MENDON PONDS PARK QUERY

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

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

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

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

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.

© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte

GREECE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROGRAM

"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

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.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

GENESEE VALLEY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE – SAD NEWS

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

Season’s Greetings

From Joann and David Minor

Rochester City Hall - 2011

PRESERVING ROCHESTER'S CATARACT BUILDING

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

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.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte