Crooked Lake Review Blog

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1821

2012-02-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

Feb 23

Monroe County (on second attempt by Colonel Nathaniel Rochester) and Livingston County are formed from parts of Ontarioand Genesee counties. Colonel Rochester becomes county clerk. Geneseo becomesthe seat of Livingston County, Rochester the seat of Monroe. Mendon becomespart of Monroe County. Avon lawyer George Hosmer is named as Livingston'sdistrict attorney. The Orleans County Town of Clarenden is formed from theMonroe County Town of Sweden. The Monroe County Town of Inverness (quicklyrenamed Wheatland) is created out of the Livingston County Town of Caledonia. MonroeCounty’s population is about 23,000. ** The first brick home in Rochester is completed.

Mar 16

The Cayuga County town of Conquest is formed outof Cato Township.

Mar 29

Cattaraugus County’s Town of Farmersville isformed from the Town of Ischua (later Franklinville).

Mar 31

The state legislature incorporates the OntarioCanal Company, capitalized at $100,000, to connect Canandaigua Lake to the ErieCanal. Nothing is ever done.

Apr 2

Erie County is created out of Niagara County.

Apr 24

Benjamin Barber Conable is born prematurely toRufus and Sophia Conable in Gainsville, due to the jostling of the cartbringing them from western Massachusetts to their new home there.

May

Contracts are let for the Deep Cut portion of theErie Canal at Lockport.

May 8

The Rochester Board of Supervisors meets for thefirst time. ** The first Monroe CountyCourt is held in the loft of Rochester’s Eagle Tavern.

May 9

The Monroe County Medical Society is organized.

May 21

The contract to build the five-step Erie Canallocks at Lockport is awarded to Claudius Boughton, Joseph Comstock, OliverCulver, and John Maynard.

May 23

Ontario Canal Company commissioners N. Gorham, Z.Seymour, Asa Stanley, P. P. Bates, and William H. Adams open the books forsubscriptions, at Coe’s Hotel in Canandaigua.

May 30

The Monroe County Bible Society is founded.

Jun 12

Ontario Canal Company subscriptions reach $20,000.

Jul 1

The first dance in the village of Connewango isheld at the home of Russel Pennock.

August

Contractor William Britton, aided by 30 convictsfrom Auburn Prison, begins construction of Rochesterville’s Erie Canal Aqueductover the Genesee River.

Oct 26

Joseph Ellicott, Resident-Agent for Batavia’sHolland Land Office, resigns due to ill health and increasing criticism of hisperformance.

Nov 1

The Lake Erie Steamboat Company’s Great Lakessteamer Walk-in-the-Water runsaground in Lake Erie off Buffalo. There are no injuries. Judge Samuel Wilkesonmakes a deal with a representative from the steamboat company. He will see theboat is freed by May first of the following year or forfeit $150 for each daythe deadline is missed. The company will build a new boat in Buffalo if thedeadline is met.

Dec 4

Archibald S. Clarke, native Marylander and NewYork State lawyer and congressman, dies in Clarence, in his early thirties.

State

The towns of Almond and Independence are split offfrom Alfred. ** The improved canal betweenCayuga & Seneca lakes is completed, encompassing 1.72 miles of canal and 8stone locks. ** Monroe and Livingstoncounties are carved out of Genesee County. Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, who ledthe drive for a new county on the Genesee after a 1817 drive failed, is named clerk of Monroe County;Matthew Brown is named chairman of the Board of Town Supervisors. Mr. Rochesteris also named the county's first representative in the State Assembly. ** Nathan Burt of Mt. Morrissettles in Connewango. ** In CayugaCounty Conquest, Ira, and Victory are taken off the town of Cato. ** The Monroe County Sheriff'sOffice is formed. Brockport merchant James Seymour is appointed as the firstsheriff. ** The approximate date JamesPercival buys out The Moscow Advertiser and Genesee Farmer, moves it from Moscow, New York, to Geneseo andrenames it The Livingston Register. ** Andrew Allen, IsaacEggleston, Amos and David Orton, James Strong, and Hiram Wood settle along FiveMile Creek at Allegany ** Presbyterianminister the Reverend Robert Hunter conducts the first religious service in theAllegany County town of Allen. ** Residents name their village Lockport. ** William Allen arrives in Geneseofrom Adams. He will become a land agent for the Wadsworths for the next 45years. ** William A. Hart drills thefirst gas well in the U. S., in Fredonia. ** Samuel Fowler is born to Horace and Mary TaylorFowler in Cohocton. ** Canandaiguaentrepreneur Bela Coe repurchases the stage mail franchise for his hotel fromthe heirs of Sylvanus Marvin. He will lease the tavern for a time, then sell itand return to Buffalo. ** Canastotapioneer Reuben Perkins sells the remaining 228 acres of his 328-acrepatent. ** The Bank of Geneva opens onthe south side of Pulteney Park, which becomes known as Bank Alley. ** The state has 202,510eligible voters. ** The recentformation of new counties has eliminated “double districts” in New York, somedating back to 1810. ** FormerBenton, Ontario County (later Yates County), town supervisor Elijah Spencerserves in the 17^th U.S. congress for a two-year term. ** Williams College graduateMoses Hayden opens a law office in York. ** Connecticut Law School graduate FrederickWhittlesley is admitted to the bar in Utica, begins practicing in Cooperstown.briefly before moving on to Rochester. ** Millers Andrew Lincoln and Samuel Rich build adam across Monroe County’s Irondequoit Creek, just south of where the futureLinden Avenue bridge will cross, creating a 50-acre mill pond later namedSpring Lake. ** Millers Andrew Lincoln,Rich and Lathrop build a dam across Irondequoit Creek, just south of where thefuture Linden Avenue bridge will cross, creating a 50-acre grist mill pondlater named Spring Lake.

Auburn

The Auburn Theological Seminary opens. ** Auburn Prison experimentswith solitary confinement without labor. The method is not a success. ** Master-builder andcarpenter John I. Hagaman opens a school of architectural design.

Buffalo

The city's first theater opens across Main Streetfrom the Eagle Tavern. It does not do well.

Connewango

The wife of early settler John Farlee dies in the fall- the first death of an adult in town. She’s buried in her garden, in the midstof a raging snow-storm. No minister is present; a friend offers a prayer. ** Nathan Burt of Mount Morrisand Daniel Newcomb of Goshen settle in town, as does John Darling of Vermont.Darling becomes trapped overnightby wolves in his sugar house later in the year. ** Benjamin Darling and his wife and five childrenarrive from Vermont, having traveled for four weeks by ox-team and sled. ** Peter Pennock arrives fromGenesee County; Luman Beach arrives from Caledonia.

Erie Canal

Construction at Rochesterville is completed. Thestretch between Utica and High Falls is also completed. ** The state signs construction contracts for theNiagara County portion of the canal. ** The Seneca Lock Navigation Company opens achannel south to Seneca Lake.

Oswego

The shipbuilding firm of Townsend, Bronson &Co. is dissolved. ** A lighthouseis built on Lake Ontario.

Pittsford

Dr. John Ray dies at the age of 78. ** Young cabinet maker and future student oftelegraphy Charles Came moves into the village.

Rochesterville

The first jail in the settlement is built on NorthFitzhugh Street, a log cabin with cells along a central corridor. ** The first court house isbuilt. ** The Reverend Charles Buck'sThe Young Christian's Guide ispublished by printer Everard Peck. ** Peck publishes Lindley Murray's adaptation fromthe 28th English edition of English Grammar. ** Myron Holley and John Gilbert begin constructionof a stone warehouse at the future junction of the Erie Canal and one of itsfeeders. ** Massachusetts native DanielDewey Barnard opens a law office here. ** Thurlow Weed moves here from Weedsport, goes towork for the Rochester Telegraphas an assistant editor.

Missouri

Hathaway Richmond, father of fifteen-year-oldfuture Batavia railroad tycoon Dean Richmond, dies in St. Louis at about 48years of age.

U. S. Government

Former general Peter Buell Porter enters theFourteenth Congress, his third,

non-consecutive term. He is joined by MicahBrooks, both men representing New York’s District 21, a divided double districtuntil later in the year when new counties are formed.

Netherlands

The government discards recordsof the East India Company and the West India Company dating prior to 1700.

Strong Doll Museum Query

2012-02-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

I recall as a young girl, and extreme love, nearly an obsession with doll houses and dolls. I recall that on several occasions we visited the Margaret Woodbury Strong Doll Museum in the home at 700 Allens Creek Road. I must have been quite young, 5 in 1962, perhaps even prior to that. I recall a fascination with the doll houses at the Strong Estate on Allens Creek Road and the dolls as well. Seems I recall visiting with family visiting Rochester.

Do you recall the fact that the Strong Estate at 700 Allens Creek Road was open to the public for visitation as a doll museum? Any idea what years? The article in CLR does not mention that this was a public museum at one time. I wanted to verify the information for myself, since I can't seem to find it online.

I'm very interested in local history, especially the Erie Canal, local historical women of note, and the Finger Lakes.

Thanks so much.

Regards,

Mrs. Sue (Vetter) Wemett, Greece, NY

swemett@rochester.rr.com

Official 2012 Cayuga County Visitors' Guide

2012-02-17T16:54:00.003-05:00

The Cayuga County Office of Tourism has published the 2012 Official Visitors' Guide to Cayuga County. The 64-page guide was designed by local design firm, Coburn Design, based in Auburn, NY, with cover photography by Aurora photographer Jacqueline Conderacci. The new guide contains information on attractions, entertainment, recreation , shopping, wineries and a variety of places to stay from cozy B&Bs to full-service hotels. New features this year include 'the inside scoop' with tips from local residents on where to view public art, the best place to walk your dog and even the best place to get an ice cream cone. Also, new in 2012 is a special section devoted to the 'Flavor of the Finger Lakes' with information on farmers markets, places to buy and eat local and a 'Field to Fork' itinerary to help visitors experience our rich agricultural bounty. To receive a FREE Visitors' Guide to Cayuga County call 800-499-9615 or visit www.tourcayuga.com.

