept undisturbed, excepting that I was aroused at a pretty early hour this morning by the loud pealing of thunder . . .” At least he can’t blame that on an innkeeper.

There was one special Auburn institution that Fowler wanted to see. Temporarily, of course. Next time.


NOTE:

Received the following amplification on the recent Hamilton College script - "88 in the Shade" - from listener/reader, Civil War historian, and James S. Wadsworth biographer, Wayne Mahood, a graduate of the college – long after Fowler passed through, of course.

“For what it's worth, Philopeuthian was considered by the Phoenicians the lesser of the two societies, for its members came from less wealthy and established families. But the origin of its name? Who knows?

And, for what it's worth, the college was recovering from a bitter fight between the board of trustees, including abolitionist and alumnus Gerrit Smith, and the president.

Even worse, not too long before this, when James S. Wadsworth may have been a student there, some students hauled a Revolutionary War cannon up the hill from Clinton, then up some two or three flights to fire at a detested tutor. The tutor escaped harm, but not his coat. The miscreants were dismissed, then returned after their parents protested the dismissal.

Young Wadsworth's father may have had his young son return home after this incident, though I can't prove it.”

Canal Items - 1822

Submitted by Richard Palmer


Ontario Repository, Canandaigua, N.Y., Aug 6,1822
Lansingburgh July 30

Champlain Canal - Many exaggerated reports have been put in
circulation, respecting the injury done to the Champlain canal, and
the dam at Fort Edward, by the late freshet. The last Sandy Hill
Times, a paper published in the neighborhood of the canal, contains
the following article on the subject, which we believe to be correct:--

The Freshet: The damage done by the late freshet, to grass, corn and
other grain growing on the low lands contiguous to Woodcreek is said
to be immense. Much injury was also done to the lumber with which the
creek had been literally filled from Fort Ann to Whitehall, and
waiting a supply of water in the summit level of the canal. So great
was the rise and fury of the stream that large rafts of timber, board,
plank &c. were forced from their moorings, and carried a considerable
distance into the fields, so that when the water receded they were left
"high and dry," and in a perfect state of hotch-potch. The canal, too,
was very considerably impaired.

"Great fears were entertained for the safety of the dam which was
undergoing repairs at Fort Edward; but which was made to ride out the
storm," by the skill and unremitted exertions of the gentleman who
had it in charge. It gives us pleasure to be enabled to state that it is
now considered out of danger, and bids fair to be completed in a
short time, say three weeks."


Geneva Gazette, Aug. 14, 1822
(From the N.Y. Spectator, Aug. 1.)

Onondaga Salt- We learn from the Albany Argus, that extensive
preparations are making to manufacture salt at Salina, by evaporation
in the sun, instead of boiling as has hitherto been practised. Two
companies one from New Bedford, Mass. and the other from this city,
are stated to be engaged in the enterprise. The plan is the same as
that practised by Judge Quincey, near Boston, as described in this
paper a short time since. By the process of boiling, the bitumen
which the water contains, becomes incorporated with the salt; hence
its impurities and hitherto bad reputation; indeed it could not be
relied on with safety, except for the purpose of agriculture and the use of stock.

An entire change by the new process will take place in this
business, by which instead of an impure, weak, and fine salt, which
has hitherto been made here, there will be produced a coarse salt, of
a quality equal to any in the world. There is no limit to the
quantity which may be manufactured on the proposed new plan, as long
as the sun continues to shed its genial rays on the face of this
globe, and wood can be found of which to construct an increased number of vats.

The fountain which has been pouring forth its saline stream
"since time was" is an inexhaustible as the ocean itself. We have long
been surprised that the process of evaporation by the sun, has not
been sooner adopted. The waters at Salina are five or six times strong as
the ocean, and the product must of course be in the same ratio.

CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE - AUTHOR TALK

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Genesee Valley Civil War Roundtable
Presents Depew, New York historian and re-enacotr Peter Myhalenko
on Emory Upton and the Spotsylvania Campaign

The program takes place at the American Legion, through the front entrance, 53 West Main Street,
LeRoy at 7:30 PM.

Discussion period to follow.
New members and interested parties welcome!

Upcoming Author Talks

Batavia's Bill Kaufman
will talk on cherishing and defending hometowns
at 10 AM, October 13th, at Finger Lakes Community College at Hopwell
check www.flcc.edu or call 585 394-3522

Phyllis Pittman Kitt (see "rescheduled" note below)
will sign copies of her new book
God's Country: Churches and Chapels of the Genesee Valley
at the Pittsford Public Library on October 13th at 7 PM.

Broadcast Rescheduled

Thursday 10/15
Hr. 1 (12 Noon)
Historian and author Phyllis Pittman Kitt; how the houses of worship we built in upstate NY 100 to 200 years ago
say a lot about our history and values (tape)


Her WXXI-AM interview with Bob Smith on 1370 Connection is broadcast at
1370 on the AM radio dial and also streamed on-line at wxxi.org
Click on the Listen Live link in the upper left corner of the opening screen
(You'll probably want to set this up a few minutes beforehand)