Jan 3
Abolitionist Gerrit Smith marries Ann (Nancy)
Carroll Fitzhugh, daughter of William Fitzhugh, one of Rochester’s founders, at
that city's St. Luke's Church.
Jan 6
Buffao mayor Solomon Scheu is born near
Standenbehl, Bavaria.
February
Geneva businessmen, dissatisfied with the Seneca
Lock Navigation Company’s plans, issue a report advocating a Susquehanna and
St. Lawrence Canal. Nothing comes of the plan. ** Rochesterville’s third village census show a
population of 2,700, plus 430 laboring on public works.
Feb 22
Chili township is created out of Riga township.
Feb 27
Rochesterville’s Female Charitable Society is
founded.
Mar 8
Rochesterville civic leader Edwin S. Hayward is
born in Charlton, Massachusetts, to future Brighton pioneer Nathaniel Hayward.
Mar 12
Pittsford businessman Patrick Malone is born in
County Clare, Ireland, to
storekeeper Thomas Malone and French woman Mary Cunningham
Malone.
Mar 18
Joseph Yates wins the Republican nomination for
governor.
Mar 22
Two Tompkins County towns, Caroline and Danby, are
annexed from Tioga County township. ** Monroe County Town of Greece is formed from the
Town of Gates.
Apr 12
The village of Rochesterville is officially
renamed Rochester.
Apr 13
The Walk-in-the-Water is refloated, beating the May 1st deadline. ** The Orleans County town of
Oak Orchard (later Carlton) is formed from Gaines and Ridgeway.
Apr 16
The Chemung County towns of Big Flats and
Southport are incorporated.
Apr 17
The Orleans County town of Yates is founded from
Ridgeway, as the town of
Northton.
Apr 29
Montour fruit farmer George C. Wickham is born in
Hector, to Mr. and Mrs. William Wickham.
May 22
The first bridge at Carthage collapses into the
Genesee River.
June
Members of the Erie Canal Commission spend a week
at Buffalo's Eagle Tavern listening to arguments of proponents for both Buffalo
and Black Rock as the western terminus of the canal.
August
Rochester’s fourth village census shows a
population of 4,274.
Aug 8
Buffalonians assemble at the Eagle Tavern, soon
march down Main Street to the planned exit of the Erie Canal at Little Buffalo
Creek. Presbyterian minister Mlles B. Squire offers prayers for the success of
the project and several member of the group break ground. ** Mechanical and hydraulics
engineer Birdsill Holly is born in Auburn.
Sep 26
Mill owner Thomas Hart Rochester, son of community
founder Nathaniel Rochester, marries Elizabeth P. Cumming at St. Luke's Church
in Rochester.
Oct 29
The first boat with a cargo of Rochester flour
leaves Hill’s Basin for Little Falls, via the Erie Canal, completed as far west
as the Genesee River this year.
December
James Geddes proposes building canals from Lake
Erie to the Ohio River.
** Future
western New York settler David Piffard emigrates from London to New York City,
goes to work for the merchant firm LeRoy, Bayard and Company.
Dec 12
Cortland County farmer Albertus Starr Gillette is
born in East Scott to Horatio Nelson Gillette and Marilla Starr Gillette.
Dec 19
New York’s Erie Canal Commission signs a contract
with Samuel Wilkeson and Ebenezer Johnson, for building the dam at Tonawanda.
State
The first printing presses in Chemung, Niagara and
Orleans counties.
** A huge tree
in Silver Creek is blown down in a storm. It will be hollowed out and have a
room made in it.
** The total
value of shipments into Lake Ontario out of the Genesee River reaches
$500,000. ** Erastus Shepard ceases
publication of the Western Republican, sends his materials to Elmira and takes a position as foreman at
James Bogart's office in Geneva. ** The Angelica Republican ceases publication. ** Another treaty with the Onondaga reduces the
size of their reservation a third time. ** Newly appointed Le Roy land agent Jacob Le Roy,
son of the former agent Herman Le Roy, enlarges the land office. It will one
day become Le Roy House.
** Gideon Granger,
Postmaster General under Jefferson and Madison, dies in Canandaigua. ** Gibbs and Company opens
Batavia’s Genesee House inn, with Rastus Smith as landlord. ** James L. Blodgett, the
Hermit of Hermitage, is born to Hermitage pioneer Lewis Blodgett and his
wife. ** Hinman Holden leases his
Town of Batavia inn to David Danold. ** Geneva Hall, the first building on the campus of
Geneva’s Hobart and William Smith Colleges, is built with community
contributions. ** John T. Patterson is elected as
Monroe County’s second sheriff, serves until 1825. ** The deed for Lewiston’s Oakwood Cemetery is
issued. ** Lockport is made the seat
of Niagara County. ** Amos Eaton publishes
"A Geological Profile of the rocks from Onondaga Salt Springs, N.Y. to
Williams College, Mass."
** The 27th
Congressional District is established, encompassing Livingston and Monroe
counties. Moses Hayden is appointed First Judge of Livingston County. ** The general election
supervisory duties of the sheriff of Steuben County are transferred to the
county clerk. The supervisor, town clerk and justices of the peace are made
election inspectors.]
** The Steuben
County Agricultural Society holds their first fair, in Bath, aided by a $100
state appropriation. A race track is built and there are nine categories for
the judging of cattle and sheep. ** A portion of the Onondaga Salt Springs
Reservation is sold off.
** Canandaigua
lawyer Walter S. Hubbell builds a home and a law office at 164 North Main
Street. ** Governor De Witt Clinton
decides not to run for re-election.
** The town of
Brockport is laid out.
** Jacob P.
Groat and his family (including a cow) arrive in the Town of Arcadia by covered
wagon. It's said the rough roads cause the milk to churn itself. ** Combined revenue from
the Erie and Chanplain canals totals $64,071.
** All state public lands not already appropriated
are given to the school fund.
** Cortland
Academy in the Military Tract at Homer (Onondaga County, later Cortland County)
is given Lot 85 of Township 19. ** David Johnson builds a dry dock at Port Byron.
Buffalo
South Pier, into Lake Erie, is completed. ** Black Rock receives a
$12,000 grant from Albany and begins building the Bird Island Pier into the
Niagara River. ** Ebenezer F. Norton sells
the Eagle Tavern to New York City investors for $10,000. Benjamin Rathbun
leases the tavern from them, begins making improvements. ** Walk-in-the-Water builder Noah Brown arrives to build a replacement
vessel.
Connewango
Calvin Treat builds a small grist-mill on Spring
Brook, the first in the town. John Fairbanks and his wife Experience settle in
town. Valentine Hill arrives from Ohio. Julius Gibbs arrives from Chautauqua
County. General Seth Wood settles on the land abandoned by the Barton brother
two years ago. He later moves to Ohio. ** Samuel Cowley arrives from York, New York.
Erie Canal
The packet Myron Holley arrives in Bushnell's Basin, south of Rochester.
The town of Fairport is created on that spot. ** The canal reaches Palmyra. ** The Erie Canal's Great
Embankment is built, a mile in length and seventy feet high, to carry the canal
over Rochester's Irondequoit Valley. ** Hamilton opens an inn near South Lima.
Pittsford
Jacob Young buys a farm on Clover Street from
F. G. Reeve. ** The Lusk family farmhouse
is completed by Stephen and Sarah Lusk
Rochester(ville)
The
first court house is built. ** The village’s population reaches 3,130 by
year’s end.
**
Seven-year-old John S. Wilson arrives with his family from
Massachusetts. ** Trustees levy an annual
license fee on gambling locations. ** An attempt is made over the next two years to
establish a water supply system for Rochester, but it fails because the current
supply from wells and springs is adequate. ** Construction on a new Erie Canal aqueduct across
the Genesee River is begun. Grimsby sandstone quarried at the nearby village of
Carthage is used. Mason William Morgan arrives to work on the aqueduct. ** Printer Everard Peck begins
publishing the Western Agricultural Almanac, with astronomical calculations by Lyman Wilmarth
and innkeeper Oliver Loud, both of Bushnell's Basin. ** Peck publishes The New England Primer and The Fashionable Letter Carrier or, Art of
Polite Correspondence.... ** The Charlotte Lighthouse is
built on Lake Ontario.
** The
Summerhays family business moves from Spring Street to new wooden storage sheds
along the Erie Canal.
** Five mills
are in operation on the Genesee River millrace. ** John Gilbert’s stone warehouse is
completed. ** The
first permanent church building is erected. The previous three had only been
temporary wooden structures.
© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte
