The Flour City: 1823

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~ ROCHESTER'S HISTORY ~
AN ILLUSTRATED TIMELINE

THE FLOUR CITY: 1823 - 1849

1820

1830

1840

The Erie Canal made Rochester a city. The small community literally exploded onto the American scene. The 'Flour City' is the nickname most associated with Rochester during this period. Huge quantities of grain were milled and then the flour was shipped out on the new Erie Canal. It did not take long for Rochester to become the largest flour producing city in the world. 'Boom Town' is a term we associate with the mining towns of the old west that popped up overnight when gold was found, but the term was coined for Rochester, which exploded with the arrival of the canal, and grew faster than any other city in American history. 'The Young Lion of the West' was the powerful new city growing on America's western frontier.

1823

Population 2,500.
Property of Elisha Johnson on east side of river is annexed, bringing total area to 1012 acres.
-ville dropped from Rochester's name.
Canal reaches Rochester.
The weighlock was built. It was a special lock designed so that the water displaced by the loaded canal boat in the closed lock, could be measured, and used to asses fees for canal use -- a nineteenth century tollbooth. It was located near the site of the Rundel Library, on the east side of the river.

Monroe Ave. Lock is in operation from 1823 to 1919 when the canal is re-routed around city.
Canal causes a 90% drop in shipping costs.
Local millers grind 25,000 bushels of wheat ... daily.
In the first ten days that the canal is opened 40,000 barrels of Rochester flour are shipped to Albany and New York.
Canal and mill raceways divert water from The Falls, which is cut to half its original width.
Shipbuilding is the city's second largest industry. Six firms produce the canal boats at $800 to $12,000 each.
First County Fair
St. Patrick's Church built on the site of the Cathedral.

1824

First steamboat on the Genesee is the 'Erie Canal'. The side-wheeler takes two days for the trip between Geneseo and Rochester.
Second Main Street Bridge built, but later destroyed by flood.
'Canawlers' dock boats at Castletown and calmer Eastern Widewaters, where small communities thrive during the harsh New York winters.
Bank of Rochester incorporated, first bank not in New York City chartered by the State of New York.
Two mile wide strip of land, that had been lost in the creation of Monroe County, was returned to the town of Rush.

1825

Erie Canal opens formally.
General Lafayette visits Rochester
St. Luke's Episcopal Church is built. A wood frame church was started at the corner of Church St. and Fitzhugh St. The Presbyterians across the street start construction on a stone church. St. Luke's move the wooden structure to the rear of their lot, and build a stone church, that is the oldest surviving building in the 100-acre tract.
Livingston Park Seminary built.
Dr. Elisha Bigelow, a traveling dentist, of fair ability, is the first to visit the area. A bill of Dr. Bigelow's was considered so exorbitant that it was framed and placed on exhibition in the Rochester Museum.
Tomatoes, as a vegetable, were first grown in Rochester. Mr. Tousey, of Virginia, had raised them from seed, for use at his own table at Christopher's Tavern. Mr. Tousey offered fellow guests to try the new dish, but the meal was not appreciated. Mr. Thurlow Weed, one of the guests, served tomatoes in Alabama in 1830.
Jeremiah Stewart cobblestone home is built and the Joshua Lilly family cemetery is started, both in the area that is today Mendon ponds Park

1826

Population 7,669
Daily Advertiser is the first daily newspaper west of Albany.
First Public Library opens.
Public Market built on north side of the Main Street Bridge. Originally an open platform for a vegetable market, it was soon joined by a covered meat market with 12 foot wide center walk between two rows of columns and 10x14 stalls. This structure eventually fell in the river, but other buildings soon line both sides of the bridge. From the street there is no evidence that you are crossing the river.
William Morgan is abducted and believed murdered, for printing Masonic secrets. Cover-up at trial leads to distrust of Masons, and creation of the Anti-Mason political party
The first Andrews Street Bridge is built. It was a wooden truss bridge, low to the water, and painted white.
Rowe's Nursery opens

