Thursday, August 19, 2010

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1799

1799

Jan 7

James Rees writes to surveyor Seth Pease, anxious to hurry along the corrected traverse survey of the Genesee River.

Feb 15

Congress passes legislation allowing any state to discharge its Revolutionary War debt by payment to the Treasury before April of next year, or by spending a like amount over the next five years in the construction of fortifications. New York State is the only one that chooses to do the latter.

Mar 8

Cayuga County is formed out of Onondaga County. ** The Onondaga County town of Camillus is formed from Marcellus.

Mar 29

New York State passes a gradual emancipation act.

May 25

The board of supervisors of Bath meets for the first time. Canisteo's first supervisor, Uriah Stephens presides. Charles Cameron is appointed as the first Steuben County treasurer.

June

James Wadsworth having returned to Geneseo, makes another visit to New York City.

Aug 1

Pease's surveying party encounters a scarcity of drinking water, is forced to use some found deep in a hole punched in the ground by a fallen tree.

Oct 3

Chloe Boardman Lusk, first wife of Penfield pioneer Stephen Lusk, dies of the 'fever' at the age of 22.

Oct 6

John Noyes Wadsworth's widow, Esther Parsons Wadsworth, mother of James, William and John Wadsworth, dies at the age of 67, is buried in Geneseo's Temple Hill Cemetery.

November

Hector pioneer William Wickham falls from his horse and drowns in the Seneca Lake inlet.

December

Philadelphia lawyer Philip Church meets Anna Stewart at Washington's funeral. They will marry in 1805 and move to the New York frontier.

State

Scots immigrants living in Johnstown buy land from Charles Williamson of the Pultney interests and an advance party of 23 settle Big Springs (later Caledonia). ** Williamson is named as a state representative again. ** A number of families settle along Le Roy's East Main Road. ** Seneca sachem Handsome Lake sees visions, becomes a prophet. ** Legislation is passed to control quality of the salt manufactured in the Onondaga area. Further packaging, inspection and shipping standards are also mandated. ** Early Connewango settler Asabel Brown is born in Grand Isle, Vermont. ** With land sales faltering the state begins a system of taxes. ** The first distance markers on the Williamson Trail are erected by Laverne Beatty, between Bath and Cohocton, at a cost of $7.00. ** Holland Land Company General Agent Theophilus Cazenove is fired and returns to his native Switzerland. He will be replaced next year by Paolo Busti. ** Daniel Carroll of Hagerstown, Maryland, and his brother Charles of Washington, D. C. make their first trip to the Pulteney lands. ** Canandaigua's St. John's Episcopal Church is founded. ** The Ganargua River, flowing out of the Bristol Hills and through the future Wayne County to the junction of the Clyde River and Canandaigua Outlet, now cleared of debris by settlers as far as Palmyra, is declared a public waterway. ** The majority of Northampton County's officials are re-elected. Jesse Beach is named pathmaster, the first west of Caledonia. Fifty dollars is raised for town expenses, especially the construction of bridges. ** The village of Salina (the nucleus of the future Syracuse) is laid out at the eastern end of Lake Onondaga to house workers in the new salt industry. ** The first church in the future Monroe County is formed in Pittsford. ** John Tryon opens a store in Monroe County's Town of Brighton. ** Canandaigua attorney Nathaniel W. Howell is named attorney general for western New York. ** Connecticut born Micah Brooks settles in East Bloomfield. ** French writer and traveler François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt visits Niagara Falls.

Buffalo

Joseph Ellicott plats the Buffalo Creek site. It's to be called New Amsterdam. ** Surveyor William Peacock first visits the area.

Canandaigua

The Congregational church and St. John's Episcopal Church are founded.

Rochester

James Wadsworth establishes Castle Town in what will become the 19th Ward. ** Settler Enos Blossom builds a house at the future junction of Linden Avenue and Landing Road. ** Eli Granger and Abner Mingells launch the first American-built merchant vessel on Lake Ontario, at Hanford’s Landing.



(c) 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

No comments: