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ROCHESTER; 
 
 Its Founders ai\u its F 
 
 uui 
 
 BY 
 
 Ss'^^i^!^' 
 
 HOWARD L. OSGOOD. 
 
 Read before the Rochester Historical Society, April i 
 
 A distinction must be made between 
 the first settlers within the present lim- 
 its our city and those who actually es- 
 tablished it as a settlement. The first 
 white settler on the site of Rochester 
 was undoubtedly Ebenezer Allan, a man 
 whose repute appears to have been whol- 
 ly disrepute, and therefore is best when 
 unknown. Before 1812, a few settlers 
 lived near the Genesee Falls, but they 
 certainly made no effort to establish a 
 village, and had no influence upon the 
 events here chronicled. 
 
 The persons who first planned a vil- 
 lage here and induced settlers to immi- 
 grate to it, were Nathaniel Rochester, Wil- 
 liam Fitzhugh and Charles Carroll. The 
 story of the manner in which these men 
 became interested in the site of Roche.'^- 
 tor has been told many times, but, until 
 now, was never, so far as the writer is 
 aware, compiled from contemporary 
 documents, independent of human mem- 
 ory. 
 
 The three gentlemen just mentioned 
 were men of high character, accustomed 
 to large business transactions. 
 
 Nathaniel Rochester was born in West- 
 moreland county, Virginia, on February 
 21, 1752. At the age of 16, his father hav- 
 ing died and his mother having re- 
 married, he was employed by a mer- 
 chant at Hillsborough. Orange county. 
 North Carolina, and from that time until 
 his death was constantly and actively en- 
 gaged in commercial affairs. During 
 the Revolutionary war he was a resident 
 of Hillsborough and was highly honored 
 by his fellow citizens. In 1775, being then 
 23 years of age, he was a member of the 
 committee of safety of Orange county, a 
 member of the first provincial convention 
 of North Carolina, a justice of the 
 peace, a major of militia (commissioned 
 September 9, 1775), and pay master of the 
 battalion of minute men in that district 
 (commissioned October 20, 1775.) In April, 
 1776, he was made lieutenant colonel 
 of militia and in May of the same year 
 was elected a member of the convention 
 which formulated and adopted the con- 
 stitution of his state. In the same year 
 (May 11th,) he was appointed deputy 
 commissary general of military and 
 
 other stores in North Carolina for the use 
 of the Continental army with the rank and 
 pay of colonel. A severe illness then 
 compelled him to retire from further ser- 
 vice in the field. But he was not allowed 
 to cast off public duties, for he was elec- 
 ted member of assembly, clerk of the 
 court of Orange county and was 
 appointed a commissioner to es- 
 tablish and superintend a manufactory 
 of arms at Hillsborough for the 
 Continental army. In 177S he became a 
 business partner of Colonel Thomas Hart, 
 whose daughter afterward married Henry 
 Clay. For the following five years he 
 was engaged in trade in Hillsborough 
 and in Philadelphia, and at the close of 
 the war he removed to Hagerstown, 
 Maryland, where Colonel Hart then re- 
 sided, and there established a consider- 
 able mercantile business and built and 
 operated manufactories of nails and of 
 rope, besides a flour mill. His partners 
 were, Colonel Hart in the rope and nail 
 business, and in tlie flour mill. Captain 
 Daniel Stull. His business operations were 
 extended even into Kentucky and West 
 Tennessee. In 17SS he married Sophia 
 Beatty of Hagerstown. In 1790 he was 
 elected a member of the Maryland legis- 
 lature. In the succeeding year he was 
 appointed postmaster at Hagerstown and 
 in 1797 became one of the three judges 
 of the Washington county court. He 
 held the postmastership until 1S04, when 
 he resigned to accept his election as 
 sheriff of Washington county, and held 
 that office until 1S07, when he became 
 the first president of the Hagerstown 
 bank, with all the affluence which came 
 from a salary of one thousand dollars a 
 year when applied to the support of a 
 large family. This position he retained 
 as long as he lived in Maryland. In 180S 
 he was appointed an elector of President 
 and Vice-President of the United States 
 from Maryland. Dansville, then in Steu- 
 ben, but now in Livingston, county, N. 
 Y., became his home in May, 1810. In 
 January, 1814, he sold his property at 
 Dansville, comprising a grist mill, a saw 
 mill, seven hundred acres of land, an 
 interest in a wool carding shop, and the 
 first paper mill in Western New York, for 
 
$24,000, and moved in April, 1815, to a 
 farm in East Bloonifield, Ontario county. 
 In 1816 he was again appointed a presi- 
 dential elector. In April, 1818, he came 
 to Rochester. In 1S21 he succeeded in pro- 
 curing the erection of the county of 
 Monroe and was immediately appointed 
 county clerk. In 1822 he sat in the New 
 York legislature and two years later he 
 became the president of the Bank of 
 Rochester, the first bank In this city. He 
 died May 17, 1831, honored and lamented, 
 having lived a life of great service to his 
 fellow men. 
 