Loss of One of Our Own

2012-02-16T12:36:00.001-05:00

Received the following information from Martha Treichler:

“John Rezelman died a couple days ago at 94 years of age. His memorial service is this Saturday at 11 am at the Bath Centenary Methodist Church. I think most of the members of the Society of the Genesee who knew him are no longer attending, but I wanted everyone to know. He was a charter member of our group.”

John wrote several dozen articles for the Crooked Lake Review back in the 1980s and 1990s and can be located by his name in the blog search box partway down the left column of this page.

His online obituary in the Corning Leader can be found at

http://www.the-leader.com/obituaries/x2112943633/John-Rezelman

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1820

2012-02-15T22:01:00.002-05:00

Jan 24

Future U.S. Representative and New York Times founder and publisher Henry Jarvis Raymond is born near Lima.

Feb 4

Buffalo attorney Dennis Bowen is born in Aurora to Jonathan and Vashti Wheeler Bowen.

Mar 1

Buffalo mayor and Civil War general William Findlay Rogers is born near Easton, Pennsylvania, to Irish-born newspaper publisher and Civil War general Thomas Jones Rogers and his wife.

Mar 14

The Genesee County town of Elba is taken off of the town of Batavia.

Mar 24

The Genesee County town of Stafford is formed from parts of Batavia and Le Roy.

Apr 21

The Lion of the West leaves Rochesterville, the first canal boat from there to Utica, on the Erie Canal.

May

The section of the Erie Canal between Utica and the Seneca River at Montezuma is opened for public use. Among the new ports created is Port Byron, with its aqueduct over the canal.

May 22

The Genesee River bridge at Carthage collapses.

May 23

Former New England congressman Daniel Webster addresses a crowd in Rochester's Reynolds Arcade.

Jul 1

The first toll is collected on the Erie Canal.

Jul 9

Dryden, New York, teacher Edward Rulloff (Edward H. Rulloffson) is born in St. John’s, New Brunswick.

Aug 20

A meeting is held at Canandaigua’s Mill’s Hotel to discuss the building of a canal linking Canandaigua Lake with the Erie Canal. John C. Spencer, James D. Bemis, Asa Stanley, Dudley Marvin, and William H. Adams are appointed to study a route. ** A waterspout appears in Lake Ontario off the shore of Oswego.

Sep 7

During a Lake Erie storm, two lake vessels are forced to tie up at the new pier being built by Samuel Wilkeson at Buffalo Creek (later the Buffalo River). The pier holds.

Sep 20

Rochesterville’s Methodist Episcopal Church opens. Abelard Reynolds is named first trustee.

October

Franklin Cowdery begins publishing the Angelica Republican.

Oct 2

Nathan Reed is the first child born in the town of Allegany.

Nov 20

The corvette Madison, built in 40 days, is launched from Henry Eckford’s shipyard in Sackets Harbor.

December

Fifteen men, mostly Quakers, knowing the Erie Canal will come through the area, have bought up the site of the future Lockport.

Dec 21

The Canandaigua Lake canal committee recommends a 19 1/2-mile route that would require 23 locks and cost $68,000. The Ontario Canal Company is formed.

State

De Witt Clinton wins the governorship, but with a Bucktail (Republican) legislature. ** A Lake Erie lighthouse is erected on Dunkirk's Point Gratiot. Another is built on Galloo Island in Lake Ontario’s Sackets Harbor. ** Joseph Cox begins operating a ferry on the Genesee River near Rush. ** Onondaga County area white population is over fifty people per square mile. Orleans County has a population of 7,116. ** The approximate date Geneva’s Ludlow House is built, at 388 Pulteney Street. Federal row houses are also built at 394, 398, 400 and 402 Pulteney this year. ** Carthage landing on the Genesee ships 67,468 bushels of flour, 5,310 barrels of pearl and pot ash, 26,743 barrels of beef and pork, and 709 barrels of whiskey, along with other goods, on 316 vessels. ** Three dry seasons reduce the clearance over the Genesee River sandbar from twelve to six feet. ** Connewango pioneer James Blanchard and his wife Eunice open a tavern on the old Chautauqua road. Carpenter David Davidson builds the first frame building in town. Stephen Nichols, David Cooper, Culver Crumb and Vermont farmer Ezra Amadon settle in town. Windsor, Vermont, Native Thomas Darling arrives from York, New York. Restless, he will soon move on to Ohio. Brothers Leonard and Aaron Barton arrive form Massachusetts but soon grow discouraged and return there.. Elias Wilcox arrives from Livingston County. ** Auburn’s Theological Seminary is incorporated. ** The approximate date a barn is built in Ontario County that will one day be part of the Genesee Country Museum. ** Ebenezer Reed of Connecticut settles near the mouth of Cattaraugus County’s Five Mile Creek, the future site of the town of Allegany. ** 14-year-old Palmyra farm boy Joseph Smith reports seeing God and Christ while praying in a maple grove. ** The Commissioners of the land office are authorized to survey and sell lots on the Onondaga salt spring reservation, as with other un-appropriated lands in the state, the proceeds to go to the Commissioners of the Canal Fund. $20,000, from the first sales is to be applied to the improvement of navigation on the Oswego River. ** The approximate date (or 1821) when Josiah Chadwick builds a tavern on the Geneseo Road just south of Avon. ** A brick courthouse-jail is built at Pulaski Village and a wood courthouse at Oswego City. ** Vermont-born physician Andrew Oliver opens a practice in Penn Yan. ** Methodist Episcopalian minister Austin Cowles holds the first religious services in the Allegany County Town of Bolivar. ** Esek Brown opens a tavern on the future site of Lockport. ** Ira Chubb's farm in the Yates County Town of Barrington is completed. The road by the farm will be named the Chubb Hollow Road. ** Cohocton's first frame schoolhouse is built, in front of Maple View Cemetery. ** The approximate date Ezra Jones builds a farmhouse in Ontario County. ** Stonington, Connecticut, native George Brown dies in his mid-forties in Branchport. The land there that he planned to build a tavern on reverts to landowner John Beddoe. ** The approximate date a law office is built in East Avon. It will later house a boot and shoemaker's shop. ** Artist/naturalist John James Audubon visits Niagara Falls. ** Rufus Conable travels from western Massachusetts to build a cabin for his family in Gainesville, New York. ** 122,553 men are currently enrolled in the state militia. ** Jonathan Gerry builds a house on East Main Street in Avon (it will later become a health spa, then the Avon Inn). ** Victor’s Springdale Farm homestead is established at Valentown Road and Mott’s Corners. It will one day become a Bed & Breakfast. ** The Cayuga Lake excursion steamboat Enterprise is built for Timothy Dwight Wilcox’s Cayuga Steamboat Company. ** The village of St. Helena begin planning its future form and structures. ** Monroe County has a population of 12,835; compared to 6,945 in 1814., broken down by town - Brighton (1972; 675), Mendon (2,012; 1,353), Penfield (3,224; 1,874), Perinton (1664; 821) and Pittsford (3763; 2,222).

Buffalo

It's loan protected by personal bonds, the state provides $12,000 for harbor improvements. ** The area now has 32 blacks. ** The steamboat Walk-in-the-Water leaves for Mackinac with $100,000 in trade goods for John Jacob Astor. ** Joseph Clary arrives from Oneida County to read law.

Canals

Improvements are completed along 1.72 miles of the Cayuga-Seneca Waterway. Locks are 64 feet long, and can handle boats up to 20 tons. Towpaths are no longer needed on the slack water portions.

Pittsford

The village has a population of 1,582. ** Samuel Hildreth builds a home at 44 North Main Street.

Rochesterville

Azel Ensworth’s tavern becomes the Eagle Hotel, with the addition of a high attic to serve as ballroom and public hall. ** Court Street is extended. ** The population reaches 1,502, up from 331 in 1816. ** Miller Charles J. Hill is named a trustee of the village. ** Matthew Brown completes a sawmill and millrace at the High Falls. The race powers five mills and a distillery. ** Several private wells are dug near the springs on Spring Street. ** Everard Peck begins publishing the Farmer's Calendar, or Ontario and Genesee Almanac. Peck also publishes The Life and Adventures of James R. Durand for the author, probably the first book printed here. ** The first St. Luke's Episcopal Church, a wooden structure, is built. ** The settlement becomes the nation’s largest boat-building town, remaining so for approximately the next 75 years. ** The nearby small village of Allyns Creek has a larger population than Rochesterville. ** James K. Livingston acquires the Allens Creek property of Gideon Cobb. Cobb moves into town and starts a brickyard on Monroe Avenue (future site of the Monroe YMCA). ** The approximate date a carding mill is built on Irondequoit Creek near the Perinton line, William Fellows and J. Keys build a tannery nearby, Isaac Mott opens a cooper shop, Abner Cole builds a forge and an ironworks, Andrew Lincoln, John Lathrop and Samuel Rich build a saw mill, and Nathaniel Norton operates a shingle mill.

GREECE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROGRAM - 2/14

2012-02-12T13:19:00.004-05:00

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Greece Town Hall, 7:00 p.m.

Sons of Old Monroe: The 140th N.Y. Volunteer Infantry

by Brian Bennett

Brian Bennett, author of three books relating to the 140th N.Y., will

discuss and share images associated with the service of this local Civil

War unit. Recruited in 1862 and composed of men from across Monroe County, including Greece, its story is at the same time typical and unique among Northern regiments. By war's end, the 140th had a well-earned reputation as an elite unit, due in large part to the key role it played at the battle of Gettysburg.

MENDON PONDS PARK QUERY

2012-02-07T16:21:00.004-05:00

Received form Peggy Butler. You can send any replies to me at
dminor@eznet.net
and I'll pass them along.
David

Hi. We moved to Mendon Ponds Park roughly five years

ago. Our house backs up on three of four sides. I've

tried and have somewhat succeeded in finding as much

information as possible on the park. I've hit the

libraries and received basic stuff. However, when I

discovered your articles (Crooked Lakes) especially

the ones by John G. Sherry - it was such a great day

for me. The articles are extremely rich and provide

scores of information on Mendon Ponds Park. Can you

recommend any books and/or articles on the subject?

Any library better than another on Mendon Ponds Park?

Any museums better than another? Finally besides John

Sheret's articles, any other author(s) would you

recommend from Crooked Lake whose focus is Mendon

Ponds Park?

 Peggy Butler

Canal Society of New York State Winter Meeting

2012-02-02T11:22:00.006-05:00

Below is the announcement for the Canal Society’s Winter

Meeting

Further information, including pre-registration procedures

may be found at the Society’s web page

http://www.newyorkcanals.org/explore_symposium.htm

pre-registration forms are due by February 22^nd

THE CANAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK STATE

announces its

Winter Symposium & Meeting

Saturday, March 3, 2012

All events located in:

Warshof Conference Center, Room Monroe A & B

(Enter through lobby at northeast corner of Building 3)

Brighton Campus, Monroe Community College

1000 East Henrietta Road, Rochester, NY 14623

Parking: Lot M, Center Road

Program

8:00 A.M - 8:40 A.M. Registration Coffee, Continental Breakfast

8:45 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. The Canal Corridor: Today’s Canal Structures Survey and Interpreting Yesterday’s History
Duncan Hay, PhD, National Park Service and Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission Historian Boston, MA

9:30 A.M. - 10:15 A.M. Panama Canal Exploration Preview

Thomas X. Grasso, President, Canal Society of NY

Pittsford, NY

David Wahl, Member, Board of Directors, CSNYS

East Aurora, NY

10:15 A.M. – 10:30 A.M. Coffee Break

10:30 A.M.– 11:15 A.M. A Video Oral History of the Erie Canal

Daniel Franklin Ward, PhD, Curator, The Erie Canal Museum

Syracuse, NY

11:15 A.M. – 11:45 Stormy Weather: Miracle on the Mohawk

Brian Stratton, Director, NYS Canal Corporation

Schenectady, NY

11:45 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. Lunch Soup, Pasta, Sandwiches,
Coffee, Soft Drinks, and Brownies

12:30 P.M. – 1:15 P.M. Canalway Trail Update

John DiMura, NYS Canal Corporation Trails

Director

Albany, NY

1:15 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. Highlights From the Madden Canal Photographic Collection

[Can You Name That Canal Location?]

William Schollenberger, Civil Engineer,
NYS Canal Corporation, Retired

Albany, NY

2:00 P.M. – 2:45 P.M. The Canals and Inland Waterways of Belgium
CSNYS/IWI Tour—October 3 to 15, 2012

Thomas X. Grasso, President, CSNYS

Pittsford, NY

2:45 P.M. – 3:30 P.M. CSNYS Annual Meeting and Reports,
Announcements & Discussion

GREECE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

2012-02-01T22:54:00.005-05:00

On Sunday, February 5th at 2 PM the historical society will be showing the video "The Rochester Area in 1963".

For additional information about the Greece Historical Society and Museum call 585-225-7221, visit our web-site www.greecehistoricalsociety.net ,

or look for us on FACEBOOK.

EDITORIAL NOTES

2012-01-20T16:25:00.004-05:00

Thought I’d explain a little about the material that goes into the timelines I post.

The information comes from such a wide and varied number of sources – everything from old reference books and online sites to current articles in magazines to an article from NY History magazine from 1933, or French’s New York State Gazetteer of the 1860s – it would be impossible to trace all data back to its sources. This would take far more time than putting out new information.

The wonderful thing about the blog format is, as I add new material or make corrections to information already posted, I can go back in and make the changes. The same goes for incorrect information that a blog visitor calls to my attention; it can also be easily corrected. So I welcome any feedback or corrections. If you can cite a source, especially an on-line one, it would be of extra help.

On one other subject – This is your blog, not mine. If you have an article to submit I’d like to get it into the blog. This also applies to any news of upcoming meetings, lectures, etc. applying to Eastern and Central New York. It would be of help to receive such items at least five days before the event is scheduled.

David

dminor@eznet.net

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1819

2012-01-18T15:46:00.002-05:00

Jan 4

Martin Van Buren has William Thompson nominated as speaker of the State Senate.

Feb 13

A bill enabling Missouri to draft a constitution and prepare for statehood is introduced in the House. New York State's James Tallmadge proposes an amendment to limit slavery in Missouri.

Feb 25

A Quaker Meeting is established in Rochesterville.

March

Henry Seymour replaces Joseph Ellicott on the New York State Canal Commission.

April

New York's canal commission gives the go-ahead to continue the Erie Canal west of Seneca Lake, all the way to Lake Erie.

Apr 2

Monroe County's Town of Clarkson is taken off the Orleans County Town of Murray.

Jul 4

Future governor Reuben Eaton Fenton is born to farmer George W. Fenton and Elsie Owen Fenton in Carroll.

Aug 13

Martha Fowler, mother of nine-year-old future phrenologist Orson Fowler, dies in Cohocton.

Aug 5

Farmer, soldier, politician and prohibitionist John Bidwell is born in Sherman to Abram and Clarissa Griggs Bidwell.

Oct 25

The canal boat Commodore Perry arrives in Utica from Salina - with a cargo of salt - on the Erie Canal.

Nov 7

Buffalo businessman Cicero Jabez Hamlin is born in Hillside to the Reverend Jabez Hamilin and Esther Stone Hamlin.

December

Two Buffalo Harbor improvement committee members, freight forwarder Charles Townsend and lawyer Oliver Forward, convince non-committee member Samuel Wilkeson to participate in posting the $25,000 personal bond for harbor improvements. (see below).

Dec 31

Transplanted Virginia politician John Nicholas dies in Geneva at the age of 55.

State

Frederick Follett is apprenticed to his brother Oran as a printer on Batavia's Spirit of the Times. ** A brick courthouse is built at Angelica. ** Deeds are issued for property on Geneva’s Pulteney Street, ranging from No. 388 through No. 402. ** James Wadsworth notes that most of the region’s land has been settled. ** Lockport’s Mountain Road (later Main Street) is built, to connect the Lewiston Road at Cold Springs with the Upper Mountain Road in Cambria. ** Jacob Le Roy becomes land agent for the Triangle Tract. ** The River Lock west of Montezuma, built of stone quarried at Union Springs and ferried by flatboat via Cayuga Lake and the Seneca River, is completed. The canal is now open between Utica and the Seneca River. ** John Spicer builds a brick house in the Yates County Town of Barrington. ** Unable to make a success of it in Sandusky, Ohio, Benjamin Rathbun and his family make their way back to Batavia. He soon moves to Buffalo. ** Emma Willard addresses the state legislature on the topic of women's education. ** The state legislature hires Stephen van Rensselaer as president of the Central Board of Agriculture. ** The Greek-Revival Balcom House is built on East Pulteney Street in Bath. ** The Tompkins County Town of Covert is restored to Seneca County. ** Engineer Joseph Miller purchases 100 acres in the Town of Arcadia from Jacob Lusk, builds a frame house and lays out four streets. The settlement is called Miller's Basin (later Newark). ** A state loan of $50,000 made to various upstate counties is transferred by the Loan Commissioners to the Common School Fund. ** Quit rents paid to the state are taken out of the general fund and distributed equally to the Literature and School Funds. ** The approximate date a lawyer’s office is built on Monroe Avenue, near Main Street in Pittsford. Eventually it will be moved across the Avenue and, known as the Little House, will in 1965 become the headquarters/museum of Historic Pittsford Inc. ** Governor DeWitt Clinton appoints Nathaniel W. Howell First Judge of Ontario County. ** Niagara County state senator Archibald S. Clarke is sent to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy left by Peter B. Porter’s resignation. Clarke serves until next year’s national election in March. ** Sanford Hunt settles along the Genesee River, at what will become known a Hunt’s Hollow, in the Town of Portage. ** The Seneca and Susquehanna Lock Navigation Company is formed, by the directors of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, to build a canal from Seneca Lake to the Chemung River. It’s never built. ** The Cayuga and Seneca Canal Company, running low on funds, asks the state legislature for relief. The state complies, permitting the company to issue more stock, with a projected completion date of 1821. ** The Cayuga Steamboat Company is formed, to build vessels for use on Cayuga Lake. ** Silas Newell receives a state charter for Wyoming County’s Middlebury Academy.

Auburn

A theological seminary is established by the Presbyterian Synod of Genesee. ** Bela Coe sells his interest in the former Bostwick's Tavern to his brother Chauncey, returns to Canandaigua and repossesses the failing Stage House hotel, which has lost the stage line franchise. ** The north wing of Auburn prison is converted to single cells.

Buffalo

Lawyer Albert H. Tracy is elected to the first of three terms as a representative in Congress. ** Nine citizens of form the Buffalo Harbor Company, the first local businessmen's association. They are granted a state loan of $12,000 but must put up a bond, personally endorsed by the committee members, of $25,000. Improvement projects this year and next make the mouth of the Buffalo River navigable. ** 96 vessels use the port at Buffalo.

Connewango

Dana Phillips arrives from Vermont. He will later move on to Michigan. Bela B. Post also settles here, later moves on to Iowa. John Farlee and his wife arrive from Genesee County, as does Samuel Farlee. Daniel Whitin also moves in to the settlement. Rufus Wyllys and his family arrive to settle after a 500-mile ox-sled journey from Massachusetts lasting twenty-three days. A blacksmith named Bradner settles here, as well as Chauncy Butler, from Mt. Morris. Russell Pennock arrives, puts up a log house. Peter Blanchard arrives from Vermont, after having lived in Cayuga County a while.

