1812
Feb 5
Governor Tompkins's committee submits a report suggesting the basic features of a common school system that will become state law later in the year.
Mar 20
The towns of Concord, Eden and Hamburg are
established.
Mar 30
Holland Land Company agent Joseph Ellicott writes from Batavia to his boss Paolo Busti in Philadelphia, reporting on his meeting in Albany with the canal commissioners, in which they attempted to find out just how much land the Holland group would be willing to donate for such a waterway. Ellicott refers the question to Busti.
Apr 20
U. S. vice-president and former state governor George Clinton dies in Washington, D. C. at the age of 72.
May 1
Hamlet Scrantom and his wife and six children arrive at the falls of the Genesee, becoming the first white family to settle in the future Rochester area west of the river. The site is on today's State Street, just north of the Four Corners, home to the Powers Building.
May 4
Busti writes to Ellicott that, while disapproving the final route as too far north in Genesee County, he nevertheless agrees to the appropriation, by the state, of one half of a township for a twenty-year option, for the canal. He expresses doubts the canal will ever be built.
May 20
Rochester pioneer shoemaker Jesse Hatch is born to Lemuel and Mary Williams Hatch in Granville.
May 26
The Monroe County Town of Perinton is formed out of the Town of Boyle. ** The Ontario County Town of Mendon is taken off from the Town of Bloomfield, becomes part of Monroe County.
Jun 1
The northwestern New York Town of Porter is formed, named for Niagara County’s first judge, Augustus Porter.
Jun 8
The towns of Pembroke and Bergen are formed out of the town of Batavia.
Jun 10
The Monroe County town of Northampton in has its name changed to Gates.
Jun 18
The Steuben County town of Cohocton is formed from Bath and Dansville. The Town of Howard is also formed.
Jun 27
The cargo ship Commencement, out of Black Rock, is seized by the British on Lake Ontario.
Jul 4
The Scrantom family moves into the cabin built for them by Henry Skinner.
September
Commodore Isaac Chauncey is named commander of U. S. naval forces on lakes Ontario and Erie.
November
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, saddler Abelard Reynolds, newly arrived in Rochesterville, is named postmaster. He was on his way to settle in Ohio, but liked the Genesee Falls area so much he changed his mind and bought lots 23 and 24 on Main Street. Postage revenues for the first quarter of operation will total $3.42.
Nov 3
A Republican caucus chooses De Witt Clinton to run for the governorship.
Nov 21
U. S. forces at Fort Niagara exchange gunfire with British artillery at Fort George, across the Niagara River.
Dec 25
Cornelia Wadsworth is born in Geneseo to James and Naomi Wolcott Wadsworth.
State
The changeover from the office of State Auditor General to State Comptroller, legislated in 1797, is completed. The office will be under the jurisdiction of Council of Appointment until 1822. ** Jonathan Child opens a store in part of Peter Holloway’s East Bloomfield tavern. ** In Cayuga County, Sterling is taken off the town of Cato. ** John Walker builds the first frame house in Canadice. ** Hamilton College is founded in Clinton. ** Early settler William Dayton arrives in Alden. ** Philip Church's Angelica mansion is completed. ** Cary Burdie and Peter Henderson settle the Oswego town of Albion. ** The state canal commission is denied funds. ** Future abolitionist Gerrit Smith enrolls in Hamilton College. ** The approximate date farmer Martin Keiffer builds a two-story log cabin in Rush, near Honeoye Creek. It will become part of the Genesee Country Museum. ** British investor Patrick Colquhoun is compensated by the heirs of fellow capitalist Sir William Pulteney for state lands overlooked by the original 1791 survey. Colquhoun had foreseen the possibility and written it into his contract with fellow investor Pulteney. ** The Ontario County Town of Canadice experiences a large influx of settlers. * A log cabin tavern, later to be known as the East Mendon Hotel, is built. ** The approximate date a stone arsenal is erected on Main Street in Batavia. ** Construction begins on a house for Dr. Ives, a dentist, on the East Seneca Turnpike, east of Sinai (later Jamesville). ** Thomas Stokoe starts a farm near Scottsville. It will still be in operation more than a hundred and eighty years later. ** The debt on James and Williams Wadswoth's Genesee Valley lands rises above $62,000. ** The approximate date Colonel James Leslie Voorhees moves to central New York from the Mohawk Valley. ** Stonington, Connecticut, native George Brown buys 640 acres at the future site of Branchport from John Beddoe, intending to build an inn there. ** A road from Avon to Buffalo, via Batavia, is built. ** A squatters’ town, Sandytown, grows between Buffalo and Black Rock. ** A dam at Port Byron creates a mill pond from Owasco Lake Outlet creek. ** Mary Jemison’s sons John and Jesse, and her son-in-law George Shongo, are working for Wolf Creek sawmill owner Robert Whaley, of Castile. ** Victor is broken off from Bloomfield, and named for Claudius Victor Boughton, veteran of the current war with Britain. ** A state law extends the canal commission and authorizes its members to borrow and deposit money, and to accept land transfers. The war with Britain will delay further operations.
Avon
Gilbert R. Berry's widow ceases to operate his inn. ** Timothy Hosmer takes over as innkeeper of the Hosmer Stand, owned by his brothers Algernon Sidney and William T. Hosmer. ** John Pierson builds the White Horse Tavern. ** Lawyer poet William Howe Cuyler Hosmer is born to Avon lawyer George Hosmer and his wife.
Le Roy
The town of Bellona is created out of part of Caledonia. It will be renamed Le Roy next year. ** An inn is built at West Main Street and Craigie Street. It will one day become the residence of Harold B. Ward. ** After Buffalo is burned by the British at the end of 1813, blacksmith John Gilbert this year moves east to Le Roy. ** Dr. Levi Ward is authorized by the U.S. postmaster general to transport weekly mail between Caledonia and Charlotte.
Pittsford
The approximate date distiller and land speculator Augustus Ellicott builds a house here. Later known as the Hargous-Briggs house, it will eventually become the convent of St. Louis Church. The Phoenix Hotel, at the village’s main intersection, is also built about this time. ** Farmer Noah Norton dies during a typhoid epidemic.
Rochesterville
A 120-plus acre piece of property east of the Genesee River, on the future site of Rochester, is bought for mill sites by Samuel J. Andrews and Judge Caleb Atwater for under $2000, a depressed price due to the war. ** The village of Rochesterville is laid out on the Genesee, below the falls. ** The approximate date Boyle is renamed Smallwood. ** Benjamin Wright is hired to survey Frankfort. ** A public square is chosen as the site for a court house. ** Francis Brown and several others arrive from Rome, New York, with mill irons from Albany, run into deep mud west of the Genesee. ** Matthew Brown’s clerk Gaiu B. Rich arrives from Rome with two sleighs full of goods. Rich had stopped at Stone's Tavern in Brighton, traveled to the mouth of the Genesee on the east side, crossed on the ice and driven south to the Upper Falls. ** The bridge across the Genesee River at Main Street is completed. ** Settler Darius Perrin arrives in the area. ** Nathaniel Rochester starts a settlement on the site of the old Ebenezer “Indian” Allan mill site. ** Settler Enos Stone builds a frame house, the first on the east bank of the Genesee River, to replace his log cabin. ** The Tinker family arrives in the Henrietta area. ** The village begins getting mail once a week, often by a female post rider. ** Educator Celestia Bloss is born.
Syracuse
A house is built in Onondaga Hollow for John Gridley. Fearing British troops might harm the house he has a Masonic emblem carved into the keystone over the front doorway. ** State legislation is passed requiring the Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs be appointed by the Legislature rather than by the Governor and Senate. William Kirkpatrick is re-appointed Superintendent. ** A house on the West Seneca Turnpike is built for General James Hutchinson.
War of 1812
House Foreign Relations Committee chair Peter Buell Porter, of Buffalo pushes for a declaration of war against England. Instead of running for re-election to Congress he will enlist, becoming a major general.
© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte
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