 Colonel William Pitzhugh was born in 
 Calvert county, Maryland, October 6, 
 1761. He WPS an officer in the Continental 
 army under General Nathaniel Green in 
 his southern campaigns; and, for a time, 
 he, and his brother Peregrine, were em- 
 ployed as aides on Washington's personal 
 staff. He afterwards drew a pension for 
 his services. His father's estate was on 
 the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, near 
 the mouth of the Patuxent river and 
 was much exposed to the incursions of 
 the enemy during the war. After the 
 war. Colonel Fitzhugh. having inherited 
 a considerable property, settled upon a 
 large estate near Hagerstown. Maryland. 
 and was elected to the legislature of 
 that state. He moved to the town of 
 Groveland. Livingston county, in May. 
 1816, the emigrant party consisting of 
 forty persons and Conestoga wagons 
 drawn by twenty-seven horses. He died 
 at his home, "Hampton," on December 
 29, 1839. He was a ho.spitable, elegant, 
 courtly, dignified. Christian gentleman 
 
 Charles Carroll was born upon his 
 father's estate at Carrollsburg, Maryland 
 (now the site of the national capital) on 
 November 7. 1767. He became a large 
 land holder and a man of extended activ- 
 ity in commercial matters. His home 
 was Bellevue, on Georgetown Heights. 
 Maryland. He was known as Charles 
 Carroll of Bellevue to distinguish him 
 from his cousin Charles, of Carrolllon. 
 He came to the town of Groveland, Liv- 
 ingston county, in the spring of 1815, and 
 made a new home at Williamsburg. In 
 1818 he was appointed United States reg- 
 ister of deeds for the territory of Mis- 
 souri, with an office at Franklin, and re- 
 sided there for some years. The wanton 
 murder of his son at that place caused 
 him to return with his family to Wil- 
 liamsburg, where he lived for the re- 
 mainder of his life, and died October 
 28, 1823. He was distinguished in familj, 
 honorable at all times, cultivated and a 
 host whose house was always open lo his 
 friends. The family home after his death 
 was at the " Hermitage," about three 
 miles south of Williamsburg. 
 
 Messrs. Carroll and Fitzhugh never 
 lived in Rochester. 
 
 In the year 1799, Charles Carroll, of 
 Bellevue, and his brother, Daniel Carroll, 
 of Duddington, made a trip of observa- 
 tion through the Genesee country, but 
 made no purchase of land. In this year 
 Colonel Peregrine Fitzhugh moved to 
 Geneva and a few years later made a 
 home at Sodus. 
 
 In the month of September,1800, Charles 
 Carroll, William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel 
 Rochester came to Western New York, 
 leaWng Hagerstown on horse back, fol- 
 lowed by a mounted negro servant lead- 
 ing a pack horse to carry their baggage. 
 They started for the purpose of finding a 
 suitable country in which to settle. Col- 
 i onel Rochester had already invested in 
 lands in Tennessee and Kentucky and, in 
 the summer previous to the journey just 
 mentioned, he had been into Ohio looking 
 for a free country where his family could 
 be reared away from the influences of 
 slaver.v. 
 
 The three friends crossed the Mary- 
 land line into Pennsylvania, passed 
 through Shippensburg and Carlisle,thence 
 along the road on the west bank of the 
 Susquehanna to its juncture with Lycom- 
 ing creek, at Williamsport, and 
 there took the Charles William- 
 son road to the Genesee. They 
 climbedt he mountains to Blossburg (then 
 BIoss's). then passed down the Tioga 
 river to Painted Post, then up the Conhoc- 
 ton, through Bath, crossed over to Judge 
 Hornell's(now Hornellsville),then through 
 Dansville to Williamsburg. At Williams- 
 burg there was a small settlement, com- 
 posed of a tavern and a few houses, the 
 remnants of Charles Williamson's pro- 
 jected great city. Of Williamsburg not a 
 trace now remains; even its ruins are no 
 more. 
 
 In passing through Dansville (named 
 after Captain Dan Faulkner), Colonel 
 Rochester was struck with the advan- 
 tages of the water power and purchased 
 one hundred and twenty acres at that 
 place, including the most desirable mill 
 seats on both sides of the Canaseraga. 
 
 At Williamsburg our travelers looked 
 across that beautiful valley over the 
 famous Genesee flats and were deligtited 
 with the beauty of the situation and the 
 fertility of the soil. Colonel Fitzhugh and 
 Major Carroll bought of Charles William- 
 son, at $2 per acre, twelve thousand acres, 
 lying partly on the eastern slope of the 
 valley and partly upon the flats on both 
 sides of Canaseraga creek. Colonel Roch- 
 ester also purchased a small farm of four 
 hundred acres near the lands bought by 
 his friends. 
 