Rochesterville

The population reaches 1,509. ** The city hires its first policeman. ** Moses Dyer opens a chandlery. ** Spring floods again damage the business district. ** The log bridge across the Genesee River's lower falls at Carthage (the future Ridge Road), claimed to be the world's highest wooden single-arch bridge, is completed. ** The route for the Erie Canal through the village is surveyed. ** The village skips its municipal election. ** Irish workers on the Erie canal begin encampments in the future South Avenue area. ** The first wooden sidewalks are installed. ** 500,000 wooden barrel staves are loaded onto wagons on the west side of the Genesee near the future Erie Canal feeder dam this year, then portaged to Hanford's Landing at the lower falls and shipped to Montréal.

Steuben County

Erastus Shepard begins publishing the Western Republican. ** The Steuben County Agricultural Society is founded at the urging of Albany merchant Elkanah Watson.

GREECE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROGRAM

2012-01-08T13:54:00.005-05:00

"Agriculture Fairs"

"INNOCENT RECREATION - the Development of the Agricultural Fair"
A lecture by Lynn Belluscio, Curator of Le Roy's Jello Museum

	Tuesday - Jan 10 7pm – 8:30 pm
	Greece Town Hall, 1 Vince Tofany Blvd, 14612

Reservations are NOT necessary .

In 1812, Elkanah Watson exhibited three Merino sheep under the elm trees on the square in Pittsfield Massachusetts. The success of this humble agricultural exhibition encouraged Watson to develop the Berkshire System for Agricultural Society Fairs which became the basis for all county and state fairs. In New York, Otsego County and Jefferson County were some of the first counties to hold agricultural society fairs. Watson developed a variety of activities that showcased the agricultural community - everything from parades to pastoral balls. He was often criticized for his diversions, but he rationalized that it was necessary to offer activities for the entire family in order to attract the entire community to the fair. Whether Watson would have accepted demolition derbies and rock band concerts is a matter of conjecture, never the less, his "innocent recreations" are a legacy that today's fair has inherited. Lynne Belluscio

will share this program, "Innocent Recreation - the Development of the Agricultural Fair, based on Elkanah Watson's Berkshire System".

Mrs. Belluscio originally presented this program in Washington, D.C at the

Smithsonian Institution. Reservations are NOT necessary .

Mrs. Belluscio taught in the Rochester school system for five years. She

was lead interpreter at Genesee country museum and special events coordinator until 1988, has been active in the Leroy historical society since 1988. She is also past chairman of the western New York Association of Historical Agencies and president of the Association of Living History, Farms & Agricultural Museums. For the past three years she has served on the New York State Council of Arts review panel.

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1818

2011-12-30T23:04:00.002-05:00

Jan 14

Pittsford pioneer Colonel Caleb Hopkins, who gave the Village and Town its name (after his Vermont home town) dies at the age of 47.

Jan 17

The Reverend Comfort Williams of Ogdensburg, newly arrived in Rochesterville, is installed as the city's first pastor, for the Presbyterian Society.

Mar 6

The Orleans County town of Shelby is formed from Ridgeway. ** The Wyoming County town of Bennington is formed from Sheldon. ** Rochester bridge builder Thomas Leighton is born.

Mar 13

The Monroe County Town of Rush is formed from Avon.

Mar 19

The New York State legislature declares the Genesee River a ‘public highway’.

Mar 27

The Monroe County Town of Henrietta is formed from the Town of Pittsford.

April

Buffalo's Niagara Journal begin intermittently running an ad of a tavern for sale, recently owned by Gaius Kibbe.

Apr 4

The Steuben County town of Troupsburgh annexes part of the town of Canisteo. ** The first steamboat on the Great Lakes, Walk-in-the-Water, is launched in Buffalo.

Apr 10

The Niagara County town of Wilson is formed from Porter. ** The Erie County town of Amherst is taken off of Buffalo. ** The Cattaraugus County town of Little Valley is taken off the town of Perry (now Perrysburg).

Apr 18

The Great Lakes shipping season for the Genesee River opens. In the next four months 1158 bushels of pearl ash and 120,000 barrel staves are shipped out for export. The total value of the shipments for the season will reach $300,000.

Apr 20

The Oswego County town of Oswego is formed from Hannibal.

Apr 21

The New York State Library is founded, located in the upper stories of the Capitol.

May 12

Engineer Josiah Wolcott Bissell is born in Rochester.

May 27

Suffragette Amelia Jenks Jenks Bloomer is born in Homer.

Jun 14

The first loaded boat, with its 16-ton cargo – from Schenectady - passes through the newly completed locks of the Seneca and Cayuga Canal at Seneca Falls, New York. The toll is 50 cents. ** Rochester businessman Daniel Powers is born in Batavia.

Jul 10

Contractor Josiah Olcott signs a contract to build Erie Canal Section 40, east of the Nine Mile Aqueduct, with the exception of the embankment in the immediate vicinity of the aqueduct, which William Melville undertakes. Henry Bogardus and Andrew and William Thompson contract for Section 41, west of the crossing. Benjamin Gumaer contracts for Section 50 and part of 51, to the west of Skaneateles Outlet.

Jul 15

Genesee Valley Canal surveyor and minister William Newell Cobb is born in McLean, New York, to William and Achsah Bradley Cobb.

Aug 23

Walk-in-the-Water, leaves Buffalo on its maiden voyage, stopping at Dunkirk, and continuing on to Cleveland and Detroit.

November

Rochesterville bookkeeper Charles J. Hill leaves Bissell & Ely to go into the mercantile business with partner A. V. T. Leavitt.

Nov 21

Pioneering anthropologist-ethnologist Lewis Henry Morgan is born near Aurora, to farmer Jedediah Morgan and his wife Harriet Steele Morgan.

Nov 23

Rochester seeds merchant James Vick is born in Portsmouth, England.

Dec 19

The congregation of the Delphi Baptist Church, in Delphi Falls, votes to elect its first minister.

State

The first printing press in Cattaraugus County. ** Governor De Witt Clinton buys 1,000 acres at Chadwick's Bay (Dunkirk), lays out a town. The name is changed to Garnsey's Bay after the land agent for the purchase Daniel G. Garnsey. ** The first locks on the Seneca Canal are opened, bypassing the falls of the Seneca River. ** The approximate date Josephus Bradner Stuart begins steamboat service on lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan. ** Connewango settlers Cyrus Childs and Lyman Wyllys arrive from Massachusetts. James Blanchard and his wife Eunice, Daniel Grover, and David Davidson arrive from Vermont, Remus Baldwin arrives from Caledonia, New York. Brothers Nicholas and Thomas Northrup arrive from Stephentown. ** Each county is made a separate legal district with its own District Attorney. ** Joseph Ellicott reports to his superiors at the Holland Land Company that all of their best land has been sold. ** Marlborough, Connecticut, schoolteacher Epaphroditus Bigelow, his wife Sarah and infant son Orimel move to Geneseo; 330 miles in eighteen days. ** Five businesses open in Le Roy between South Street and the Public Square. ** Sylvester Hosmer replaces his log tavern near Avon with a two-story frame structure, which will one day become part of the Genesee Country Museum. ** Erie Canal contracts are signed for raising the Onondaga County summit level between Nine Mile Creek and Jordan, avoiding swamp areas. ** Holland Land Office official David E. Evans is elected to the state senate as a Clintonian Republican. ** Nehemiah Pratt settles in Eagle Harbor in what will become Orleans County. ** John Eddy makes a map of the state. ** Governor Clinton vetoes a bill backed by Martin Van Buren and Tammany Hall for a state constitutional convention, an attempt to extend the franchise. ** Bela Coe builds a hotel in Canandaigua - Coe's Stage House. ** Charles A. Williamson, son of the late land agent Charles Williamson, dies of cholera. ** Peter Porter constructs a second Niagara River bridge to Bath (later Green) Island. ** Medina-area settlers begin using water from the falls of Oak Orchard Creek for powering mills. ** A south wing is added to Auburn Prison. ** A farmer named Pardee erects a two-story building along the future Erie Canal route in Bushnell’s Basin. It will one day become the Richardson’s Canal House restaurant. ** Farmer Barnett Maxfield, along with his wife Hannah and son Andrew, travel west from Herkimer, settle in Pittsford on South Arab (later Clover) Street. ** Future state representative to Congress Frederick Whittlesey graduates from Yale.

Buffalo

Construction begins on the city's South Pier, into Lake Erie. ** William Peacock makes the first complete survey of the harbor. ** The approximate date the Weed Hardware Company opens a store at 292-296 Main Street.

Canandaigua

The approximate date Abner Bunnell’s Congregational Church is built. ** A Methodist chapel is completed, on Chapel Street. ** Oliver Phelps and Company begin a stage line between here and Newburgh, crossing the Catskills to the Hudson River.

Rochesterville

Nathaniel Rochester moves to Rochesterville from West Bloomfield, settles at the corner of Exchange and Spring streets. ** Construction begins to the east, to carry the Erie Canal through the city's Irondequoit Valley. ** Abelard Reynolds holds the first Methodist services in the city. He is named alderman of the first ward ** Band musicians become too drunk to rehearse. ** The town exports 26,000 barrels of flour, as well as other goods, totaling $380,000. ** Saint Luke's Episcopal Church is formed. ** The Baptists begin meeting, informally. ** Charles Harford's grist mill is destroyed by fire. The Phoenix Mill is erected on its foundations. ** Population reaches 1,049. ** Storekeeper Jonathan Child marries Sophia Eliza Rochester, daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester. ** Azel Ensworth builds a two-story tavern at the Four Corners (Main and State). ** The first Sunday School is formed.

GENESEE VALLEY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE – SAD NEWS

2011-12-25T21:14:00.001-05:00

We were saddened to learn of the death on Thursday of long-time LeRoy round table member Charles P. “Skip” Charvella. Skip, as we all knew him, died at the age of 64, at Batavia’s United Memorial Medical Center, after a brief illness.

Friends may call on Monday, December 26, 2011 from 4 to 8 p.m. at H.E. Turner & Co. Funeral Home, 403 E. Main St., Batavia. His Mass of Christian Burial will be at 9:30 AM, Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at Resurrection Parish - St. Mary's Church, 18 Ellicott Street, Batavia. Memorials may be made to UMMC for the Hospice Care area or your favorite animal shelter.

Further details may be found at

www.bataviafuneralhomes.com/posted_obits/Charvella.html

2011-12-21T21:37:00.008-05:00

Season’s Greetings

From Joann and David Minor

Rochester City Hall - 2011

PRESERVING ROCHESTER'S CATARACT BUILDING

2011-12-13T11:30:00.001-05:00

Hello -

We are putting out an URGENT PLEA for interested persons to come to the ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS meeting this THURSDAY MORNING, where the CATARACT BUILDING (Genesee Brewery complex/St. Paul Street) will be discussed. Details are:

WHAT: City of Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals

WHEN: Thursday, DEC. 15, 2011

10:00 am

WHERE: City Council Chambers - CITY HALLl, 30 Church St., Rochester

As mentioned (below), LSWNY would like to “fill the seats” in City Council Chambers to show that there is significant interest & concern about this highly visible, National Register-eligible, industrial building in the Genesee Brewery complex. The tallest & most distinguished building in that complex, the 19^th-century Cataract Building is also the “signature building” on the east rim of the Genesee River gorge. LSWNY has been intensely involved with the on-going discussions about the possible re-use/re-development of this important building.

Thanks.

Cynthia Howk

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1817

2011-12-12T22:01:00.002-05:00

1817

Jan 27

The Monroe County Town of Ogden is formed from the Town of Parma.

Jan 28

Outgoing governor Daniel D. Tompkins, recently elected U.S. vice-president, sends a message to the state legislature recommending that a date be fixed for the abolition of slavery within the state. In an election to replace Tompkins as governor De Witt Clinton will defeat Buffalo’s Peter Buell Porter.

February

Publisher Horatio G. Spafford puts out the 12th and final edition of his American Magazine - a monthly miscellany.

March

New York State's Bank of Geneva (today's National Bank of Geneva) is chartered.

Mar 19

Naturalist and fish expert Seth Green is born in Carthage (later part of Rochester).

Mar 21

The village of Rochesterville is taken off the towns of Brighton and Gates and incorporated, acquiring a charter. It has a population of 500.

Apr 5

The Niagara County town of Royalton is formed from Hartland.

Apr 7

Tompkins County is formed from Cayuga and Seneca counties. The county courthouse is fixed at Ithaca.

Apr 15

The state legislature authorizes construction of the Erie Canal, after Federal backing is denied.

May 5

Rochesterville holds its first village elections. Francis Brown is elected mayor of the newly incorporated village, which now includes the annexed Frankfort. Also picked are five Trustees, three Assessors, a Treasurer, a Comptroller, a Constable, three Fire-wardens and a Pound-keeper. The office of mayor is merely that of president of the Board of Trustees.

June

Upper Canada widow Hester Hill seeks someone to prepare a letter to her son Jasper, in

Canandaigua.

Jul 1

After defeating Buffalo businessman Peter B. Porter for the state's Republican

gubernatorial nomination, New York City mayor De Witt Clinton, running on a pro-

canal plan, is elected.

Jul 14

Rochesterville's St. Luke's parish is organized in the nearby village of Brighton.

Sep 23

Painter Phineas Stanton is born to farmer and War of 1812 veteran Phineas Stanton and his wife, in Middlebury.

State

Population: Ontario County - 42,032. ** The first printing press in Chataugue (sic), Livingston and Yates counties. Hezekiah Ripley begins publishing the Advertiser and Genesee Farmer, at Livingston County’s Moscow. ** A shipping dock is built three miles from the mouth of the Genesee River, followed by a wooden arch bridge - the longest in the world - across the river's gorge. The new settlement is called Carthage. The steamboat Ontario out of Sackets Harbor is the first to arrive at the landing. ** 5,000 bushels of flour are shipped out of the Genesee River to Montréal during the last three months of the season. ** Port Gibson, in the future Wayne County, is settled. ** Colonel Nathaniel Rochester attends a session of the legislature at Albany in an usuccessful attempt to get recognition of Monroe County. This year he is also made secretary of the convention meeting in Canandaigua to consider De Witt Clinton’s canal proposal. ** Batavia banker Trumbull Cary builds a post-colonial house on East Main Street. ** The Wyoming Academy is founded. ** Vermont native James Battles arrives in the Connewango area to settle. ** Seneca County annexes part of Tompkins County. ** Porter constructs a Niagara River bridge to Bath (later Green) Island. It will be swept away during the ensuing winter. ** Alden sawmill owner John Rogers builds the town’s first grist mill. ** A Methodist class is begun in Canadice. ** Mack & Shepherd buy the Ithaca Journal . ** Botany lecturer Amos Eaton publishes A Manual of Botany for the Northern States . The popular work will go into eight editions. ** Rush coal merchant H. H. Babcock is born to Isaac and Elizabeth Wilbur Babcock, in Albany County. ** NY-to-Liverpool packet captain William Henry Stewart saves the life of a passenger, the daughter of merchant George Ragg, when she’s swept overboard. The two marry and settle on land outside of Penn Yan given to them by Ragg. ** Horatio Spafford publishes the pamphlet Hints to Emigrants, on the Choice of Land, under the pseudonym Agricola. ** Moses Rathbun and his son Benjamin, running business enterprises in Monticello and Hartwick Township respectively, go bankrupt. Moses moves his extended family from Otsego to Batavia. ** Canal commisioners authorize a further 25% increase in capitalization for the Cayuga and Seneca Canal Company. ** Engineer Canvass White travels to Europe to study canal construction. ** James Van Horn, his Newfane mill destroyed by the British in the last war, rebuilds his gristmill. He will add a sawmill and begin work on a brick mansion. ** Eleazor and Mary Southworth build a home at the four corners in Elba. ** Canandaigua lawyer John C. Spencer is elected as a representative to the Fifteenth U.S. Congress, as is New York surveyor and Holland Land Office agent Benjamin Ellicott. The state’s canal fund will receive its revenue from auction duties and salt duties. ** Syracuse doctor, lecturer, and theater owner John Weiting is born.

Erie Canal

Chief engineer Judge Benjamin Wright appoints David Stanhope Bates assistant engineer on the middle division. ** The steamboat passenger tax, established this year to help pay for state canals, brings in $19,000 in revenue for the year.

Buffalo

The open boat Troyer brings Buffalo the first flour from the west. ** The Federal government builds a 30-foot lighthouse on Lake Erie near Buffalo Creek.

Le Roy

Orange Ridson creates a map of the Triangle Tract. ** Judge Egbert Benson, Jr. becomes the third land agent for the tract. ** Innkeeper James Ganson purchases additional property, on the Village Green.

Rochesterville

The population reaches 700. ** Austin Steward, a black grocer, goes into business. ** Spring floods damage the business section. ** Elisha Johnson and Orson Seymour lay out a subdivision on the east bank of the Genesee River. ** A mill is built on Water Street. ** William Atkinson builds the Yellow Mill, the first to make use of the newly-opened Johnson millrace. ** The approximate date Dr. Matthew Brown and his brother Francis arrive from Brookfield, Massachusetts. Their remodeled cotton factory is destroyed by fire, the community's first large one. They will rebuild on the same site. The village's first volunteer fire company is organized. ** The pamphlet "Constitution and Proceedings of the Charitable Society formed in the Western Counties of State of New York, for the Education of Indigent Pious Young Men for the Gospel Ministry " is printed by A. G. Dauby. ** Matthew Dryer of Massachusetts purchases 81 acres in the Brighton area, including the grist mill of John Tryon. ** The Granville, Massachusetts, family of Ezra Parsons arrive in the Allens Creek area.

1870s FINGER LAKES TEENAGE DIARIES

2011-12-07T22:30:00.003-05:00

Enthralling True Stories of Bygone Times

with Diane Janowski and Denny Smith, local historians

Friday, December 9, 2011 from 6:00 - 7:00 PM (book signing from 5:30 to 6:00)

Franklin Street Gallery, 209 North Franklin Street in Watkins Glen, NY 14891

Diane & Denny will read from the diaries of three young people who lived in the Finger Lakes area in the 1800s:

Ida Burnett, a 15 year-old girl, who lived in Logan in 1880, and eventually in Watkins Glen; Earl Gurnee, 18,

who lived in Skaneateles in 1876; and Viola Coolbaugh, a 25 year-old resident of Altay in 1891.

Join with us as we listen to their own words telling of school days, life and death on the farm, and young love.

The diaries are truthful and poignant, slices of real-life Americana. Photographs, maps, and items of local interest help to illustrate these first person histories of the Finger Lakes

To buy the books directly, visit New York History Review.

For more information please call the Franklin Street Gallery at 607-535-2571

CAYUGA COUNTY CHAMBER CELEBRATION

2011-12-05T21:45:00.001-05:00

Chamber Holiday Celebration
December 7, 2011
Highland Golf Club
3068 Franklin Street Road, Auburn NY
5:00 pm-7:00 pm

The Chamber cordially invites you to this member exclusive celebration to show appreciation to our members for your involvement and support of the Chamber throughout the past year.

Enjoy wine tastings, hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar.

To register, please contact (315) 252-7291 or email: admin@cayugacountychamber.com
(This event is FREE and exclusive to chamber members)

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1816

2011-11-27T17:11:00.002-05:00

1816

February

The first settlers - Vermonters Isaac Smith, Rufus Trumbull and Reuben Wolcox, and Otsego County’s Elias Smith - arrive in Allegany County and settle the future Town of Granger.

Feb 10

Future Pittsford farmer, grocer and politician Jarvis Lord is born in Ballston Spa.

Mar 8

The New York State Canal Commission submits its final report to the legislature, based on surveys done by Benjamin Wright.

April

The approximate date Jacob Townsend sends his son Sheldon to Oswego aboard the schooner Niagara to work for his partner Alvin Bronson, a Lake Ontario commission agent.

Apr 4

Connecticut–born silversmith Eleazor Southworth and his wife Mary Southworth settle in Elba.

June

Killing frosts over the next three months wipe out all major crops in the Genesee Valley - The Year Without a Summer.

Jun 7

Light snow falls over the Finger Lakes.

September

Edwin Scrantom is apprenticed to A. G. Dauby, publisher of the new Weekly Gazette, the first newspaper in Rochesterville.

Sep 3

Holland Land Office clerk David E. Evans marries Lucy Grant in Batavia.

Sep 7

The steamboat Frontenac is launched in Buffalo for the Lake Ontario trade.

November

Bethlehem, Connecticut, store clerk Charles J. Hill, left without a job when his employer retires, and having moved to Rochesterville, then to Utica, then back to Rochesterville, accepts a bookkeeper’s job with Bissell & Ely.

Dec 2

Rochester nurseryman George Ellwanger is born at Gross-Heppach, Germany.

Dec 30

Two Oswego, New York lake sailors – Captain McDonald of the schooner British Queen and sailor Duncan Campbell - fight a duel with rifles at 15 rods - over claimed advances made to Campbell’s wife. Both men survive the incident.

State

The grandparents of temperance reformer Frances Willard settle in the Churchville area. ** The first printing press in Monroe and Seneca counties. ** The approximate date David Rumsey founds the Bath Gazette and Benjamin Smead begins the Steuben (& Allegany) Patriot. ** General Peter Porter is appointed to the commission studying the boundary with Canada. He resigns from Congress this year, builds a house in Black Rock (Buffalo). ** A front porch with Doric columns is added to Batavia’s Holland Land Office. ** Dansville’s Colonel Nathaniel Rochester is appointed a presidential/vice-presidential elector for the second time. ** Elisha Swift tours the state as a missionary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. ** Eliphalet Follet settles on Chautauqua Road to the east of Rutledge, founding he village of Connewango, where he will soon build a tavern. ** The first church in Brutus is founded by the Methodist Episcopalians. ** The state office of Deputy Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Works is abolished and the salary of the Superintendent is increased by $250 a year. A duty of 12.5¢ per bushel is levied on Onondaga salt for the increase of the canal fund. The Superintendent, instead of making a yearly report, is required to make one quarterly, and pay into the State treasury , all money collected, except expenses, on the first Tuesday of February, May, August and November. ** The Seneca Republican becomes the Ithaca Journal . ** Amos Bliss opens the first inn in the Erie County village of Alden. Seth Eastabrook opens the first store there. ** Nathaniel and Mehitable Kellogg arrive in Sodus with their family, from Williamstown, Massachusetts. They build a frame house at Main and Mill streets. ** The capital earmarked for the Seneca Lock Navigation Company project is increased to $60,000. ** Joseph Adams and his son Bina, along with Joseph Bartlett, make the first settlement in the Cattaraugus County Town of Otto. ** Canandaigua's St. John's Episcopal Church builds a wooden building at 183 North Main Street. ** Settler Horace Fowler becomes a deacon in Cohocton's First Presbyterian Church. ** The U. S. Government declines to participate in an Erie canal project. ** Bela Coe sells Coe's Stage House in Canandaigua for $14,000 and moves with his brother Canfield to Auburn, where they purchase William Bostwick's tavern. ** Benjamin Wright appoints Nathan Roberts assistant engineer, responsible for the section of the new canal between Rome and the Seneca River. ** The Comstock family of Quakers buy land in the future Lockport area, plant an orchard. ** Michah Brooks of Bloomfield and Jellis Clute of Leicester begin negotiations to purchase part of Mary Jemison’s Gardeau Reservation lands on the Genesee River. ** Educator Simon Newell begins raising $4,000 for a academy at Middlebury. ** Penfield sawmill owner Samuel Rich builds a home on Five-Mile-Line Road, still standing in the 21st Century.

Alfred

The town annexes part of the town of Angelica. ** The first Seventh Day Baptist church is completed.

Auburn

Judge Elijah Miller has a house built in Auburn. He will give it to his daughter Frances and her new husband William Henry Seward in 1824. Carpenter Brigham Young works on the house. ** Auburn Prison is built. ** The original Auburn Academy is destroyed by fire.

Bath

The approximate year David Rumsey attempts to revivie the Farmers’ Advocate; the paper lasts about a year. ** A two-square -mile area based on Pulteney Square is incorporated into the village.

Buffalo

The city is reincorporated. ** The Old Red Warehouse is built on the waterfront just north of Main Street. ** A request for harbor improvement funding is sent to Albany. Only a survey results.

Geneva

Hardware merchant Phineas Prouty, Sr. begins advertising in local newspapers. He joins the first fire company, formed this year. ** Branchport landowner John Beddoe advertises 5,000 acres for sale, in the Geneva Gazette.

Pittsford

A house (later known as the Guetersloh house), is built on Church Street, for the village’s first doctor, John Ray. ** Village Presbyterians begin meeting in a frame house at the Milepost.

Rochesterville

Pioneer Oliver Culver builds a house and tavern on East Avenue. ** Pioneer Ashbel W. Riley arrives. ** Elisha Johnson buys eighty acres of Enos Stone's farm on the eastern bank of the Genesee River for $10,000. ** A cotton mill, utilizing 1,392 spindles, is built. ** The population totals 331 at the beginning of the year, approaches 500 toward the end. ** Albany printer Everard Peck, a native of Berlin, Connecticut, moves his business here. ** Forms for "Petitions for a Division of the Counties of Genesee and Ontario" are printed here, the first printing job in the village. Forms will be made up again in 1818, 1819, and 1820. ** Matthew and Francis Brown, Sr. have a 1200-foot mill race dug along the western rim of the Genesee River gorge.

Sackets Harbor

The Ontario, the first steamboat on the Great Lakes, is launched. ** Construction of the Madison Barracks military post is begun.

Steuben County

The board of supervisors, contravening last year's decision to not pay Indians bounties on wolves and panthers, pays Tall John, a Bath-area native, $27.50 in bounties on wolves. ** The county’s tax levy amounts to $11,696.61. **

ORANGE FRIDAY WEEKEND

2011-11-24T22:07:00.007-05:00

If retailers have "Black Friday" on the day after Thanksgiving, Graycliff offers an alternative:"Orange Friday" –the color of autumn leaves and the muted hues of Frank Lloyd Wright'smagnificent architecture at Graycliff.  Fresh air and stellar architecture are on offer, with tours every hour on the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 25,

2011…and throughout the holiday weekend as well.

(Graycliff will be closed on Thanksgiving Day itself.)

Some fresh air and some leisurely walking are just the thing after all that pie!  Enjoy the last of the autumn foliage a short twenty minute drive along the lake from downtown Buffalo.

Then tour Graycliff's stunning architecture, and sip a free cup of hot mulled cider.

If you insist, you can even shop—there are all kinds of exclusive items available in Graycliff's Pavilion Gift Shop.  Reservations are required; please call 716-947-9217 or email graycliff@verizon.net

Please see our website at http://graycliffestate.org for more details.

"QUOTABLE BUFFALO"

2011-11-21T22:59:00.002-05:00

A new book compiled by respected local historian Cynthia Van Ness is sure to spark lively conversation throughout Western New York. Quotable Buffalo: The Most Marvelous and Maddening Things Ever Said About the Queen City is a colorful collection of 250 quotes that focuses on every aspect of our region.

From the description of the book: People talk. When it comes to Buffalo, they've been observing, debating, admiring, and, yes, bashing us for over 200 years. Quotable Buffalo presents some of the most insightful, complimentary, opinionated, unexpected,wrong-headed, and laugh-out-loud things ever said about the Queen City. These quotes were found in books, magazines, newspapers, websites, and blogs, and showcase the voices of the living and the dead, the resident and the visitor, the famous and the anonymous. Only Buffalo could have united Abraham Lincoln, Leon Czolgosz, Elbert Hubbard, Jackie Robinson, Garrison Keillor, Aretha Franklin, and Ani DiFranco in one small book!

Cynthia is a tireless advocate for promoting the history of Buffalo and has another publication, "Victorian Buffalo," which documents Buffalo life in 19^th Century through historical photos. She is the director of the library archives at the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society and is always willing to lend a helpful hand in researching the history of the city. She operates the Buffalo Research website, which provides links and guides for anyone doing research about the city including buildings, people, and much more.

Quotable Buffalo retails for $11.95. Orders can be made over the phone at 716.832.6088 or via e-mail at buffalobooks@att.net.

1822 Central NY Canal Excursion

2011-11-16T22:25:00.002-05:00

American Journal, Ithaca, N.Y.

July 3, 1822

INTERESTING EXCURSION.

The opening of the Erie canal has given a celebrity to the western part of this state, which without this great enterprise, it would have probably taken many years to acquire. Its fertile soil, its extensive and internal water communications, and its beautiful and variegated scenery begin to attract the attention of travellers and strangers. No portion of our country will within a few years be able to compete with us in prosperity and improvement. Blessed with a climate equally removed from the scorching rays of a torrid sun, and the rigor of a polar winter, all the necessities of life, may be produced in the greatest abundance: and whatever surplus ins produced, may, by means of the canal, be transported at a moderate charge to sure and profitable markets.

I have been led, Mr. Editor, to these brief reflections, from a short excursion I lately made down the Cayuga Lake to Montezuma, and a few miles on the canal. A more agreeable and pleasant excursion than this cannot be made in our country. The shores of our beautiful Lake are not surpassed by any other in this country, and perhaps in the world. In passing from Ithaca to Cayuga Bridge, we have a delightful and gradual transition from loft and elevated banks, rising with a gradual ascent to the height of five hundred feet but all susceptible of the highest cultivation, to scarcely fifty feet above the level of the Lake.

Many elegant and well-cultivated farms, line the shores of this delightful Lake; and here and there a village crowns its banks, apparently resting in ease and opulence. Prominent and appearance rises Aurora, on the easter shore of the Lake twelve miles from the Bridge. It contains between thirty and forty houses, some of them elegant, and all neat and rural. The Lake is here 4 miles wide, and the opposite shore in a high state of cultivation. Here are a male and female Academy, both in a flourishing state; and indeed its rural secluded situation, points it out as the seat of the muses. The Academic groves, and the rippling waters, carry our imaginations back to the ages of ancient Greece, to the days of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle.

Two miles below Aurora, Savanna Point projects into the Lake - a most delightful situation, and to the man of taste and rural disposition, a most desirable residence. Four miles below this, is the village of Union Springs. This has the appearance of being a thriving little spot. A large spring affording sufficient water to move a flouring mill and other machinery, gives importance to that place.

Below this, commences the chain of beds of Gypsum, of more real value to the country than the same quantity of precious metals. These quarries produce annually several thousand tons of this substance, which is consumed in the country around the Lakes, and large quantities sent up the Lake to Ithaca, from thence transported to the Susquehanna river, and floated down its current to the interior of Pennsylvania. This trade was carried to a very great extent during the late war.

From the village of Union Springs, in passing down he Lake, the Cayuga Bridge can in a clear day be perceived, stretching like a line more than a mile in length across the Lake; and the villages of East and West Cayuga, present a very pleasing appearance as they are approached from the south.

The west side of the lake, though destitute of any villages on its shores, is by no means devoid of interest. The great number of delightful farms cultivated to the very water's edge, and a number of projecting points of land, give a pleasing variety to the scenery. Some of those points have an enchanting effect upon the traveller, as they are approached. They are level plains, evidently produced by the alluvian deposits of the streams in their immediate vicinity, clothed with scattered elms and maples, and destitute of underbrush. In passing them, one is reminded of the tales of a fairy land.

This lake is becoming the channel of a very considerable commerce. It is the connecting link of a very extensive, rich, and flourishing country, with the great canal. A Steamboat has been in operation two seasons on the lake. The public are in a great measure indebted to the enterprise and public spirit of Oliver Phelps, Esq. for this eligible and delightful conveyance. The boat is more than a hundred tons burthen, handsomely fitted for the accommodation of passengers, and every attention is paid to their comfort and wants, by Mr. Phelps, who superintends himself.

Mr. Phelps has lately constructed a ingenius horse-boat to ply between the Bridge and the canal at Montezuma. This boat is a pleasing change from the monotonous movement of the canal boats, to the more animated motion of the American Water Coach, as the proprietor has very happily named it. The conveyance in this boat is pleasant and safe. It is handsomely fitted for the accommodation of twenty or thirty passengers. It reflects great credit on the projector and proprietor, and it is to be hoped that his enterprise will be justly appreciated and rewarded.

Submitted by Dick Palmer

South Wedge Events

2011-11-15T08:45:00.003-05:00

~ Tuesday Nov. 15, 7 p.m.

Mystery play, "The Bulb Stops Here," Ellwanger Estate, 625 Mt. Hope Ave. Tickets, $20, incl. refreshments, Mise En Place, 683 South Ave. or Swedge Shop, 732 South Ave., Rochester, NY 14620.

~ Friday Nov. 18, 12:15 to 1:15 p.m.

Brown Bag History Lunch, NeighborWorks, 570 South Ave., Roch. 14620. Enjoy Rose O’Keefe’s new video, An Armchair Tour of Genesee Country. Free. BYO lunch.

Info, Rose O’Keefe, 244-4558.

GENESEE VALLEY CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE

2011-11-14T20:30:00.002-05:00

LE ROY

The Genesee Valley Civil War Roundtable meeting will be held at

7:30 p.m. Nov. 16th at the American Legion, 53 West Main St.

Derrick Maxfield will present "Victorian Funerals."

on how funerals changed during the Civil War.

The public is welcome

LOCAL AUTHORS AT GREECE MUSEUM

2011-11-11T11:56:00.001-05:00

595 Long Pond Rd. 14612

Sunday, November 13^th

1:00 p.m. -4:00 p.m.

Several local authors will be available to autograph their books. Each author will sell their own books accepting only cash or checks (sorry no plastic). Each author will sell their own books accepting only cash or checks (sorry no plastic). Do some early holiday shopping while supporting these local authors.

Pat Wayne - “Irondequoit” and “Early Irondequoit Memories”

Richard Reisem - “Frederick Douglass and the Underground Railroad”, "Erie Canal Legacy" and "Historic New York”

Sally Valentine - “The Ghost of the Charlotte Lighthouse”, “Theft at George Eastman House”, “What Stinks? An Adventure in Highland Park”, and “Lost at Seabreeze”.

Donovan Shilling - “Photographic History of Bausch & Lomb” and “A Towpath Tale”

Mike Keene - “Folklore and Legends of Rochester, The Mystery of Hoodoo Corner” and DVD “Visions, True Stories of Spiritualism, Secret Societies & Murder”

Ron Mazzarella – “There’s a Whale in the Canal!”

Ronald C. Anderson – “Growing Up in Charlotte--Encore Edition”

Marie V. Poinan - “Firefighting in Charlotte, Hose 22”, “Discover Charlotte in the War of 1812” and “Discover Charlotte and the Port of Rochester”

Other books will also be available in the Museum gift shop, including:

“History of the Rochester Library System”

“Eight Miles Along the Shore”

“If you lived 100 Years Ago”

“Cobblestone Quest”

“Horses in Motion”

“Manitou Trolley Days”

And more !

For more information call 585-225-3760 or visit http://www.greecehistoricalsociety.net

AURORA INN LUNCHEON

2011-11-08T22:03:00.001-05:00

Seating is limited. Advance reservations required.
Please contact (315) 252-7291

or email: admin@cayugacountychamber.com

Sponsored by,

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1815

2011-11-07T22:06:00.007-05:00

Jan 1

Dr. William Kirkpatrick, superintendent of the Onondaga Salt works at Salina, reports 1814 revenue of $8,976.45 on 295,215 bushels of salt. Other revenues amount to $940.00.

Mar 3

Catatunk Dock Navigation Company is organized, capitalized at $70,000, to improve Catatunk Creek from its mouth, at Owego Creek (shortly before the latter empties into the Susquehanna River near Owego) to its northwest branch. The work is never done.

Mar 23

Rochester Theological Seminary professor Ezekial Gilman Robinson is born in Attleborough, Massachusetts.

Mar 31

The Seneca & Susquehanna Lock Navigation Company is organized, capitalized at $300,000, to connect Seneca Lake to the Chemung River, near Elmira. The work’s never done.

Apr 11

The Ontario County town of Honeoye changes its name to Richmond. ** The town of Porter holds its first recorded town meeting.

Apr 18

The village of Auburn is incorporated.

Apr 20

The Cayuga and Seneca Canal Company is chartered, to connect Montezuma and Seneca Lake.

Jul 4

Jonathan Ingersoll begins publishing the first newspaper in Tompkins County, the Seneca Republican, in Ithaca.

Jul 26

Elizabeth Wadsworth is born in Geneseo to James and Naomi Wolcott Wadsworth.

September

Ship owner Jacob Townsend and his son Sheldon C. Townsend sail from Oswego, late in the month, to Niagara, aboard the schooner Genesee Packet, commanded by Captain Obed Mayo.

Sep 12

New York State purchases Grand Island and other small islands in the Niagara River from the Seneca Indians for $1000.

Oct 6

The Genesee Packet arrives at Niagara.

Nov 12

Suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton is born in Jamestown.

December

Rochester carriage manufacturer James Cunningham is born in County Down, Ireland.

Dec 15

Rochesterville's first census is taken; the population has reached 331.

State

The price for Genesee River wheat reaches $15 a barrel. ** The approximate date Samuel De Veaux opens a store in Le Roy, that will one day become the Wiss House Hotel. ** Historian-physician Dr. William Seaver becomes the first physician in Darien. ** Businessman Nathaniel Rochester moves from Dansville to East Bloomfield. ** The approximate date the shipbuilding firms of Townsend, Bronson & Co. and Porter & Barton merge to form Silas Thompson & Co. at Black Rock. Thompson moves there. His firm will build the Michigan and Red Jacket and become part owners of the Erie. ** New York City mayor De Witt Clinton presents the state legislature with a “memorial” pressing for a trans-state canal, predicts it will make his city a world commercial leader. ** Ira Chubb begins building a farm in the Yates County Town of Barrington. ** The first church in the Oswego County town of Hannibal is organized by the Baptists. ** The house of Dr. Ives, a dentist, on the East Seneca Turnpike, east of Jamesville, begun in 1812, is completed. ** 98,905 men are currently enrolled in the state militia. ** Over the next three years 80 religious revivals take place in central and western New York. ** The state levies a two-mill tax on real and personal property of every town. ** Catharine Beddoe, wife of Keuka Lake landowner John Beddoe, dies at the age of 35. ** Bluff Point in the fork of Keuka Lake, part of the Steuben County town of Wayne, is transferred to the Ontario County town of Jerusalem (later part of Yates County). ** Master Commandant Melancthon T. Woolsey purchases the brig Oneida for the U. S. Navy. It will be used to transport troops between Oswego and Sackets Harbor. ** Phineas Staunton, released from a Canadian jail after being wounded and captured on the Niagara frontier during the war, returns to his home in Middlebury (now Wyoming). ** Elisha Williams settles Waterloo. ** The approximate date the Seneca Lock Navigation Company constructs an artificial cut at the Seneca Lake outlet. ** Albion now has a post office and school. ** The approximate date blacksmith Leonard Stoneburner buys 22 acres in the future Corbett’s Glen area of Brighton and turns to growing vegetables. ** Engineer James LeRay du Chaumont has a stone house built in Cape Vincent – the first such in the settlement – for his family. ** The State Board of Agriculture is formed. ** The landing at Tryon on the south end of Irondequoit Bay falls into disuse by sailing vessels due to the buildup of weeds.

