From this Saturday, July 30th through Sunday, August 7th
Cities along the Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Syracuse
will be hosting a series of orienteering events/challenges
For further detail please visit
Traveling In The Old Days
2 weeks ago
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
CENTRAL / WESTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1810
Feb 8
The Town of Buffalo is formed from the Niagara (later Erie) County town of Clarence. ** Articles of agreement are signed at New Haven, Connecticut, creating the firm of Townsend, Bronson & Co., comprised of Jacob Townsend, Alvin Bronson and ship’s master Sheldon Thompson, to engage in maritime commerce in New York State.
Feb 16
John Richardson is appointed Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs.
Mar 13
The State Senate passes a resolution calling for Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Simeon De Witt, William North, Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter to be appointed commissioners to explore routes for a canal across the state, and to recommend improvements to Onondaga Lake.
Mar 15
The New York House of Representatives concurs with the Senate in the canal resolution.
Mar 30
Penfield is formed from the town of Boyle (until this year Northfield).
Apr 10
Cape Vincent Township is taken off Lyme Township.
May
Wealthy businessman Nathaniel Rochester leaves his home at Mount Prospect, Maryland, and moves with his family to Dansville.
May 8
Holland Land Company general agent Paoli Busti writes from Philadelphia to company land agent Joseph Ellicott in Batavia recounting a conversation with a St. Lawrence merchant named Parish who believes that western New York goods should be shipped via the St. Lawrence. Busti advocates pushing for a cross-state canal route.
Jun 30
New York mayor De Witt Clinton, along with fellow canal commissioner Thomas Eddy and his son, leave New York for Albany by steamboat.
July
De Witt Clinton visits the future Rochesterville area while scouting a canal route.
Jul 1
Clinton’s boat arrives at Albany before daylight. He and the Eddys put up at Gregory’s tavern. A meeting of the canal commissioners is held at the Surveyor-General’s office. All of the commissioners are present except Porter, who arrives that evening. Morris and Van Rensselaer will make the jaunt by land; the others by water. General North will meet the boat at Utica.
Jul 3
The canal commissioners travel to Schenectady by stage and put up at Powell’s Hotel. They learn that work on the boats is not completed.
Jul 4
After a delay for Independence Day celebrations Clinton’s party departs at 4 PM, gets as far as Willard’s Tavern, in the city’s 3rd ward.
Jul 5
Rain during the night. While waiting for their captain to return from a trip into Schenectady the Clinton party climbs a high hill to view the city and the river valley. They get under way at 9 o’clock, pass the mansion built by Sir William Johnson and later a decades-old Indian pictograph on an elevated rock. They tie up at Cook’s tavern for the night.
Jul 6
The commissioners pass Schoharie Creek. Shortly afterwards “ruffians” throw a pitchfork at their vessel from a high bank, just missing the batteaux. At Palatine they stop for the night at Dewandalaer’s tavern.
Jul 7
William Wolcott Wadsworth is born in Geneseo to James and Naomi Wolcott Wadsworth. ** The commissioners pass Kater’s Rapid on foot while the crew brings the batteaux through. They stop for breakfast at Shephard’s tavern (close to Canajoharie) sharing it with many flies. They pass Fort Plain and, at the end of the day, arrive at Pardee’s Tavern in Manheim.
Jul 8
The canal party leaves Pardee’s early in the morning, arrive at Little Falls by 10 AM. After visiting a window-glass factory at Oneida, they continue on, reaching German Flatts at ten in the evening.
Jul 9
Clinton’s party has breakfast at the German Flatts toll-keeper’s, then lock through the local canal, taking five minutes. They reach Utica, put up at Billinger’s tavern.
Jul 10
The entire board meets, adjourn, agreeing to gather at Rome in two days.
Jul 11
The commissioners travel to Whitesborough by land, then split up, some to continue on by land, others by water. The latter contingent arrives at Rome for dinner, put up at Isaac Lee’s Hotel.