 The friends returned to Maryland and 
 reached Hagerstown about the 12th of 
 October. In 1801 Carroll and Fitzhugh 
 again came to the Genesee country and 
 made further purchases; Colonel Roches- 
 ter set out with them, but illness com- 
 pelled him to turn back. This trip was 
 taken between October 7th and November 
 
 )N EXCHANGE 
 

 12th.. In August and September, 1802, 
 Colonel Fitzhugh and Colonel Rochester 
 again visited their purchases, but with- 
 out Major Carroll. 
 
 It has been the universal statement 
 that these three friends purchased the 
 One hundred Acre Tract, (the nucleus 
 of our city), in this year, 1802, but such is 
 not the fact. In this year Major Carroll 
 ■ did not visit this region, and his own 
 signature appears on the contract of 
 sale, dated November 8, 1803. 
 
 The circumstances of the purchase were 
 as follows: About the 7th of October, 
 Rochester, Carroll and Fitzhugh left Ha- 
 gerstown for the Genesee, visited their 
 former purchases, went to Geneva to 
 make payments at the land office, and 
 turned their faces homeward. But Mr. 
 Johnston, the land agent at Geneva, 
 learning that they were interested in 
 water powers in Maryland, called their 
 attention to the fine power at the Gen- 
 esee falls. They then agreed with him 
 that they would go to the upper falls and 
 examine the property, and would meet 
 Mr. Johnston at Bath to give their 
 answer. , 
 
 Rochester, Carroll and Fitzhugh, com 
 ing by the rough woods road from Can- 
 andaigua, crossed the river on horse 
 back, not without trepidation, at the slip- 
 pery ford a little north of the present mill 
 dam. 
 
 The upper falls (or rather an extended 
 cascade) stretched across the river about 
 where the aqueduct is now situated, 
 rind were of a total vertical height of 
 about fourteen feet. They were blasted 
 away to make room for the aqueducts 
 and a water passage under them and 
 there is now only a continuous rapids. 
 On the west side of the river, e.Ktend- 
 ing up stream from the top of the falls, 
 was a small island separated from the 
 west bank by a narrow channel, thus pro- 
 viding a natural race-way. From this 
 channel the water was led in a rude flume 
 to the old Allan mill on the flats below. 
 Ebenezer Allan, in the fall of 1789, had 
 built two mills, S-rst a saw mill and sec- 
 ond a grist mill. The spring freshet of 
 1S03 had carried away the saw mill and 
 had seriously undermined the grist mill. 
 
 Our travelers rode through the forest 
 along the portage leading to King's land- 
 ing, below the lower falls, until they 
 looked down upon the old mill, now 
 almost in ruins, and, descending the 
 sloping bank, entered the little log house 
 under the present site of E. R. Andrews's 
 printing house. The mill was inhabited 
 then only by the ubiquitous rattlesnake, 
 whose meditations were seldom inter- 
 rupted except by some settler whose 
 family had become tired of the contin- 
 uous succession of pork and mush, hom- 
 iny and bacon, and had demanded a 
 feast of real wheat bread. 
 
 No more than one-half an acre was 
 
 cleared of the trees; the stumps still 
 remained; and the tangle of briars, grape 
 vines and saplings in the clearing, was 
 broken only by the narrow and thorny 
 path to the mill. What a scene of de.<?o- 
 lation! An abandoned log house, the 
 roof broken in, the door awry, wild 
 raspberry shoots obstructing the en- 
 
 ffoJLoi 
 
 f^ iU. C?oM^ 
 
 iKf- 
 
 PORTAGE ALONG RIVER. 
 
 trance, and a rattlesnake to greet the 
 traveler. Inside the building were the 
 little mill stones, and the primitive, dilap- 
 idated machinery; the floor was broken 
 and decayed; and the porcupines had 
 gnawed the bunks, window sills and 
 benches. Under the mill was a little 
 tub wheel, patched alnuast beyond 
 repair; and the flume from the fall no 
 longer held water. 
 
 Oliver Phelps bought 184,320 acres from 
 the Indians for a mill lot; of this amount 
 Allan obtained 100 acres to build the mill 
 upon; and one half an acre was more 
 than enough to clear, both for the foun- 
 dation and for the timber to build the 
 mill. 
 
 But these travelers had not come to 
 examine the aesthetics of the place. 
 They found a fall capable of producing 
 great power and easy to adapt to com- 
 mercial purposes. The land near the 
 river was elevated above the ordinary 
 stages of water, there were two great 
 falls lower down the river, settlements 
 were advancing to the neighborhood, and 
 there seemed to be evidence that the 
 water power and the one hundred acres 
 of land would be worth the $1,750 at 
 
which they were offered. They decided to 
 purchase the mill lot; and then and there 
 began the germ of Rochester. 
 
 The friends left the mill and, return- 
 ing to the portage, traveled along the 
 west side of the river to King's (now 
 Hanford's) landing and arranged with 
 Gideon King to care for the mill in con- 
 sideration of having its use. They then 
 turned back and traveled through New 
 Hartford, Big Tree, Wiliamsburg and 
 Dansville, to Bath. At Bath they met 
 Mr. Johnston and, on November 8, 1803, 
 an agreement was there executed, be- 
 tween Mr. Johnston, as the agent (under 
 Robert Troup) for Sir William Pulte- 
 ney, on the one part, and Carroll, Fitz- 
 hugh and Rochester, on the other part. 
 That agreement is as follows: 
 
 A CONTRACT, Made the eighth day of No- 
 vember, in the year one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and three — Between Charles Car- 
 roll, William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel Roches- 
 ter, of the county of Washington, and state o! 
 Maryland, esquires, of the first part— and Sir 
 William Pulteney. of the county of Middlesex, 
 in the united kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, baronet, by John Johnston, his attor- 
 ney, by virtue of a Letter of Substitution 
 bearing date the first day of February, in 
 the year one Thousand eight hundred and two, 
 from Robert Troup, esquire, the attorney of 
 the said Sir William Pulteney, by virtue of a 
 letter of attorney, bearing date the 29th day 
 of July, in the year one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and one, and recorded in the secretary's 
 office of the state of New York, in lib. deeds 
 endorsed M. R. N., page 409, etc., of the 
 second part.as follows, (to wit) First — The said 
 Sir William Pulteney agrees to sell to the said 
 Charles Carroil, William Fitzhugh, and Nathaniel 
 Rochester all that certain tract of land in 
 township number one in the short range on the 
 west pide of the Genesee river in the county 
 of Genesee (late Ontario) and state of New 
 York, being the tract commonly known and 
 designated as the Genesee fall mill lot and 
 containing one hundred acres together with all 
 the privileges and advantages of the waters 
 thereon and the mills thereon erected. 
 
 Secondly— The said Charles Carroll, ■ William 
 Fitzhugh and Nathaniel Rochester agree to pay 
 for the said tract of land and mills the sum ot 
 one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars 
 in manner following, (that is to say) the sum 
 of three hundred and fifty dollars on the first 
 of May next and the remainder in four equal 
 annual payments thereafter with interest from 
 the first day of May next. 
 
 Thirdly— The said William Pulteney agrees 
 that immediately after the full payment of the 
 said purchase money, in manner above particu- 
 larly appointed, he the said Sir William Pul- 
 teney will execute, and cause to be delivered 
 to the said Charles Carroll, William Fitzhugh 
 and Nathaniel Rochester a good and sufficient 
 warranty deed for the said tract of land and 
 mills, with the appurtenances. 
 
 In witness whereof, the said party of the 
 first part, and the said Sir William Pulteney. 
 by his said attorney John Johnston by virtue 
 
 of the letter of substitution aforesaid, have 
 hereunto set their hands and seals, on the day 
 and in the year first above written. 
 
 Sealed and delivered in the presence of John 
 Taylor. 
 
 ^^^^, 
 
 (ENDORSED.) 
 It is agreed by the parties to the within con- 
 tract that in case the within mentioned mills 
 are destroyed by Are or any other casuality 
 the loss arising therefrom shall be 
 borne wholly by the said Charles Carroll, Wil- 
 liam Fitzhugh and Nathaniel Rochester and in 
 no degree by Sir William Pulteney. 
 
 N. Rochester, 
 Ch. Carroll. 
 Wm. Fitzhugh. 
 
 Having concluded these arrangements, 
 they travelled homeward, reaching Ha- 
 gerstown about November 20th. On this 
 trip were accompanied by a young Mary- 
 lander named Thomas Begole, who, in 
 the following spring, was sent back to 
 the Genesee country by Colonel Rochester 
 to take charge of property there. He was 
 instructed to go to the Falls in order to 
 see that the mill was properly cared for 
 by Mr. King, but finding that King had 
 died, he put Salmon Fuller in charge. 
 Fuller made sufficient repairs upon the 
 mill to be able to operate it and occupied 
 it in 1805. In 1S06 the mill was destroyed, 
 either by a fire or a freshet, and Mr. Ful- 
 ler incontinently took the mill stones 
 and machinery to his own new mill on 
 Irondequoit creek. The mill is gone; 
 even its site is buried; the rattlesnake has 
 departed; but the mill stones came back 
 and are still with us. 
 
 The three proprietors of the One Hun- 
 dred Acre Tract remained in Maryland 
 for several years without visiting their 
 Genesee property. In the spring of 1809, 
 however. Colonel Rochester came to 
 Dansville to make arrangements for re- 
 moving his family to that place, and 
 brought with him his sons, William 
 B. and John C. Rochester. His saw mill 
 and grist mill were to be repaired and put 
 in condition for active operation, a paper 
 mill was to be furnished and his farm 
 needed care. The father soon returned to 
 
Maryland, but left his sons in charge of 
 his property until autumn. 
 
 On March 30th, in this year, the legis- 
 lature of New York passed an act pro- 
 viding for the " building of a bridge 
 across the Genesee river between the 
 towns of Boyle and Northampton at the 
 place where the north state road crosses 
 the said Genesee river," and authorizing 
 the supervisors of Ontario and Genesee 
 counties to raise the sum of two thousand 
 dollars ($2,000.) for that purpose; one 
 half to be raised in 1809 and one-half in 
 1810. 
 
 In May, ISIO, Colonel Rochester brought 
 his family to Dansville. Mrs. Carroll and 
 Mrs. Fitzhugh up to this time had de- 
 clined to live on the wild frontier of 
 Western New York, and did not give 
 their consent to leave Maryland until 
 four years later. 
 
 The road from Hagerstown to Dans- 
 ville was about two hundred and seventy- 
 five miles in length and the family were 
 over three weeks in reaching their desti- 
 nation. The train was composed of two 
 carriages, six or seven riding horses 
 for the father and his sons, and two or 
 three large baggage wagons hauled by 
 four horses each. With them came two 
 or three young men from Hagerstown, 
 and a half dozen negroes. The journey 
 was arduous.not to say dangerous. A trav- 
 eler who had passed over this road across 
 the mountains only a few years before, 
 had recorded that it was so poorly cut 
 out that it looked as if the trees had 
 been gnawed off by beavers and that he 
 was often in danger of being mired. 
 Probably at the time when Colonel Roch- 
 ester was making this journey the road 
 had been somewhat improved, but those 
 of you who have traveled through a 
 back woods country and over corduroy 
 bridges, have seen the propriety of pro- 
 viding the horses with means of aquatic, 
 arborial, and terrestrial locomotion. 
 
 The caravan finally reached Dansville 
 in safety, except that one teamster was 
 thrown from his wagon in crossing the 
 mountains and was killed. The surviv- 
 ors reached Dansville on June 10th, 1810, 
 and the family put up at Stout's tavern 
 until their home should be prepared. 
 
 After Colonel Rochester's arrival in 
 Dansville, the settlement of his family 
 and the details of conducting his busi- 
 ness took his time to the exclusion of 
 attention to the Falls property, and dur- 
 ing the remainder of this year his saw- 
 mill, grist mill, paper mill and wool- 
 carding shop made such heavy drafts 
 upon his purse and his time that he be- 
 came discouraged about his ability to 
 retain his interest in the Falls lot and 
 offered to sell it to his friend Carroll; 
 but Major Carroll magnanimously de- 
 clined to buy. saying: "Hold on audit's 
 an estate for any man." 
 
 Colonel Rochester in reply wrote to 
 
 FIRST MAP OF ROCHESTER. 
 
 Charles Carroll. " Dansville, January 13, 
 
 1811 I return you my 
 
 sincere thanks for your advice to keep 
 my Genesee Falls estate. I am aware of 
 the growing value of that property and 
 although I am not so sanguine as you are 
 about its future value, yet I believe the 
 time is not distant when it will be worth 
 .$15,000 or $5,000 a share. I have been ap- 
 plied to for building lots there and there 
 is no doubt of there soon being a village 
 there and much business done if lots 
 could be had. It must become a town ot 
 great business at some future period." 
 
 The commencement of the bridge, where 
 the present Maui street bridge stands, 
 settled the importance of property at tiie 
 falls. The nearest bridge was at Avon, 
 and the country west and northwest of 
 the falls was being placed on the mar- 
 ket. The progress of the bridge and the 
 rapid immigration of settlers forced Col- 
 onel Rochester, in the summer of 1811, 
 to take steps to lay out a village on the 
 mill lot. He had a knowledge of survey- 
 ing and in July began to stake out some 
 lots among the trees and in the bogs on 
 the property. 
 
 Enos Stone, in the previous year, had 
 brought his family to the falls and had 
 begun housekeeping in a little shanty on 
 the bank of the river near the east end 
 of the ford. Colonel Rochester appointed 
 Mr. Stone his local agent and promised 
 him a good lot in tlie prospective village 
 for his services- The first lots surveyed 
 were those about the corners made by the 
 new state road which followed substan- 
 tially the pres.3nt lines of Main and State 
 
streets, and led to the Big Ridge road to 
 Niagara and Buffalo. Tlie Power's block 
 lot was thii first one laid out. The lines 
 of Buffalo (now West Main street) and ol 
 -Mill Litreat (now Exchange), were deter- 
 mined and at first a large lot on the oor- 
 ner now occupied by Smith's Arcade, was 
 sent apart for a public square. Some 
 fifty lots in all. of one-quarter of an acre 
 each, wer'3 staked out, and Mr. Stone was 
 directed to offer them for sale. Advertise- 
 ments were soon inserted in the Canan- 
 daigua and Geneva newspapers and ap- 
 plicants began to appear. 
 
 Willian; Scott, then of Dar*ville, gave 
 this account of Colonel Rochester at this 
 period: 
 
 About this time (ISll) Colonel Rochester was 
 making a visit every few weeks to the "Falls," 
 as Rochester was yet called, to superintend 
 the laying out of village lots. On his way home 
 from a collecting tour I met him returning 
 from one of these trips, at Begole's Tavern, 
 a little log house standing about fifty rods 
 northeast of the residence of the late Judge 
 Carroll. I see him now, riding up to the door, 
 seated firmly on a small bay pacing mare, 
 and carrying his surveyor's chain and compass 
 strapped to the saddle. After a well cooked 
 supper to which our sharp appetites did full 
 justice, we were shown to a room in the gar- 
 ret containing one bed. . . , We occupied 
 !t together, though it was long before sleep 
 visited us, for Colonel Rochester was full of 
 the flattering prospects at the Falls. " The 
 place must become an important business 
 point." said he, and he expressed regret that 
 he had spent so much time and means in Dans- 
 ville, instead of going to the Falls at once, 
 adding, " If I had just made over to you 
 by gift a deed of all my property at Dansville, 
 and gone direct to the Falls,! should have been 
 the gainer. Dansville will be a fine village, 
 but the Falls, sir, is capable of great things." 
 I reminded him that he had established a 
 paper mill and other machinery at Dansville 
 and had otherwise aided in giving an impetus 
 to the business of that already thrifty town. 
 " Yes," said he, " but I am past the age of 
 building up two towns." During the conver- 
 sation I remarked that the name the " Falls," 
 was good enough then, but added, " of course 
 you will find a more fitting one as the place in- 
 creases." " Ah," said he, " I have already 
 thought of that, and have decided to give it 
 my family name." and that was the first time 
 I ever heard the word "Rochester" applied 
 to the present prosperous city. 
 
 Colonel Rochester was a fine type of the 
 true Southern gentleman. His manner was 
 commanding. He was then venerable in years, 
 though his step was firm. He was tall, per- 
 haps quite six feet high, stooped a little and 
 always walked with a cane. He was dignified 
 and affable in ordinary intercourse, though 
 somewhat austere to strangers. 
 
 The name " Rochester " was given to 
 the village by request of Messrs. Carroll 
 and Fitzhugh. 
 
 On October 30, ISll, Rochester writes to 
 his partners: " Great quantities of wheat 
 
 are now going from Bloomfieid, Charles 
 Town, Hartford, Boyle, etc, etc., to the 
 mouth of the Genesee river for want of 
 mills to flour it and most of it goes 
 through our village and more will as soon 
 as the bridge is finished which will be by 
 the middle of December unle.ss winter 
 sets in earlier than usual. . i have 
 
 sold a few lots on Mill, Carroll and Buf- 
 falo streets at $50. . . .and have no 
 doubt but that a dozen houses will be 
 
 erected next season i have 
 
 raised all the unsold lots on Carroll and 
 Mill streets to $50 and sell the back lots 
 at $30. After next season when a mill 
 and several houses are erected we can 
 
 raise the price of the lots The 
 
 lots sold and bespoken are Nos 1 2 19 
 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33,'35' 36* 
 67, 45, 59, 60. " 
 
 The last payment for the mill lot was 
 made on June 22, 1808; the lot was sur- 
 veyed and its boundaries determined No- 
 vember 7, ISll; and a deed was given No- 
 vember 18th following. 
 
 To his brother-in-law, Elie Beatty, he 
 writes under date November 19, 1811: " I 
 have been to the falls of Genesee lately 
 and laid out and sold some more lots say 
 about twenty-five in all, and, for want of 
 funds to build a good merchant mill 
 there, I have leased a mill seat for ten 
 years which will contribute very mudh 
 to the improvement of the town and 
 neighborhood. . . . Could I sell one of 
 my mill seats there I would soon be set- 
 tled at the falls myself. My business is 
 very good here, but would be much more 
 productive at the falls or village of Roch- 
 ester. " 
 
 The first lot sold was No. 26, to Enos 
 Stone on November 20, 1811, for $50. George 
 L. Whitmore and Daniel Tinker, of Pitts- 
 ford, on December 29, 1811, bouglit lots 
 37 and 38 for $100; and on February 19, 
 1812, the third sale was made to Henry 
 Skinner, of Geneseo, who bought lot No. 1 
 (the Powers block corner) for $200, and 
 he was required to " build and erect a 
 dwelling house on the said lot not less 
 than thirty by twenty feet, with brick or 
 stone chimney, said house to be raised 
 and enclosed on or before the first day of 
 January next (1813) and finished within 
 six months thereafter. " 
 
 This requirement was inserted in ail 
 the early contracts in order to secure 
 the immigration of the purchasers and to 
 prevent, as far as possible, mere land 
 speculation. One can imagine the trepi- 
 dation of Mr. Skinner when he agreed 
 to erect so palatial a structure in the 
 back woods, at a place where, only two 
 years before, a member of assembly 
 had said in debate that, if a bridge were 
 placed at the falls, only the muskrats 
 would use it. But the bridge was com- 
 pleted early in 1812 and results soon fol- 
 lowed. 
 Mr. Skinner in 1812 built a residence 
 
 / 
 
" with a brick or stone chimney " on th.; 
 tract, and his friend Hamlet Scrantom 
 was its first occupant.In this year Fran- 
 cis Brown, Matthew Brown, Jr., and 
 Thomas Mumford laid out the village of 
 Frankfort adjoining the one hundred 
 acres on the north and soon had a grist 
 mill in operation, but settlers preferred 
 the neighborhood of the bridge and 
 Frankfort did not begin to grow till 
 after 1820. 
 
 In 1S12, thirteen lots, in all, were sold 
 by Colonel Rochester; in 1813, twenty- 
 seven lots; in 1814 only one lot, largely 
 on account of the pendency of the war 
 of ltil2 and the activity of British opera- 
 tions against the lake frontiers. (You 
 will remember that on May 14, 1814, the 
 village and its " suburbs " could furnish 
 only thirty-three men to repel the Brit- 
 ish, and that there were then only twen- 
 ty houses at the place). In 1815, thirty- 
 two lots were sold; after which time 
 sales became much more rapid. 
 
 In 1813 Elisha Ely had applied to Enos 
 Stone for water privileges and Mr. Stone 
 wrote to Mr. Rochester on June 13tli 
 
 " Dear Sir; At the request of Mr. Bly, 
 the bearer of this letter, I would inform 
 you that his wishes are to erect water 
 works on your land at this village by 
 a lease, if you think proper to encourage 
 him. I think it would be an advantage 
 to the settlement of the place if a dam 
 from the west side of the race to the 
 river was made, that mills might be built 
 and not injure your prinicipal mill seat. 
 The wishes of Mr. Ely are such that 
 he thought proper to call on you and, if 
 you think proper, contract with him 
 as Mr. Reynolds is acquainted with him. 
 I think Mr. Ely would be a suitable man 
 to engage and would help the settlement 
 of the place." 
 
 An arrangement was made with Mr. 
 Ely, the terms of which do not appear. 
 and he immediately dug a race way, the 
 first artificial one upon the tract, and 
 built a saw mill which began running on 
 December 14, 1813, though no actual busi- 
 ness was done in it until April first, 
 following. In 1814 and 1815, Mr. Ely 
 built a grist mill on the tract and Colonel 
 Rochester writes in a characteristic man- 
 ner to Mr. Fitzhugh from Dansville, 
 June 18th, 1814: ..." I have been to 
 the Palls since you left us and given Mr. 
 Ely a lease conformably to your and 
 Major Carroll's proposition to him. He 
 will proceed to erect a good merchant 
 mill. I did not mention, at the time 
 you made the offer to Mr. Ely, that his 
 erecting mills there would prevent me 
 from doing it for some time, as his and 
 Captain Brown's mills will be enough for 
 that place for some time. ... I knew 
 you and Major Carroll did not suppose 
 it would have the effect of frustrating 
 my plans, because I have every reason 
 to believe you would have preferred my 
 
 building the mills to his doing it, from 
 your uniform friendship to me for more 
 than twenty years and because my re- 
 moval to that place and laying out si.v 
 or eight thousand dollars there would 
 have contributed fully as much to the ad- 
 vantage of the place as his laying it out, 
 who is already an inhabitant. Should 
 peace take place before next spring I 
 shall probably settle in our village at 
 that time." 
 
 And to Mr. Carroll he writes: "I went 
 to the falls about three weeks after you 
 left us and gave Captain Ely a lease for 
 a mill seat agreeably to your ani 
 Colonel Fitzhugh's proposition to him. 
 . . . The same sense of delicacy pre- 
 vented my saying anything to you about 
 it until the lease was executed to lily, 
 but it frustrates my plan of erecting a 
 mill and removing to the Falls until a 
 peace takes place, as Brown's and Ely s 
 mills will be suITicient for that place un- 
 til we have peace. Then I believe half 
 a dozen mills will not be too many. I 
 saw Captain Ely at the Falls on Thurs- 
 day last; he had just returned from Mas- 
 sachusets where he had been for car- 
 penters, millwrights, etc. He intended 
 commencing this day with about fifteen 
 workmen and said he would have his 
 mill at work by the 1st of December 
 next. There is very little improvement 
 going on at the Falls, not more than 
 three or four houses building. If the 
 I war continues longer than next spring 
 my present intention is to purchase or 
 rent a mill in Ontario or Genesee counties 
 j in order to have something to do until 
 the end of the war when I shall most 
 I certainly settle at the Falls if I live so 
 long." 
 
 In 1S14. Carroll and Fitzhugh made 
 their first visit to the Genesee coiintry 
 since the purchase of the mill lot and 
 then agreed with Colonel Rochester con- 
 cerning an ultimate division of that 
 property among the partners. In 1815, 
 Mr. Carroll moved his family to Wil- 
 liamsburgh and in 1S16 Mr. Fitzhugh fol- 
 lowed bin). But the labor of marketing 
 the joint properly had fallen entirely on 
 Colonel Rochester, and to him belongs 
 the greater part of the credit of found- 
 ing this city. 
 