Batavia

The Holland Land Company builds a limestone fire-proof land office building. It will become the Holland Land Office Museum. Total cost for the building and a retaining wall behind the building for the Tonawanda Creek - $8,593. ** Trumbull Cary is appointed postmaster, taking over the position held by his brother Ebenezer. ** The village takes over the entire building that had housed the courthouse and a tavern. ** Hinman Holden builds a three-story frame inn in the Town of Batavia.

Buffalo

The city is rebuilt. ** The Buffalo Baptist Association is organized, with 21 churches and 2,512 parishioners. ** George Coit has a Federal-style house built, on Virginia Street. ** Former Connecticut medical student Albert H. Tracy begins practicing law in Buffalo.

Pittsford

The first newspaper in the Monroe County area is published here. ** The approximate date Vermont transplant Caleb Hopkins builds a house on South Arab Street (later Clover Street). ** Methodist circuit preachers begin coming through.

Rochesterville

The First Presbyterian Church of Rochester is founded. ** Elisha Johnson lays out the first Court Street. ** Lyell Street is created. ** Josiah Bissell and Hervey and Elisha Ely build the Red Mill, near the western end of the Genesee River bridge at Main Street. ** The village's first wedding ceremony is celebrated. ** Flour Merchant Wickens Killick is born. ** Brothers Francis and Matthew Brown start the Genesee Manufacturing Company at the upper falls of the Genesee River. ** Settler and school commissioner Enos Blossom helps found the first Allens Creek school - four others will follow on the site – on land belonging to Eleazer Bingham. The first trustees are William Penfield (son of Daniel) Matthew Dryer and Jacob Stoneburner (son of Leonard).

Steuben County

The board of supervisors resolves to cease paying Indians the bounty on wolves and panthers. ** The board directs the sheriff to make improvements to the jail in Bath.

London, England

Sarah Eyre Piffard, wife of future New York State pioneer David Piffard, dies in her late forties.

GREECE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROGRAM

2011-11-03T13:11:00.001-04:00

Seabreeze Memories

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011, – 7:00 p.m.
Greece Town Hall, One Vince Tofany Blvd.

Seabreeze Memories: “The Park When you were a Kid” will be the topic of a presentation by Matthew Caulfield at the Nov 8th meeting of the Greece Historical Society. Caulfield, archivist of Seabreeze Amusement Park, will share his knowledge of the history of this, the fourth oldest park in the United States. The program will be held from 7 to 8:30 at the Greece Town Hall, One Vince Tofany Blvd. The program is open to the public and is free to Society members, donations are appreciated from others.

2011-10-25T11:57:00.002-04:00

Rosemary O'Keefe

Rose O'Keefe grew up in the suburbs of New York City, except for four years as a girl living with her family outside Paris, France. After graduating from SUNY Potsdam, Rose moved to Rochester, New York, and discovered the Genesee River Valley and Finger Lakes on camping outings.

Since then, she has become a history author with a special interest in the Frederick Douglass family's years in Rochester from 1847 to 1872. She enjoys presenting slide shows on Rochester's South Wedge, the southeast side of the city, the Douglass family, and most recently, an "Armchair Tour of the Genesee Valley."

Her three books are: Historic Genesee Country (History Press, 2010) Southeast Rochester (Arcadia, 2006) and Rochester's South Wedge, (Arcadia, 2005).

Contact Provato Marketing for more information or to schedule an event.

David:

Looking back to 2004 or 5, what decided you to work on the South Wedge book for Arcadia?

Rose:

I had already volunteered for The Wedge neighborhood newspaper for a number of years, had printed a history series in it in 2000 and was having informal History Club meetings in our Highland Branch library. In early March 2005, S.W.P.C. (South Wedge Planning Committee) board member David Halter handed me the proposal form for an Arcadia book, and told me to take it, I was the only one who could do it.

So, I casually printed out some captions for a few black and white copies of local sites, cut the captions and taped them on each page and then mailed it all in. To my surprise, Arcadia accepted the proposal and said they had a gap in their publishing schedule and if I could, my deadline was the end of May.

I thought of The Wedge deadlines and figured I could do it. Ha! Little did I know.

It took weeks to contact people, borrow their family photos, have copies made, return them to the owners, and keep at until I had 200 images and captions, but I did it.

As a total newbie to this process, my learning curve was pretty steep and unlike some people, I did't have access to an exising collection of old photos.

I had to scout and search for all of them as well as pay for prints of many of them.

David:

What were your primary sources? (I'm assuming the Rochester Public Library and its photo collection provide much of the visual information).

And did any of the photographs come from sources other than the library, such as the private collections of residents?

Rose:

Quite a few came from family photos of people I knew or knew of, in the South Wedge area. One of my main contributors, to whom I dedicated "Rochester's South Wedge" (Arcadia 2005) was Josh Canfield, who grew up in the neighborhood and loaned me family photos and vintage postcards from his large collection.

I was more than half-way through the project before I stumbled into Rochester Public Library's online image collection.

At some point, I spent hours sorting through the City of Rochester Photo Lab's collection of vintage slides.

They had about a dozen binders that have now been merged with the library's online collection.

I would also ask my husband to take a ride so he could take pictures of things I needed, like an old willow tree in Mount Hope Cemetery.

I'm not shy about calling people and asking if I can borrow photos. Most people are pretty friendly, but if I had a dollar for everyone who said someone in the family has a box of pictures in the attic (or closet) but I'll have to call them first and get back to you. Well, that's the way it goes.

But after the first book came out, a number of neighbors called to say they had pictures that would have been good in it, and since I knew what I was getting into, I did the research for "Southeast Rochester" (Arcadia, 2006) much more easily.

After that, my learning curve for Historic Genesee Country (History Press, 2010) was even better, but the technological changes have been both a blessing and a challenge.

Searching through vintage books in the Local History at the downtown library is one of my favorite things to do now. You can get any page from them scanned for a dollar. What a fabulous deal. I used that quite a bit for HGC.

Getting my computer to shake hands and talk to theirs for some reason was not smooth for almost a dozen images, but I kept at it.

David:

What publishing venture are you working on currently?

Rose:

Because Historic Genesee Country has a specific format and length, I had way more information for it than fit in that book.

So I've decided to put a lot of the extra information and juicy little tidbits into a blog. It's been up for several weeks now, and I figure once I get fifty or so entries, I'll have enough for an e-book. Once I learn how to do something technical, I can generally understand the process, but it took me a long time to figure out how to 'enter' my entries on my own website.

Now I have to learn how to add images. I don't know yet if that slows things down too much or not. Some feedback from readers would help on that. I also have to learn how to do photo albums on Facebook. That's on my list of to-dos.

David:

What writers and historians have inspired you from early in your career or your avocation?

Rose:

That's what got me started. I'd read something like Henry's Clune's The Rochester I Know and get all excited. He's such a fabulous writer and he was describing places and events I knew nothing about. I had also fun taking one whole winter to read all that tiny print in Orsamus Turner's rambling Pioneer History of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase.

Blake McKelvey's history series online are great starting places, but I often wanted much more specific information that he shares, so I had to do my own digging after that.

David:

Any advice for would-be writers/historians?

Rose:

Once you get started on a project, remember to breath, eat right and exercise. The pace and pressure of my first two books wore me down and it's taken a few years to get my stamina back.

David:

Another point of interest that occurs to me is of your not only living in the Wedge now, but also of your having lived near Paris. Both of which may be considered more-or-(perhaps)less "Bohemian". Scarsdale "suburbs of New York" was probably a different matter. Do you think any of these residencies may have helped fuel an interest in history? If so, in what way?

Rose:

Some people know my family lived outside of Paris from 1957 to 1961. What they may not know is that several of us kids had the experience of total language immersion cold turkey. Four of us went to a French Catholic girls' school and had to hang in there until we understood what they were saying. My mother said we cried every day for several months before we caught on. By the time we moved back to the same house and school that I had left, I spoke French better than English and didn't feel like an American until I left home to go to college. So, even in a middle class New York City suburb, I never saw things the same after we moved back.

Coming to Rochester after college in the early seventies, I knew next to nothing about this area and was able to get to know it with fresh eyes.

http://www.amazon.com/Historic-Genesee-Country-NY-Legacies/dp/1596291788/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318277283&sr=8-1-fkmr0

 Thanks again to Rosemary O’Keefe for appearing, courtesy of Provato Marketing, for other stops on the tour please check www.provatoevents.com.

South Wedge History and Architecture II

2011-10-23T16:07:00.001-04:00

Friday Oct. 28, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Brown Bag History Lunch

NeighborWorks, 570 South Avenue, Rochester 14620.

Enjoy Part Two of Cythia Howk's fabulous presentation "200 Years of South Wedge History and Architecture."

Free, bring your own lunch.

Information, Rose O'Keefe at (585) 244-4558

EAST AVENUE FAREWELL - Rochester

2011-10-21T21:55:00.004-04:00