Jul 12
After passing through the 1.7-mile canal at Rome commission members regroup there. A discussion is held on the merits of running the canal north to Lake Ontario or over to Lake Erie. Another meeting is scheduled for Geneva.The party heads west, passes through four wooden locks to Mud Creek, and begins descending the waterway, toward Oneida Lake.
Jul 13
They reach Oneida Lake, stop for the night at Mrs. Jackson’s tavern.
Jul 14
They set out, using mostly oars, to move along the north shore of Oneida Lake. Stopping at the town of Bengal for a brief visit with a local family, they then proceed on to New Rotterdam (Constantia), stop for dinner (lunch), and continue on awhile before stopping for supper. After eating they move on and enter the inlet, halt for the night.
Jul 15
Simeon De Witt measures the depth of the Oneida River outlet into the lake. The party moves on around 11 AM, reaches Three-River Point shortly before sundown, stop for the night at an inn run by the Magie family, full of “noisy, drunken people” including the Magies. North, De Witt, and Geddes, take refuge in the attic bedroom, the others chose to camp out on the hillside above the point.
Jul 16
Nicknaming the spot Bug Bay, the group moves on at daybreak. Arriving at the Falls of the Oswego they hire a boat to take them to Lake Ontario. As they pass Bradstreet’s Island they encounter a number of salt boats. Passing a number of rapids and rifts they arrive at Oswego around seven in the evening and put up at a tavern run by “Colonel” Parsons, a veteran of Shay’s Rebellion.
Jul 17
Simeon De Witt injures his arm in a fall, but will be able to continue on with the party.
Jul 18
Clinton's party Leaves Oswego, walking for five miles on the west bank of the Oswego River. James Geddes shows his fellow commissioners the spot he favors for a canal and locks. They walk past Three-River Rift, and arrive at the Magies mid-afternoon; find all the family sober. They stop for the night at Van Valkenburgh’s Tavern, in the Town of Volney. ** Busti writes to Ellicott, complains that there is no harbor suitable for commerce in company lands bordering on Lake Ontario.
Jul 19
Clinton's party reaches the home of Dr. Jonas C. Baldwin, the site of the village of Baldwinsville, at 11 PM, spends the night.
Jul 20
Delayed by rainy weather, the Clinton party remains at Dr. Baldwin’s, and examines a dam and short canal around the rapids.
Jul 21
After breakfasting at Columbia, the party sets out on the Seneca River. Passing across Cross Lake they stop for the night at a cabin owned by a Mr. Wordworth. Clinton mentions the unhealthy air in the swampy region.
Jul 22
After breakfast the party moves on, reaching Mosquito Point around eleven with fair winds, stop and talk to tavern owner William Lyon. The winds turn against them and they have to drop their sails. A squall holds them up near Galen, near the salt works. Anther squall delays them near Montezuma. They halt for the day around 3 PM, put up at I.H. Terry’s, a local doctor and Montezuma tavern keeper.
Jul 23
The travelers leave after breakfast, passing through the northern end of Cayuga Lake, travel past Mynderse’s Mills to Seneca Falls. They put up at Samuel Jack’s tavern and dismiss the crew of the batteaux Eddy, taking on new men for the rest of the journey.
Jul 24
Four Commissioners and Simeon De Witt embark on the Eddy. The others go overland to Geneva. The Eddy moves on to Schoy’s Rapid, where the commissioners walk past the rapids, stopping at Samuel W. Smith’s tavern just before noon, while the inexperienced crew takes the boat through. They arrive at Geneva at two o’clock, and put up at Powell’s Hotel. They will continue on overland. After visiting the Buffalo area the group will return to Albany entirely by land.
Jul 27
Clinton’s group spends the night at the tavern of Glover Perrin in Boyle (later Perinton).
Jul 29
Clinton’s party leaves the Genesee and heads west on Ridge Road.
Sep 2
Nurseryman William Abelard Reynolds is born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Abelard and Lydia Strong Reynolds.
Oct 19
Portrait painter Charles Loring Elliott is born in Scipio to architect and builder Daniel Elliott and Mehitable Booth Elliott.
State
New Englanders settle Gad Pouch. The name is later changed to Linden. ** The Onondaga County area white population is twenty-four people per square mile. The county’s population tops 25,000, quadruple its population of ten years earlier. Only 200 Onondaga Indians remain at the Onondaga Castle reservation. Ontario County's population reaches 42,026. ** James D. Bemis, editor of Canandaigua’s Western Repository and Genesee Advertiser, buys his bookstore back from Myron Holley. He adds a bindery to the store. ** Mason John Gridley buys property on East Seneca Turnpike in Syracuse from George Kibbe. ** Future governor Horatio Seymour is born to Henry and Mary Forman Seymour at Pompey Hill. ** Philip Church and his extended family move into Belvidere, his still uncompleted mansion in Angelica. ** The village of Montezuma begins producing salt on a regular basis. ** The approximate date Elijah T. Hayden’s house for Syracuse’s Leavenworth family is built, at James and McBride streets. ** William Avery Rockefeller, father of John D. Rockefeller, is born to Godfrey and Lucy Rockefeller, in Granger. ** Alvin Bronson hires carpenters, with a Mr. Bassett as their chief, and they all go to Oswego Falls, cut the frame for a vessel, the Charles and Ann, build her at Oswego, and launch her in the autumn, under the command of John Hall. ** William Richardson and Timothy Kirby of Lowell, Massachusetts, settle the Wyoming County town of Java. Calvin Clifford, Lewis Hancock and Guy Morgan move to the county from Jefferson County and settle the town of Wethersfield. ** 92,677 men are currently enrolled in the state militia. ** Holland Land Company surveyor William Peacock moves from the Black Rock-Buffalo area to Mayville. ** Baptist elder John Goff founds the first church in the Schuyler County town of Reading, at Reading Center. ** The area between German Flats and the Genesee River contains 280,319 inhabitants, the majority having moved there since 1788. ** Sophia Trumbull begins the first school in Cohocton, in a cabin built by Jonas Cleland. ** The Ogden Land Company purchases preemptive rights from the Holland Land Company for 50¢ an acre. ** The population of the Genesee Valley region reaches 30,000. ** George Park of Armenia arrives in Binghamton to continue his law studies. ** Salmon and Sebra Adams Miller settle in log cabin at the intersection of Rush-Mendon and West Bloomfield roads in Mendon, with their children. ** James Van Horn builds a gristmill on Eighteen Mile Creek in New Fane (Newfane). ** A road is built between Arkport and Charlotte (the future Route 15, East Henrietta Road in Rochester), connecting the Susquehanna River at Arkport to Lake Ontario. One of the three men assigned to lay out the road is Arkport surveyor Micah Brook, for whom Rochester’s Brooks Avenue will be named. Another road is put through from Onondaga to Olean. ** Samuel Church builds a flour mill on Black Creek at the future Churchville. ** The settlement of the part of Boyle that would later become Pittsford, near the Mile Post (from the later village center), begins expanding northward to that area. Boyle’s population at this time is 2,860. ** The 1810 Federal census shows the state with a population of 959,049. As a result the Congressional apportionment grows from 17 to 27 state representatives. Due to confusion over new district lines the legislature leaves the total number of districts at 21 for the next eleven years. In the meantime District 21 and a number of others become “double” districts. ** Land sales agent George Williams arrives in the Genesee Valley, builds a log house near Portageville. ** Thomas Cooper’s A Ride to Niagara is published in the July-October issue of The Port Folio magazine. It includes an 1809 map of the western half of the state. ** New York City lawyer Daniel Penfield, his wife Mary Fellows Penfield and their five children, move upstate to his western New York property, naming the new town for himself. ** Wellfleet, Massachusetts, miller Samuel Rich arrives in Northfield/Penfield – with his family – where he will build a large sawmill on Allens Creek. **
Le Roy
Ganson’s Tavern is completed. ** The area’s Craigie Tract is put on the market by newly-arrived Randolph, Vermont, immigrant Thomas Tufts. ** Triangle Tract surveyor and land agent Richard Stoddard dies. His partner Dudley Saltonstall sells his interest in the tract to Graham Newell, who becomes the new land agent. ** Businessman Lathrop S. Bacon is born in Hamilton, New York.
Pittsford
The original portion of the Fletcher Steele House at 20 Monroe Avenue is completed.
Rochesterville
Francis Brown is driven ashore by a storm at the mouth of the Genesee River while traveling by canoe from Detroit, Michigan, to Rome, New York. He walks up the river and discovers the high falls of the Genesee. Returning later in the year from Rome he moves to the west bank of the Genesee. ** The Frankfort Tract, on the future site of Rochester, is bought by Francis Brown, his brother Matthew, and Thomas Mumford and John McKay from grist mill owner Charles Harford. ** Work is commenced on the site for a wooden bridge across the Genesee at Main Street. ** Mr. George P. Humphrey discovers the journal of Thomas Cooper’s 1809 visit in the Port Folio for 1810, a Philadelphia publication of which Cooper later will later become assistant editor. ** Construction begins on a bridge across the Genesee. ** The bounty paid on rattlesnakes is raised. ** The store at Hanford Landing (Genesee Landing) draws potash trade from as much as 100 miles away.
New Jersey
Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken recommends a rail line across New York State instead of a canal, but former minister to France Robert R. Livingston opposes the idea.
© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Goble II
Oswego Palladium
April 10, 1860
Marine Railway. - Mr. George Goble has leased the marine railway and shipyard at the foot of West First and Second streets for a term of years, and we are happy to see is doing an active business this Spring. The railway is in first-rate condition, and Mr. Goble is prepared to execute promptly all work consigned to his charge. he is an efficient and skilled shipbuilder and mechanic, as is fully substantiated by the vessel he launched yesterday, and many others doing service on the Lakes. He personally supervises all work in h is yard, and those having repairs to be done will find Mr. Goble prompt, liberal and fair in all his business transactions.
Submitted by Dick Palmer
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Goble Yard
Oswego Daily Times, March 27, 1915
A memento of the halcyon days at the Goble dry dock, when a large force of ship carpenters was engaged with plane and saw, was picked up during the last week by Allie Barbeau, who was watching the work of the tearing down of this plant to make way for the Barge Canal terminal. It was a time book of 1865, a book half a century old, with the names of many schooners and ship carpenters who have since made their last voyage.
Among the names of ship carpenters on the book, men who will be remembered by the older residents are those of J. Goble, G.W. Goble, N.C. Goble, W. Keefe, P. Lamoree, P. Callahan, A. Allen, L. Ward, J. King, F. Lemmie, J. Lemmie, N. Malette, F. Santano, Thomas King, B. Roy, J. Smith, P. Smith, G. McIntosh, W. Heagerty, A. Anderson, J. Crowley, W. Crowley, J. Barbeau, C. Hayes, Messrs. Edwards, Garahan, Wilson, Anderson, Santano, P. Barbeau, J. Collins, E. Gokey, J. Blackburn, F. Raber, J. Dufresne, E. Budd, L. Martin, A. Blackburn. Many of the names, written in lead pencil, have defied the flight of time and are now as plain as when first inscribed.
Of the boats listed, which were either constructed or repaired, are the Algerine, Star of the North, Scow Markwell, M. Melvin, Baham, Propeller Norman, Idaho, Tug Tornado, Hyphon, Hartzell, Jesse Anderson, Preston, Brady, W.H. Hoag, Coral, W.B. Ogden, Emau, Richmond, Henry Fitzhugh, Catherine, Caroline, May Queen, Annexation, Crusader, Canadian.
Submitted by Dick Palmer
Saturday, July 2, 2011
New Society July Event
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