CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1809

Jan 19

Cohocton settler Horace Fowler marries Martha Howe of Prattsburgh.

Feb 21

Land investor Oliver Phelps dies in debtors’ prison in Canandaigua at the age of 59.

Feb 24

Businessman and Buffalo mayor Elbridge Gerrry Spaulding is born in Summer Hill

March

James Wadsworth publishes notices to lure settlers to the Genesee Valley.

Mar 31

Former U. S. president Thomas Jefferson writes from Monticello to Nathaniel Rochester, chairman of Maryland's Republican Citizens of Washington County, thanking him for his retirement wishes.

Oct 11

Phrenologist and octagon house promoter Orson Fowler is born to Horace and Martha Howe Fowler in Cohocton.

November

65 boats pass through Dr. Jonas C. Baldwin’s locks at Baldwinsville. ** Western New York politician Peter Buell Porter is elected to the Eleventh U.S. Congress. He moves from Canandaigua to Buffalo.

State

Solomon Chadwick settles on the shore of Lake Erie, founding the community of Chadwick's Bay. It will become Dunkirk. ** Early settler John Hooker arrives in Angelica from Vermont. ** Transplanted Virginian Robert Selden Rose builds a frame house outside of Geneva, names it Rose Hill Farm. ** Folk artist Noah North is born in Alexander. ** Albert Brisbane is born to Batavia postmaster James Brisbane and his wife Mary. ** Silas Newell arrives from the Hudson Valley and builds a house in the Town of Wyoming. The place becomes known as Newell’s Settlement (later Wyoming). He plants apple and pear trees. ** Hermitage, near Warsaw, is settled. ** The Cayuga County courthouse at Auburn is completed. ** The first religious services are held in Canadice. ** Allegany County court judge Philip Church buys two male slaves, at $100 each. ** Sylvester Hosmer marries Laura Smith, daughter of Avon innkeeper Major Isaac Smith. ** Lenox, Massachusetts, native Enos Stone acquires a farm at the Falls of the Genesee River, part of the future Rochester. ** Elijah Blodgett, James Sayres, and Moody Truman settle in the Clarkson area of Monroe County. ** The state legislature approves funds for building a bridge at the falls of the Genesee. ** The first religious service in the Wyoming County town of Genesee Falls is conducted by Methodist Episcopalian minister the Reverend John Griffith. ** Timothy and Phebe Dewey Barnard and their five children arrive in Mendon by ox cart, having come from Lenox, Massachusetts. A former paymaster for George Washington, he will build a home near Canfield and West Bloomfield roads, the section to be known as Barnard's Corners. ** James Van Horn builds a cabin near Eighteen Mile Creek in New Fane (Newfane). ** Daniel D. Tompkins is elected governor. ** Smallwood (later Pittsford) collector of taxes Caleb Hopkins is elected supervisor. ** Isaac Barnes opens a grist mill on Allyns (Allens) Creek in Penfield.

Canandaigua

A local playhouse features an apparatus called the Invisible Lady. ** The first brick house in the city is built at 39 North Main, as a home for the Masonic Temple (through 1819).

Rochester

Hudson, New York, native John C. Spencer begins practicing law here. ** The approximate date Leonard Stoneburner arrives from Canada, after a period of being held prisoner by Indians and settles along Allyns (Allens) Creek in Brighton. He sets up a blacksmith shop.

Sackets Harbor

Landowner Augustus Sacket sells his holdings and leaves the area. Jacob Brown is appointed commander of the local militia in his place.

Vermont

Rochester architect Henry Searle is born in Burlington.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte