| 12,000 |
The Genesee Valley glacier ice recedes to the Portageville area. |
| |
••••• |
| 9,000 |
The first humans, Paleo-Indians, arrive in the Genesee Valley. |
| |
••••• |
B.C. Dates (approximated)
A.D. Dates |
| 1612 |
Samuel de Champlain, working from notes made by his scout Etienne Brulé, makes the first map of Lake Ontario, showing the Genesee River. |
| |
••••• |
| 1635 |
The approximate date French missionaries to Canada begin writing about the Genesee region. |
| |
••••• |
| 1741 |
Colonial Lieutenant Governor George Clarke pays the Senecas £100 (about $250) for all lands six miles east of Irondequoit Bay
as well as twenty miles west and thirty miles south. |
| |
••••• |
| 1788 |
New York delegates, upon learning of Virginia's ratification of the U.S. Constitution, also approve it in a vote of 30 to 27 over
the objections of Governor George Clinton; and so becomes the 11th state in the union on July 26.
Land speculators, Phelps and Gorham, sign a treaty with the Seneca Indians at Buffalo Creek and buy 2.6 million acres of lands
between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River; including the Mill Lot at the falls of the Genesee River. |
| |
••••• |
| 1789 |
Captain Simon Stone and Lieutenant Israel Stone, cousins and Revolutionary War veterans from Salem, New York, purchase a Phelps and Gorham
tract at Big Spring (the future site of Northfield; later renamed Pittsford) containing 13,296 acres, for $4,786.56.
They make a $30 down payment.
Pioneer John Lusk and his party, from Berkshire, Massachusetts, after traveling by Mohawk River, Oneida Carry, Oswego River and
Lake Ontario, cut a road from Irondequoit Bay to Canandaigua. His 15 year-old son Stephen and a hired hand come overland with
cattle, supplies and goods for home and business. |
| |
••••• |
| 1790 |
In January, Western New York pioneers John Lusk and Orringh Stone settle the Brighton
area of the future Monroe County. Lusk buys land from Johnathan Fassett and Caleb Hyde. This summer Lusk returns to Massachusetts
to get his wife and bring her back to New York.
The Federal Census shows the state's population has reached 340,120. The Northfield (Pittsford) area has 28 people in eight families,
making it the first permanent settlement in the future Monroe County. |
| |
••••• |
| 1794 |
The town of Northfield, in what will become Monroe County, is created, containing the future towns of Brighton, Henrietta, Irondequoit, Penfield,
Perinton, Pittsford, and Webster.
A one-room log schoolhouse, paid for by subscription, is built south of Northfield. John Barrows is the first teacher. It
will be the only school in the area for ten years. |
| |
••••• |
| 1795 |
Area pioneer Israel Stone dies and is buried in Washington County, N.Y. The area is inhabited by a number of recent English immigrants.
Northfield (Pittsford) pioneer Thomas Billinghurst, a Baptist minister, arrives in the U.S. from England. |
| |
••••• |
| 1797 |
William and Ann Agate arrive in Northfield and build a log cabin on what will later become Thornell Road. |
| |
••••• |
| 1798 |
Englishman Thomas Billinghurst, who immigrated in 1795, arrives in Northfield. |
| |
••••• |
| 1799 |
A log house is built in Northfield (Pittsford) for use as a town hall. The Reverend J. H. Hotchkin preaches there as well. |
| |
••••• |
| 1800 |
The Monroe County community of Northfield has 414 residents.
Senator Gouverneur Morris suggests the construction of a canal across New York State, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. |
| |
••••• |
| 1801 |
The state legislature passes a resolution on March 5 to revise
and amend the 1795 "act for the encouragement of schools", to
permit $50,000 for the further expansion of schools over the
next five years.
Jared and Ellen (Ginnie) Munson Barker move to Northfield from Oneida County with their children David, Asahel, Alanson and Betsy.
Jared buys a gristmill, saw mill and house from early settler Simon Stone. |
| |
••••• |
| 1803 |
Gouverneur Morris presents the outline of his 1800 proposal to build a canal across New York State to Surveyor-General
Simeon DeWitt, who is quite skeptical.
Monroe County's first library - The Northfield Library Company - is established, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Patterson,
on Mendon Center Road. Its forty subscribers pay dues of one dollar a year.
English-born Vermonter William Thornhill (spelling changed to Thornell by Vermonters), settles on Phelps and Gorham land in the area. |
| |
••••• |
| 1804 |
State surveyor-general Simeon De Witt discusses Gouverneur Morris's plan for a cross-state canal, which he does not believe practicable,
with land surveyor James Geddes, who becomes intrigued with the idea.