 He reported to his friends on July 28, 
 1816: " Our books show that I have been 
 to the Falls and to Geneva twenty-three 
 times on our joint business and most 
 of those times when I resided in Dans- 
 ville. I have done all the surveying ex- 
 cept part of a day last summer when I 
 had a surveyor. I have frequently been 
 detained two and three days at a time 
 . and had to entertain many 
 people (particularly when I resided at 
 Dansville) who called on me to purchase 
 lots, make enquiry about the village, etc.. 
 It is five years this month since I laid out 
 about fifty lots." 
 
In August, 1817, a partitition of the One 
 Hundred Acre tract was made and the 
 different lots were distributed among the 
 proprietors in severalty. 
 
 Some years later Colonel Rochester told 
 the story of the founding of this city in 
 a letter to his half brother, John G. Crit- 
 cher: 
 
 " Rochester. State of New York, August 15, 
 1825. , . . In the spring of 1800 having 
 
 &ix children then living. . . I conclud- 
 
 ed that it would be best for them that I should 
 remove to the west where more could be done 
 for them, than in an old settled country. . . . 
 I therefore visited the northwestern territory 
 (now Ohio), Kentucliy and Tennessee with a 
 view to purchasing an eligible situation for my 
 family. I returned in August with a deter- 
 mination to remove to Kentucky, but on my 
 return home two of my neighbors and most 
 intimate friends were about to visit this part 
 of the state of New York which had been but 
 recently settled. They prevailed on me to 
 come with them. I then saw the great ad- 
 vantages this country had over the South- 
 western states and we all purchased with a de- 
 termination to remove here as soon as we 
 could close our business in Maryland. They 
 were very wealthy men and purchased 12.000 
 acres of the best land in the country and I 
 purchased about 500 acres on which were 
 several good milt seats. On our return home, 
 the families of my two friends were very mufJi 
 opposed to removing to this country and I did 
 not like to ct-me within them. . . . until 
 May, ISIO. when I removed to this country and 
 built a grist mill, paper mill and saw mill 
 at Dansville, about forty miles from this 
 place, where I resided five years, when I sold 
 there and purchased a very valuable farm 
 about twenty miles from hence where I resid- 
 ed during the late war and until seven years 
 ago. when I removed to this place and rented 
 out my .farm. Two years after my first visit 
 and purchase in this country, say in 1802, my 
 two neighbors and friends and I visited this 
 country again to see our first purchases, when 
 we purchased 100 acres of land at the falls of 
 Genesee river for which we gave seven hun- 
 dred pounds. The whole of this 100 acres has 
 been laid out in streets, allies, and cjuarter 
 acre lots and pretty much covered with build- 
 ings, together with as much more adjoining, 
 which is included in the village (what is called 
 a town in the south). In 1811. the year after 
 my removal to this country I laid out a village 
 here and in 1812 several small houses were 
 
 built. but the war commencing and being rather 
 exposed to the incursions of the enemy very 
 few improvements were made until the close of 
 the war in 181.5. 
 
 Since then the village has had the most rapid 
 growth perhaps of any place in the United 
 States and now contains 5.000 inhabitants and 
 is now improving more rapidly than at any 
 former period. Not only the site of the vil- 
 lage, but the country about it was all a wil- 
 derness in 1811, but is now a thickly settled 
 country that turned out from ten to twelve 
 thousand persons who met General Lafayette 
 here on the 10th of June last. There can be 
 no doubt but that Rochester will be one of the 
 greatest manufacturing places in the United 
 States. It embraces more local advantages 
 than any place I have ever seen and I have 
 visited almost all the states. The land for 100 
 miles in every direction is of the finest quality. 
 The grand canal from Albany to Lake Erie 
 runs through the center of the village. All 
 the land carriage to the whole shores of Lake 
 Ontario is but two miles. The Genesee river, 
 which runs through the center of the village 
 north and south is "navigable forty miles to 
 the south and the canal opens a water com- 
 munication to all the shores of Lakes Erie, 
 Huron. Michigan, and Superior, and their nav- 
 igable streams; and within two miles of where 
 I now write there are at least 500 seats for 
 water works, a great number of which are 
 now occupied for merchant mills, saw mills, 
 fulling mills, paper mills, oil mills, cotton and 
 woolen factories, nail factories, furnaces, etc.. 
 etc. All strangers are astonished at the rapid 
 growth of the village and the quantity of busi- 
 ness done in it. It is a thoroughfare for an 
 immense number of travelers from all quar- 
 ters, east, W€St. noith, and south, and many 
 from Europo, to see the canal, the aqueduct 
 across the Genesee river and the Falls of 
 Mimara and it is on the route from the New En- 
 i^Iand states to the west and southwestern 
 states. . . My third of the 100 acres 
 
 of land purchased at this place is now worth 
 one hundred thousand dollars exclusive of the 
 houses thereon, but in order to get it settled 
 I sold the lots very low." 
 
 Much honor is due to all those other 
 sturdy men who developed the village 
 of Rochester; but their history is not per- 
 tinent to the founding of the village or 
 city, in the exact meaning of that word. 
 
 The village of Rochesterville was in- 
 corporated April 21, 1817, by an act of 
 the legislature ; and the founding ot 
 Rochester was accomplished. 
 
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