Monday, May 28, 2012

CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1824



1824
Jan 24                       
During an Ontario Canal Company meeting at Canandaigua's Mead’s Hotel, nine directors are elected. The canal is never built.

Feb 2                       
The Niagara County town of Lockport is formed from Cambria and Royalton.

Feb 9                       
New York Secretary of State J. V. N. Yates presents a report to the state senate , advocating houses of employment for each county for the poor and for orphaned children.

Feb 19                       
Rochester's first bank, the Bank of Rochester, is chartered.

Mar 23                       
The Tioga County town of Barton is formed from the Town of Tioga.

Mar 29                       
The Broome County town of Conklin is formed from the Town of Chenango.

Mar 30
Oswego businessman Henry Milton Ames is born in Mexico, New York, to Leonard and Minerva Peck Ames.

April
Manhattan Company superintendent John Lozier issues a report, lowering his estimate of possible new customers to 1,000, and offering an uninterrupted supply of water. At an annual rate of $12 few sign up.

Apr 3                       
Samuel Young is nominated by a state caucus for governor.

Apr 12                       
De Witt Clinton is deposed as an Erie Canal commissioner.

May 11
The cornerstone of Rochester’s St. Luke's Church Church - to be in the Gothic style - is laid.

Jun 1                       
The Erie Canal Commission signs a second, overlapping contract with Samuel Wilkeson and Ebenezer Johnson, for building the dam at Tonawanda.

Jul 12                       
Horatio Gates Spafford registers his A Pocket Guide for the Tourist and Traveller along the Line of the Canals and the Interior Commerce of the State of New-York with R. R. Lansing, the Clerk of the Northern District of New-York in New York.

Jul 23                       
Western New York land agent Paolo Busti dies at the age of 74.

Aug 4
Rochester lumber dealer William B. Morse is born.

Aug 24                       
Syracuse builder and salt manufacturer Amos L. Mason, is born in Onondaga, to Cyrenus and Martha Harroun Mason.

September
Spafford’s “Guide . . . “ is published in Troy, New York.

Sep 11                       
Holland Land Office agent Joseph Elliott gives his nephew and accounting clerk David E. Evans power of attorney for conducting the office's business.

Sep 3                       
On this day or the next Micah Brooks, Jellis Clute and Henry B. Gibson contract with former Indian captive Mary Jemison for her land on the central Genesee River, except for her 2-square mile Gardeau Tract, which she reserves for herself and her Indian family.

Oct 26                       
The cutting of the western end of the Erie Canal at Lockport, to Lake Erie, is completed.

Oct 28                       
The Reverend Joseph Penney preaches the dedication sermon at the opening of his Presbyterian Church in Rochester. The sermon will be printed by Everard Peck.

November           
De Witt Clinton is again elected governor of New York, partly a backlash due to his ouster from the canal commissioner's post by Van Buren's colleagues.

Nov 8                       
Cayuga Lake ferryboat operator, politician, and militia colonel John Harris, dies in Bridgeport at the age of 64.

Nov 11                       
Orleans County is created out of north central Genesee Country.

Nov 25                       
The Onondaga Canal Company is organized, to connect the Erie Canal to Onondaga Hollow. Nothing is ever done.

Nov 27                       
New York State authorizes the establishment of county poorhouses, to be run by superintendents.

December
Final engineering measurements are made at Lockport, the work is found completely satisfactory.


State
John Beardslee, founder of Beardslee City, dies.    **    Syracuse is incorporated as a city.   **    The approximate year editor Benjamin Smead turns Bath’s Farmers’ Advocate and Steuben Advertiser over to his sons.    **    The Naples Village Record begins publication.    **    Hector pioneer Mrs. William Wickham dies at the age of 82.     **    Charles Butler is admitted to the bar, begins practicing in Lyons. He will move to Geneva after a few months.    **    James Seaver, MD's The Life of Mary Jemison, from her own words, is published.    **    James Fenimore Cooper accompanies four English noblemen (including future prime minister Edward Stanley) on a tour of Saratoga, Ballston, Lake George, Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain. While in Little Falls he decides to write Last of the Mohicans.    **    The 7th Regiment of the New York State Militia takes the title National Guards.    **    Evangelist Charles G. Finney begins his career, in western New York.    **    The steamboat Martha Ogden is built at Sackets Harbor, financed in part by Rochester merchants.    **    Richard McDaniels settles in Connewango.    **    Ebenezer Mack, publisher of Ithaca's Seneca Republican, takes on William Andrus as a partner.    **    The late land agent Paolo Busti is replaced by John J. Vander Kemp.    **    H. G. Spofford’s Gazetteer of the State of New York is published.    **    When Troy hardware merchant John Spencer dies partner Erastus Corning buys out Spencer’s heirs to become full owner.    **    Legislation is passed calling for the final sale of all unassigned patent lands in the state.    **    Buffalo businessman Benjamin Rathbun successfully sues Samuel E. Barnes for $75. Barnes is defended by "Counselor" John Root; Rathbun retains Millard Fillmore partner Joseph Clary.    **    Farmer John Nicholas Rose purchases over a thousand acres of land on Keuka Lake from Captain John Beddoe.    **    New York City mercantile worker David Piffard settles in the central Genesee Valley, buying 600 acres of land.    **    Newfane holds its first town meeting in James Van Horn’s mansion.    **    Construction begins on Skaneateles’ Lake House (later the Indian Queen).    **    The approximate date James Brown opens a public house in Scottsville, later to become the Oatka Inn.    **    Reuben Hyde Walworth is named the last chancellor of the state.    **    The approximate date the present basic structure of Pittsford’s Phoenix Hotel is completed by its owner – either M. Kempton or the former inn’s next owner John Acer.    **    A stone house is built in Clinton County. In the 1920s it will be purchased by industrialist William H. Miner’s wife Alice, to store her artwork collection.

Auburn
The Auburn system of prison management is implemented, ending universal solitary confinement.The prison in enlarged.    **    William Henry Seward marries Frances Miller, daughter of his senior law partner Judge Elijah Miller. Miller gives them a house.

Canandaigua
The second County Court House (later City Hall) is completed.    **    A. N. Phelps begins publishing the Canandaigua Republican. He soon sells the paper to Thomas B. Barnum who runs it for a short time.    **    The home of Dr. E. Carr at 50 Gibson Street is completed.    **    Boston architect Francis Allen’s home for Alexander McKechnie is completed.    **    David E. Evans becomes a director of the Ontario Bank and the Western Insurance Company.

Chautauqua Lake
A bursting dam destroys Robert Miles’s log canoe, used for freighting on the lake since 1806.    **    Elisha Allen builds a horse-boat scow for the Chautauqua to Maysville passenger run. Powered by two pair of horses alternating hourly, the run takes ten hours.    **     Wine is first produced in the Chautauqua region.

Erie Canal
Professor Amos Eaton’s report on the rock formations along the route of the future Erie Canal, A geological and agricultural survey of the district adjoining the Erie canal, in the State of New-York, commissioned by Stephen Van Rennselaer, is published. It contains a 4 1/2 foot profile of geology between Boston and Buffalo. Eaton is designated senior professor of the Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute) in Troy, founded by Van Rensselaer, who donated $300, and himself.   **    The inhabitants of Cayuga, Onondaga, Ontario, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Wayne, and Yates counties petition the Legislature to ask further navigation improvements from Cayuga and Seneca lakes to the Erie Canal, including the draining of the Cayuga Marshes. An act is passed to have a state engineer to do a feasibility study; the drainage of the marshes does not get beyond the survey stage.    **    A weighlock is built at Syracuse.

Penn Yan
The approximate date Alexander Heimup builds a house at 200 Main Street.    **    The Yates County Court House is built.    **    The 1801 grist mill is destroyed by fire.    **   Birkett Mills is built.

Rochester
The village gets its first theater.    **    A visitor is robbed of $1,800 at a gambling shop.    **    St. Luke's Episcopal Church is built.    **    The wooden Main Street bridge across the Genesee River is replaced by a new wooden one on stone piers, - designed by Elisha Johnson -  at half the cost of the previous, 1812 one.   **    The aqueduct is completed.   **    Nathaniel Rochester’s home at Spring and South Washington streets is completed. He is named president and a subscription manager for the new Bank of Rochester, which he co-founded.    **    Thurlow Reed becomes editor of the Telegraph.    **    The First Presbyterian Church is built.    **    Printer H. Leavenworth publishes David Rogers' The American Physician. and Lewis W. Covell's An Account of the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem , by the Roman Army Under Titus.    **    Joshua Bradley's An Address to the Masons, on the Importance and Utility of forming Associations . . . is published.    **    The Rochester Magazine and Theological Review, edited by the Reverend John Samuel Thompson, is printed by L. W. Sibley.    **    Lumberman Sanford Hunt builds the canal boat Hazard at the Lower Falls of the Genesee site known as the Old Rafting Place. He will use it to transport timber, potash and pearl ash to Albany via the Erie Canal.    **    Dr. Douglas Bly is born in West Henrietta.

©  2012    David Minor / Eagles Byte

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Uphill Challenge to Benefit Hospice




Looking for a challenge? Want to help out a very worthy organization? Then the Uphill Challenge is for you! How many trips up and down the hill can you and a partner complete in one hour? Let's find out and have fun doing it!

The idea for this event has been in my head for many years and I finally decided to do something about it. Back in 2005 I had participated in a 10K trail run that was put on by Hospice and was held at Letchworth State Park. Before that event I was aware of Hospice but didn't really have any connection personally. The following year I was asked to sit on the committee to help with the event, which I gladly did. Due to an injury I was not able to race but still helped out on race day. Unfortunately, due to low registration numbers and money being allocated to other events, this was the last year for the event. My eyes were opened to the caring work that is done by this organization and it stuck with me.