The area previously known as Northfield is now called Boyle. |
| |
••••• |
| 1805 |
The Genesee River floods its banks portending an especially cold winter for Upstate New York. |
| |
••••• |
| 1806 |
The settlement's log schoolhouse is replaced by a one-room frame building. |
| |
••••• |
| 1807 |
The first church in Monroe County is built in Boyle (later to be named Pittsford).
Glover Perrin opens an inn on the future State Street, later the site of the Phoenix Building. |
| |
••••• |
| 1810 |
The original portion of the Fletcher Steele House at 20 Monroe Avenue is completed.
The population of the Genesee Valley region reaches 30,000.
The settlement of the part of Boyle that will 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. |
| |
••••• |
| 1811 |
The first post office in Monroe County opens.
Farmer and public official David Barker is born. |
| |
••••• |
| 1812 |
The approximate year distiller and land speculator Augustus Ellicott builds a house in Boyle, which will later become the convent of St. Louis Church. |
| |
••••• |
| 1813 |
Early Northfield/Boyle/Smallwood/Pittsford settler Josiel Farr dies on November 7 at the age of 64.
Town Clerk, Dr. John Ray, retires after 17 years of holding the position.
Smallwood minister Daniel Brown travels to Rochesterville (later becoming the City of Rochester)to preach the first church service
there in the upstairs room over Josiel Barnard's tailor shop. |
| |
••••• |
| 1814 |
On March 25, Pittsford (formerly Northfield and then Boyle)
is formed from an area of Smallwood, located southeast of "Rochesterville".
Glover Perrin sells his inn to Samuel M. Kempton. |
| |
••••• |
| 1815 |
The first newspaper in the Monroe County area is published here.
The approximate year Vermont transplant Caleb Hopkins builds a house on South Arab Street (later Clover Street). |
| |
••••• |
| 1816 |
Stephen van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Young, Joseph Ellicott and Myron Holley are appointed on April 17 as commissioners
for an Erie Canal, after Clinton passes legislation for improvement of, and survey for, the state's internal navigation.
"The Year Without a Summer" occurs as killing frosts occur in June and over the next three months wipe out
all major crops in the Genesee Valley.
A house (later known as the Guetersloh house), is built on Church Street, for the Pittsford's first doctor, John Ray.
Village Presbyterians, who had been meeting in the Phoenix Building and in a log cabin north of the village, begin meeting in a frame
house at the Milepost. |
| |
••••• |
| 1818 |
A farmer named Pardee erects a two-story building along the future Erie Canal route in Bushnell's Basin. It will one day become
the Richardson's Canal House restaurant.
Farmer Barnett Maxfield, along with his wife Hannah and son Andrew, travel west from Herkimer, to settle in Pittsford on South Arab Street. |
| |
••••• |
| 1819 |
New York's canal commission gives the go-ahead in April to continue the Erie Canal west of Seneca Lake, all the way to Lake Erie.
The approximate year a lawyer's office is built on Monroe Avenue, near Main Street. Eventually the building, known as
the Little House, will be moved across the road and, in 1965, will become the headquarters/museum of Historic Pittsford Inc. |
| |
••••• |
| 1820 |
The Lion of the West leaves Rochesterville on April 21 and becomes the first canal boat to travel from here to Utica, on the Erie Canal.
The Town of Pittsford has a population of 1,582.
Samuel Hildreth builds a home at 44 North Main Street. (later known as Pittsford Farms Dairy). |
| |
••••• |
| 1821 |
Monroe and Livingston counties are formed from parts of Ontario and Genesee counties.
Dr. John Ray dies at the age of 78. |
| |
••••• |
| 1822 |
Stephen and Sarah Lusk complete the family farmhouse at the Milepost. |
| |
••••• |
| 1825 |
Governor DeWitt Clinton officially opens the 83-lock, 363 mile long, Erie Canal on October 26 as he departs from Buffalo
aboard the Seneca Chief. A series of 32-pounder cannon, some from Perry's victory on Lake Erie, are spaced
ear-shot distance apart along the route and fire in relay as Clinton progresses. The salute, running from Buffalo to New
York City, lasts three hours and twenty minutes.
In November, the original flotilla returns to Buffalo with jugs of water from the Atlantic Ocean to be dumped ceremoniously into Lake Erie.
Often known as "Clinton's Ditch" and "Clinton's Folly", the canal dramatically changed rural life in New York State;
including Pittsford. |
| |
••••• |
| 1826 |
On September 10, William Morgan is arrested in Batavia to protect him from a Freemason mob accusing him of revealing Masonic secrets.
On the 12th, while Morgan is being taken from jail in Canandaigua, he vanishes and is presumed dead.
It is said, the security party stops overnight at Pittsford's Phoenix Hotel, where Morgan has, what is to be, his last dinner.
A brick home is built at 28 Monroe Avenue for Erie Canal contractor
Sylvanus Lathrop.
The village's Presbyterians sell their 1816 frame house at the Milepost to the Baptists; then commission a stone church built on Church Street. |
| |
••••• |
| 1827 |
The Village of Pittsford is incorporated on April 7.
On July 4, New York State officially abolishes slavery and 10,000 slaves are freed. |
| |
••••• |
| 1828 |
The Erie Canal opens for the season on April 1 and the next day, the packet boat Niagara becomes the first boat of the
season to pass Syracuse, heading west on the Erie Canal. |
| |
••••• |
| 1830 |
On the 12th of July, very heavy rain begins falling in western New York and continues through the next morning. Mid-day, the
heavy rains cause a break in the Erie Canal in Bushnell's Basin near Pittsford's Great Embankment. A culvert gives way a mile-and-a-half west
of Pittsford and damage is done as far as Fairport.
The population of Pittsford reaches 1,831 which is up from 1,582 recorded in the 1820 census. |
| |
••••• |
| 1831 |
The brick Methodist Church is built on land donated by Ebenezer Sutherland on the western block of Lincoln Avenue. |
| |
••••• |
| 1832 |
Pittsford pioneer Simon Stone dies at the age of 68. |
| |
••••• |
| 1835 |
The state authorizes the enlargement of the Erie Canal on May 11.
The canal has reduced travel time from here to NYC down to 6 days, with freight costs of $5 a ton; instead of the $100 and 20 day trek across
the state by wagon. |
| |
••••• |
| 1836 |
Reports on July 1st indicate the Erie Canal has now made back its cost of $7 million. Tolls, however, will continue to be charged until 1882.
The Rochester and Auburn railroad opens, passing through Pittsford. |
| |
••••• |
| 1838 |
The railroad engine Young Lion is unloaded from a canal boat in Cartersville (between Pittsford and Bushnell's Basin)
for use on the new rail line between Rochester and Auburn. |
| |
••••• |
| 1842 |
In April, Samuel Lee Crump marries Sarah Cutting in London. They immigrate to the U.S. later in the year and settle in Pittsford, where
Samuel builds the cobblestone school on Church Street.
The Pittsford Cemetery Association is formed through the State Legislature. |
| |
••••• |
| 1843 |
Henrietta farmer Jarvis Lord moves to Pittsford, and opens a grocery business.
When plans to extend Lincoln Avenue up the hill to the west fail to materialize, the Methodist Church dismantles its brick
building and moves it to South Main Street, across from the future Hicks and McCarthy building. |
| |
••••• |
| 1844 |
The Reverend Henry Lockwood convenes the congregation of Christ Church. |
| |
••••• |
| 1846 |
Christ Church is officially organized and meets on South Main Street, in the future Hicks and McCarthy building. |
| |
••••• |
| 1847 |
The state legislature passes “An Act to provide for the Incorporation of Villages” on December 7. |
| |
••••• |
| 1848 |
Reuben Tobey, Jr. and his family, of Pawlet, Vermont, arrive in Pittsford via the Erie Canal and settle in a log cabin on Calkins Road. |
| |
••••• |
| 1849 |
Pittsford's Tobey family moves, in November, into their new two-story, six-room home on Calkins Road. (later called Tobey Road). |
| |
••••• |
| 1853 |
A house is built at 41 Monroe Avenue for Doctor Hartwell Carver, who is instrumental in the development of the transcontinental railroad. |
| |
••••• |
| 1855 |
Extreme cold strikes western New York. On February 6, temperatures in Rochester drop to 26° below zero; the coldest on record.
Pittsford's town-wide population reaches 2,133. Of those, 702 are within the village. |
| |
••••• |
| 1856 |
Early Town of Pittsford settler Sarah Lusk dies on June 1 at the age of 78. |
| |
••••• |
| 1859 |
Lawyer Charles Hastings Wiltsie is born on January 13 to James and Emily Hastings Wiltsie, in a Pittsford house on North Main Street that will
later become home to the Pittsford Library, then to the Village offices. |
| |
••••• |
| 1863 |
The enlargement of the Erie Canal is completed. |
| |
••••• |
| 1866 |
Jarvis Lord buys the Pittsford Farms Dairy at 44 North Main
Street on October 4. |
| |
••••• |
| 1868 |
A. J. Warner's Medina sandstone Christ Episcopal Church is completed.
The Reverend George H. Gomph graduates from Philadelphia's Lutheran Theological Seminary, marries and arrives in Pittsford. |
| |
••••• |
| 1869 |
Reverend Gomph becomes pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church.
Jarvis Lord is elected to the State Senate.
The Medina sandstone Christ Church, at South Main and Locust is completed.
|
| |
••••• |
| 1870 |
Rochester-based contractor Jarvis Lord repairs a
break in the Chemung Canal feeder, will be accused of squeezing
undue profits from the project, charging $125,000, about ten
times the independently estimated cost.
The approximate date Pittsford's Tobey family builds a new, Greek Revival,
home in front of their old plank dwelling on Calkins Road. |
| |
••••• |
| 1871 |
John Cosgrove buys the small house on the site of Tom Paddocks’ blacksmith
shop (previously destroyed by fire) on the south side of State
Street, for use of St. Louis Church. |
| |
••••• |
| 1878 |
On March 11th, Rochester New York’s Democrat & Chronicle
announces that the Bank of Monroe has won a judgment against
Jarvis Lord for
nearly $13,000. |
| |
••••• |
| 1878 |
The Pittsford Union School (later the Cobblestone Academy,
and then the Masonic Temple) closes its doors on June 27th. |
| |
••••• |
| 1878 |
The Pittsford chapter of the Grange (formerly The Patrons of
Husbandry) is founded, with 18 charter members and George
Canfield as the first Master.
William Hick’s widow Mary,
inheritor of the Phoenix Hotel, passes it along to her brother
Leslie Smith,
of Bushnell’s Basin
Jarvis Lord’s distillery
in Cartersville is destroyed by fire. |
| |
••••• |
Jan.
1879 |
Severe snowstorms immobilize western New York on January
2nd.
The Rochester-area storm finally ends on January 10th, after
causing several deaths. |
| |
••••• |
Feb.
1879
|
The first of a series of weekly temperance meeting is held
in Pittsford starting in February.
Rochester’s Democrat
and Chronicle announces that the religious revival meetings,
held
in Pittsford
three
nights each week for the past five weeks, will continue.
Ladies of Pittsford throw a leap year party on the 29th at the
Phoenix Hotel. Some women are invited to bring more than one
man, so
there will
be no wall-flowers. |
| |
••••• |
Mar.
1879 |
A small wooden building is added to the rear of the village’s
cobblestone school (in more recent times the Masonic Hall) on
Church Street. |
| |
••••• |
Apr.
1879 |
The Pittsford Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
is organized.
The Methodist-Episcopal Church plans to host
the countrywide temperance conference but it ends up being hosted
by the Free Methodist Church.
Residents of Pittsford notice
a large number of tramps in town.
Pittsford resident John
Brown is visited by his son George, a New York City newspaper
reporter.
On the 17th, the wooden bridge across the Erie Canal in Pittsford
is removed and construction on a new iron
bridge begins eight days later . |
| |
••••• |
May
1879 |
Bowling Green, a small park, is built in front of Pittsford’s
Phoenix House.
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
in Pittsford holds a celebration in honor of the Reverend George
H. Gomph’s
pastorate.
The Erie Canal at Pittsford is refilled
with water for the season.
The iron Monroe Avenue bridge over the Erie Canal in Pittsford
is completed on the 13th. |
| |
••••• |
Jun.
1879 |
Penfield music teacher, Mr. Robbins, conducts a juvenile concert
of Union School students at Pittsford’s Presbyterian Church.
Pittsford farmer and often town official, David Barker, dies
on the 7th at the age of 68 from a heart attack.
The construction of a “bowling green” in front of
Pittsford’s Phoenix Hotel on State Street is completed
on the 9th. |
| |
••••• |
Sep.
1879 |
A cow on the farm of Richard Smead is delivered of a 130-pound
calf.
Mr. Hammond, living east of the town, is arrested
by an agent of Henry Bergh’s Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children, and sentenced to 30 days in jail and
fined five dollars, for beating the daughter of his former wife. |
| |
••••• |
Jan.
1800 |
The area around Pittsford has been experiencing an unusually
warm winter so far, with strawberries blossoming. |
| |
••••• |
Feb.
1800 |
A Pittsford resident, a Mrs. Vinton, falls during a visit to
nearby Rochester, severely injuring her hip. Friends put her
aboard a New York Central Railroad car – on the Auburn
line – which takes her home. Mr. Jarvis Lord, living across
from the Pittsford depot, takes her to her residence in his sleigh.