1827

First dam built at Mt Morris.
9,000,000 board feet of lumber sawed in Rochester mills. Trees brought up Genesee in large rafts. Raftsmen and Canalmen do not get along.
First village directory lists 8 hotels, 10 flour mills, 9 saw mills, 8 canal basins, 2 dry docks with machinery to lift canal boats out of the water for repairs, and is home port for 160 canal boats.
First High School
A English traveler wrote: "Out of the eight thousand souls in this gigantic young village, there was not to be found in 1827 a single grown-up person born there, the oldest native not being then seventeen years of age."
A second wooden bridge is built at the Lower falls, but it is located above the falls, at the bottom of the gorge. This bridge is destroyed by flood.
January 6, the Lower Falls freezes over for the first time in recorded history.

1828

Population 9,480.
City is home port for 160 canal boats
Abelard Reynolds builds the Reynolds Arcade. The four-story structure was built without nails, hickory pins were used.
Ensworth Hotel built at the Four Corners.
Fire destroys five blocks of stores and a church.

1829

Eight thousand watch, on Friday, Nov. 13 as daredevil Sam Patch, is killed in his third jump over the 99' Upper Falls. His body, frozen in the ice, was found in Charlotte on St. Patrick's Day the next year. His death was news across the nation.
Ensworth House torn down. A. M. Schermerhorn builds the Eagle Tavern of brick. This hotel stood for forty years.
The Spring House built on Monroe Ave. by Mr. Tousy. Named for the sulfur and mineral springs near by, the site has been used for 3,000 years. The resort featured bowling alleys and an amusement pavilion. This classic Erie Canal Inn, once claimed "Buffalo Bill" Cody as a regular patron while he lived in the city.
Joseph Smith is told the location of gold plates buried in Palmyra by the Angel Moroni. These texts form the basis for the 'Book of Mormon'.
Stage fare from Rochester to Lewiston: $3.25, by way of Ridge Road.
$10,000 is appropriated by Congress to improve the harbor. First a large wedge of trees was cleared extending from Round Pond to Rock Beach. This clearing gave ships in the lake an unobstructed view of the light. $216.20 was paid to property owners for damages.
A spectacular fight brakes out at the west end of the aqueduct when boat crews argue over the right-of-way on the narrow structure. So many citizens gather to watch the brawl from the bridge near Exchange Street that it collapses tumbling everyone into the canal.

1830

Population 9,207, 21st largest city in country
10 steamboats landing 5 times per week at Carthage (name changed back, after ten years as Clyde).
William A. Reynolds (son of Reynolds Arcade owner) with Mr. Bateham start first seed business at the corner of Sophia and Buffalo Streets. This is the start of what will be the Ellwanger & Barry Nursery Co. James Vick and Joseph Harris start their own nursery businesses.
Road building boom. Clifford Avenue, Norton Street, Ridge Road, Titus Avenue, Culver Road, Portland Avenue, Hudson Avenue, Clinton Avenue, and St. Paul Blvd. are all laid out.
Last wolf killed in county, 100 people hunt for five days, and finally kill the animal in Irondequoit. It is stuffed and displayed on Buffalo Street for many years.
Original Liberty Pole erected at triangular intersection of East Avenue, Main and Franklin Streets. This date may be inaccurate, with the first documented pole being erected in 1846.
First upstate vinyards started. Located on the hillsides along Irondequoit Bay.

1831

May 31, Col. Rochester dies, before Rochesterville becomes a city.
Horse drawn railroad between Carthage and Erie Canal replaces corduroy road. Consists of several stage coaches and flat cars drawn by a tandem hitch of horses.
Rochester was serviced by 16 stage coach lines with as many as 800 passengers arriving per day.
Rochester Savings Bank chartered. It is the first savings bank west of Albany. Started with $114 in deposits.
Carroll St. renamed State St.

1832

Population 11,000
New York City peddler brings cholera up the canal, epidemic kills 400 to 500. Ashbel Riley buries 80 victims unaided. Many of the city's small cemeteries are filled, including the 3 1/2 acre graveyard at Buffalo Street.
Rochester Board of Health established.
Monroe County Jail is built off Court St. between west bank of river and Carroll-Fitzhugh raceway. It is called the 'Blue Eagle Jail'. It had a walled courtyard for exercise and executions.
Mother of Sorrows Church built in Greece. It is the first rural Catholic church in the state.

1833

First Mt Morris Dam washes out. Rebuilt fourteen feet high. Dam has lock 100' long, 18' wide to allow boats and rafts to pass.
First steam drawn train reaches area, Tonawanda Railroad.

Two piers are built into the lake at the mouth of the river to allow ships of a draft greater than 8 feet to cross a sand bar. The piers extend approximately 2,850 feet out, forming a 15 foot deep channel. The piers were 20'x 30' and made of wood. The river is navigable to lake boats for a distance of 2 1/ 2 miles up stream.

Daily Democrat founded
Abelard Reynolds moves Post Office from his home to the Arcade
Second cholera epidemic.
Mary Jemison dies.

1834

Population 13,500, 4,000 acres
Rochester incorporated as city, April 28, 1834.
Jonathan Child is elected the first Mayor by the Common Council. A strict believer in temperance, he did not want to issue liquor licenses, so he resigned during his second term. He was a merchant and miller. The first to bring coal to Rochester. He was an early backer of the telegraph. Married Sophia Rochester in 1818, daughter of the city's founder.
Carthage becomes part of city, known as North Rochester, or Lower Town.
Two wooden piers 360 feet apart, are built into the Lake at the mouth of the River to prevent sand bars from forming. The eastern pier extends 2,670 feet out into the lake. The piers cause the sand to be deposited along the shore and not in the river. Increase river depth from eight feet to twelve feet. Unfortunately, as the sandy beach grows, the distance from the shore to the lighthouse increased. A second light is installed at the end of the west pier.
Steam boat 'Genesee' built. Operates from the rapids to Geneseo.
Streets in Four Corners area are covered with macadam. Cobble stone, creosted wood blocks, and cedar blocks give a total of 7.16 miles of surfaced streets in the city.
Two additional hand pumps are purchased for the fire department.
20 flour mills produce 500,000 barrels annually.
Main St. Bridge fire . Third wooden bridge built at site.
Postal rate 6 cents for 30 miles.
Drunkards are required to register in the 'the Habitual Drinkers List', which is available for public inspection.

1835

Population 14,404
Oct. 23 flood undermines foundations of the north end of the Main Street Bridge, and the third bridge at this site falls into the river.
The third bridge at the Lower Falls, also wooden and above the falls, is built, and swept away by the Great Flood of 1835.
Montgomery homestead built at 160 Spring St. Considered the most appealing of Rochester's Greek Revival homes.
Hervey Ely mansion built on Livingston park Eventually known as the Osgood House after Howard Osgood lived there for 34 years. Acquired by the Irondequoit Chapter Headquarters of Daughters of the American Revolution in 1920.
The warehouse at Hanford's Landing burns.

1835 - 1862

Due to the success of the canal it was enlarged. 52 1/2' at the bottom, 70' at the surface, and 7' deep. Locks were now 110' long and 18 feet wide, allowing passage of boats carrying 250 tons of freight. Locks were built in pairs.

1836

Pontoon bridge over Irondequoit Creek at Empire Blvd. Built by John McGonegal
Construction of Genesee Valley Canal begins. Junction of the two canals is at West Main St.
First balloon ascension.
Fear of bodies contaminating groundwater, overcrowding in existing cemeteries and the need of downtown land force search for a new cemetery outside the city. Two sites are proposed, one on the west bank of Irondequoit Bay and Silas Andrus property 1 1/2 miles from the city on east the side of the river. Extreme hills and gullies on this site and high price cause problems, but this is the location chosen.

1837

Panic of 1837 hits economy - mills move west. Grading of Buffalo St. (Main St.) is first work offered for unemployed.
Construction of second, larger, Aqueduct begins, just south of the first. Old structure leaks badly, and there is fear that it my collapse, stopping traffic on the canal.
Benjamin Campbell builds his Greek Revival house on Troup Street. Campbell, another mill owner was also devastated by the Depression on 1842, but he managed to retain the house until 1848. Purchased by Frederick Whittlesey, it remained in his family until 1937 when the Landmark Society took position, and began extensive restoration. Known today for it's perfection of design and detail, especially the interior.
Jonathan Child house is built at 37 South Washington St., (originally 9 South Washington St.) It is the most elaborate mansion of it's day, and often called "Child's Folly". The house was eventually sold to John Wilder, President of the new University of Rochester in 1850. Many private owners followed, including use as a refined boarding house in the 1880's, In 1921 it was acquired by the Washington Club, a popular gentleman's club of the day.1933 saw ownership transferred to the Forth Christian Science Society. Today it is owned by The Landmark Society.
Public market moves from Main Street Bridge to a a brick and stone structure 200 feet long with 80 foot wings extending towards Front St. This market is said to be rivaled only by the structure in Boston.
First Rochester murder, William Lyman is killed by Octavius Barren.
Tonawanda Railroad opens, connecting Rochester with Tonawanda to the west. First three locomotives brought to Rochester by canal.
53.86 acres purchased from Silas Andrus for $5,386 for the city's new cemetery. Major David Bates Douglass, is asked to layout the cemetery. His proposal to level the hills and remove the trees was immediately rejected. Silas Cornell, the city surveyor, was then given the job, and he transformed an overgrown wilderness into one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the country.

1838

Rochester Orphan Asylum opens.
Rochester Antislavery Society founded. It was the first such orginization in the country.
First local history book written about an area west of the Hudson River, O'Reilly's 'Sketches of Rochester'.
First execution.
Samuel Andrews' bridge near the brink of the Upper Falls has fallen into serious disrepair, and is not even safe for foot travel.
No decision could be reached for a name for the new cemetery, and the invoices during the construction leave that area blank. A laborer, William Wilson, on his invoices wrote 'for labor at Mount Hope'. Without being formally adopted, but by general acceptance, that is how the cemetery is named.

First interment: William Carter buried Aug. 18 1838
Dedicated: Oct. 3, 1838

City requires licences for garbage collectors.

1839

Irondequoit separates from Brighton.
First antislavery convention held.
Egyptian style entrance gate built at Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Separate jail cells are set aside for female prisoners... prostitutes.

1840

Population 20,191. 15th largest city in country.

In 1812 the area where the city would be was forest, by 1816 the population was 331, and by 1840 it was the largest flour producing city in the world!

Second Aqueduct is compleated. Canal is made thirty six feet wide, and seven feet deep with improved locks. The two arches at the western end were rebuilt as a wall of solid masonry. Overall length of this aqueduct is 858 feet.
Genesee Valley Canal opens to Mt Morris. Built as a North-South compliment to the Erie Canal to avoid problems on the Genesee River.
Webster separates from Penfield.
A wooden train shed for the Auburn Railroad is built at Mill St. New track finally connects Rochester with east, connecting Canandaigua, Geneva and Auburn, and transferring there to Syracuse. Their first engine 'Young Lion' also arrives in Rochester by canal.
First theater opens.
Abelard Reynolds has first plate glass window installed in the Reynolds Arcade. Louis Phillippe, now King Louis Philippe III of France, sees the impressive glass pane before it is shipped from Europe. He can not believe tht the 'mud hole' he visited in 1794 is civilized enough to need it.
Genesee Valley Club organized on East Ave.
Two employees of Reynolds and Bateham's seed business buy the company. The Ellwanger & Barry Nursery Co. is founded on seven acres on Mt. Hope Ave.
Joseph Vinton converts his saw mill on Irondequoit Bay into an inn, The Newport House.

1841

Remains of Lt. Boyd & Sgt. Parker moved to Mt Hope Cemetery from Cuylerville.
Board of Education founded.
Warner Castle built.
A trip by train from Albany to Buffalo is possible, but requires use of nine separate railroad companies.
Genesee Valley Canal passes within one half mile of Dansville. Merchants request that a side canal be cut to the business district. Officials refuse. Locals financed and dug their own channel, but officials refused to let them connect. Locals chased away the three state scows sent to stop them, and to great celebration, Dansville was connected to the canal. 30 citizens were indicted, but never brought to trial.

1842

Pistol duel fought on Pinnacle Hill, no casualties.
New Canal Aqueduct is completed. The new wider canal allows wider and bigger barges... built in Rochester.
Steamboat passage from Charlotte to Detroit is $16

1843

Hiram Sibley is elected Sheriff of Monroe County, and moves to Rochester from Sibleyville.
Dr. J. B. Beers creates the first Gold tooth in his Reynolds Arcade office.
Masonry revived.
John Quincy Adams visits city.

1844

First telegraph office opens in the basement of Congress Hall.
William Miller uses Bible dates to predict that the world will end on Oct. 24, 1844. Believers from miles around gather at Pinnacle Hill. That night hymns, prayers, and hysteria travel through the crowd. The Millerites were totally disillusioned by the sunrise, and most abandoned their leader. Many stay loyal to Miller, and today form the Adventist Church.
The Ford St. Bridge, also called the Clarissa St. Bridge is built to provide access to Mt. Hope Cemetery. This was a wooden truss bridge on stone piers. There were two carriage ways and two walkways with a tall divider between that blocked opposing traffic from view. The site of the bridge was an old Indian river crossing.
First Jewish names appear in city directory.

1845

Population 26,965

1846

Newspaper telegraph service begins.
Liberty Pole erected on the hill at the triangular intersection of East Avenue, Main and Franklin Streets by the 'East Side Boys'. Standing 118 feet tall with a 3 ft. dia. brass ball on top, it was a patriotic symbol. During national celebrations a 25 foot banner was flown.

1847

Frederick Douglass moves to Rochester, and opens a print shop at the Four Corners (the intersection of Main and State St.) in the Wilder Building, where he publishes the 'North Star'. He lived in Rochester from 1847-1872 when his home burned.
Woman's rights convention held
Mire Greentree and Joseph Wile open first clothing manufacturing factory.
State ban on railroads carrying freight is lifted, allowing competition with Erie Canal. Previously railroads could only carry freight in winter, when the canal was closed.
Ellwanger & Berry (their nursery was across the street) give 50 rare and unusual shade trees to the Mt, Hope Cemetery.

1848

John Fox, and is family move into a house said to be haunted in Hydesville, NY. Fox's daughters play a game: they knock back when the spirits make knocking sounds. They work out a code, communicating with the spirits. Many public figures are convinced that the communication is real. March 31, 1848 is the date when communication was first established between this world and the next.
Rochester Gas Light Company opens at a cost of $100,000 to serve 80 customers.
Omnibus drawn by four horses operates from the Eagle Hotel to Mt. Hope Cemetery, and the Steamboat Landing at Carthage.
First Synagogue organized, Temple B'rith Kodesh.
Anti Mason feaver runs high. All of the chapters in Livingston county have turned in their charters, except Union Lodge No. 261 in Lima. They meet as often as they can, in secret. Local residents leave clothing infected with smallpox in their doorsteps, all but one member dies.
Rochester's Wells Lodge No.2282 holds it last meeting before surrendering it's charter, in secret, on Pinnacle Hill. Gurards were placed to secure the site while Lodge records were buried.

1849

Corinthian Hall built at rear of Arcade by William Reynolds.
Oil lamps used to light streets.
Jesse W. Hatch employs a female clerk in his shoe store.
Cholera epidemic in city kills 160.
Plank Road built from Driving Park to Charlotte. The seven mile long road had a toll booth just north of Rose Street.
Underground railroad route passes through Mendon Ponds Park.
Absalom Bishop and Thayer Codding invent the fountain pen.
Seth Green opens a fish market on Front Street.