Fast forward now to November of 2011. It was during that month that both my father and my grandmother were diagnosed with Cancer. For them, and the rest of our family, things went downhill very quickly. My grandmother passed away in early December and my father died a few days before Christmas. 

I finally thought to do something about this idea that I had and could't think of any reason to not try for it. I was able to first get Polarwave Snowtubing on board with donating the hill for the day and then took my idea to Homecare Hospice. They were excited for the potential of this event and decided to pursue it further. We hope to have official board approval later in April so we can really start to publicize the event.

For those that know me, they know that I possess a strong passion for athletics, competition, and having fun along the way. Throw in a benefit for a worthy cause and you have a win-win all around! That is what we hope to have come July ... a little exercise, a little competition, and a whole lot of fun!

For those people that are nearing the end of their lives, and their families, Homecare/Hospice is excellent place to turn for advice, insight, and care. This event will be used to both raise money and raise awareness about the need for this type of organization. All monies raised/donated will benefit the Genesee Homecare Hospice.

Feel free to contact me with any registration questions or ways you can donate or volunteer. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,
Nate Charvella

More info:

The Uphill Challenge to benefit Hospice is coming this summer, Saturday July 21st at 10 am, to the Polarwave Snowtubing Park in Batavia, NY.

This event will require each team to complete as many trips up and down the hill as possible within the one-hour time limit. Teams will consist of two members and the race format will be like a standard relay. Only one person will be able to run at a time. All team members may rest at any time, but, the more you rest the less time available to complete trips. What will your strategy be?

Online registration is going to take a little longer than originally thought, HOWEVER, you can NOW download a race application from here.....http://buffalorunners.com/calendar_2012.htm#JUL

Donate $5 to the Uphill Challenge to Benefit Hospice and get a course flag to decorate in memory of a loved one : )
Memorial flags can be purchased for a donation of $5 or more. You can decorate it yourself or one of our volunteers can do it for you. These flags will be used to line the course and will provide a great inspiration to all participants and nice way to honor your loved ones.



Little Miss Mila will be decorating one for her Grandpa Skip.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Historic Pittsford Program

Thursday May 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church
36 South Main Street - Pittsford, NY.


THE JOURNEY OF HENRY CLAY
Poor old Henry Clay -
nationally prominent feller -
finally was afforded a way -
out of years in a Le Roy cellar.

After deep analysis and needed repairs -
he qualified to grace a wall -
and now peers down from the top of the stairs -
overlooking his Senate Hall.

Lynne Belluscio, Director and Curator of the Le Roy Historical Society, will visually document this fascinating tale and detail Henry's path from upstate NY to Washington DC.


Open to the public.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Francis Marion McDowell


Received this query a year and a half ago regarding a 
Francis Marion McDowell. Neither the poster or I was
ever able to find out anything. If anyone out there has
an idea of the answer feel free to send it along as a
comment or reply directly to me and I'll pass the
answer along.

David
dminor@eznet.net

BTW - I don't think it was Swamp Fox Fever

I have gained some interest in reading about Mr.
McDowell. I've read McDowell suffered a severe illness,
from which he never made complete recovery, and
consequently he returned to his native town of Wayne, 
and engaged in grape growing on the shores of Lake
Keuka.

I was wondering if you knew what the severe illness he never completely recovered from was? I have looked all over the web hoping to find out, but with no success.

Monday, May 7, 2012

People Who Mattered

Friends of Susan B. Anthony House
invite you to join us
on a journey back in time to meet
"People Who Mattered in Central New York"

Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Leaving Eastview Mall at 7 a.m. sharp

Traveling by motorcoach
to Syracuse, Fayetteville, Peterboro...
to meet Matilda Joslyn Gage, Gerrit Smith,
and many other central New Yorkers who worked
for women's rights and the abolition of slavery.

Trip includes:

  • lunch at Historic Community Church in Fayetteville with a re-enactment of the lives of 3 former slaves who settled in the area after fleeing the south on the underground railroad
  • Dinner with a presentation by Gerrit Smith's biographer
Cost is $105, includes everything!

Don't miss this great opportunity!

Register here! 

Thursday, May 3, 2012


May 8th: The Architecture of James Johnson

The location of our May 8th program will be in St. John the Evangelist Church, 2400 W. Ridge Rd.


7 PM
Local architect, James Johnson is known for the many of his outstanding designs in the community, including Temple Sinai, Penfield Presbyterian church, the mushroom house, The Liberty Pole and in the Town of Greece Our Lady of Mercy Rectory and St. John the Evangelist Church. Using video and images from past projects Mr. Johnson will discuss many of his local projects and the construction techniques used. Public welcome. Reservations are not necessary, Greece Historical Society members FREE, a $5.00 donation is appreciated from others.