The Reverend Morey, Pittsford’s Methodist minister,
resigns to move on to a new assignment. |
| |
••••• |
2/24
1800 |
A ladies’ tea party is held to benefit the cause of temperance.
Of the $64 collected, five is used to buy a picture of the U.S.
president’s wife “Lemonade” Lucy Hayes, to
hang in the Temperance Hall. |
|
••••• |
Mar.
1800 |
The American Union Telegraph Company opens an office in Pittsford,
at the North Main Street home of Gabe Wood, with connections
to Fairport, Palmyra, and points east. Wood, blind, serves as
telegrapher. |
|
••••• |
Apr.
1800 |
Reverend Henry Lockwood, of Pittsford’s Christ Episcopal
Church, retires due to ill health. |
|
••••• |
Jun.
1800 |
The village school in Pittsford conducts its graduation ceremonies
to a capacity crowd. Extremely hot weather is followed by a shower
just as the participants are about to retire outside for a picnic,
which will be resumed when the weather clears and last on into
the evening.
The Pittsford Cemetery Association closes it’s
Potters Field, transfers the bodies to other locations. The site
of the Potters burial ground is no longer known. |
| |
••••• |
Aug.
1800
|
Republicans form the Garfield and Arthur Club with nightly
meetings soon being held in rented space at the Free Methodist
Church. |
| |
••••• |
Sep.
1800
|
Charles Armstrong hosts an opening public entertainment on
the second floor of his newly-modified Pittsford House (later
Armstrong-Bacon Hall) at 19 South Main Street, with a magic lantern
show of Swiss scenery by a Miss Munger of Rochester, and with
music, to benefit the Baptist Church. |
| |
••••• |
Oct.
1800
|
Thomas Spiegel replaces George Morse on the school board. An
unknown woman receives a number of votes. Next year 58 women
will show up to vote. |
| |
••••• |
10/8
1800
|
A Republican political rally is held in Pittsford in support
of Garfield and Arthur. Army captain Peter Dominie and his veterans
escort two Rochester speakers to the Phoenix Hotel. |
| |
••••• |
Nov.
1800
|
The Reverend George H. Gomph opens a Sunday School at St. Paul’s
Lutheran Church. He breaks with church tradition, which did have
classes taught only in German, adding English to the lessons.
Dr. Rufus Reynolds has his leg broken in two places when a
barrel of cider he’s unloading from his wagon falls on
him.
Dr. Paul Carpenter is wounded when his horse steps on
him as he’s looking after a wheel caught in a rut made
by the horse drawn trolley.
Five boats – three carrying
coal for Rochester and two loaded with corn are frozen in the
canal through the village. |
| |
••••• |
Dec.
1800
|
The town purchases extra land from a recently-married Seth
Paine to add to the north side of its North Main Street cemetery.
Mr.
and Mrs. Wesley Van Buskirk purchase a house and adjoining North
Main Street lot from George Wood for $900, begin building
a new house on the vacant lot.
While attempting to move a
malt barn through a field of barley intended for the Agate Malt
Works, James Pugsley watches as the building suddenly collapses.
He figures it’s retribution because the malt was meant
to me used in the manufacture of ardent spirits.
Resident
Charles Hastings Wiltsie graduates from the University of Rochester.
The
local Grange holds a meeting, paying the state organization dues
for the past seven quarters - $8.40. |
| |
••••• |
Jan.
1881
|
Students at the Pittsford School hear a demonstration of Thomas
Edison’s four-year-old phonograph. |
| |
••••• |
Feb.
1881
|
A horse belonging to Jarvis Lord escapes and runs down the
railroad tracks to Brighton. Jarvis is thrown into a snow bank.
Dr.
Paul Carpenter and his bride Harriet Acer Carpenter leave for
a week for their wedding tour. Penfield’s Dr. Ely fills
in for him. |
| |
••••• |
Mar.
1881
|
Figures release by the Pittsford Poormaster show his expenses
$169 over the previous year and $120 over those of two years
ago. |
| |
••••• |
Apr.
1881
|
The telegraph line at the Auburn Railroad station of the New
York Central has been made part of Western Union, located locally
in blind telegraph operator Gabe Wood’s home.
Four Agate Mill workers hold out for higher wages. They are told that they’ve
been replaced.
The Pittsford Cornet Band performs at the new “Bowling Green” Park
in front of the Phoenix Hotel. |
| |
••••• |
May
1881
|
The Tibbitt Sisters of Pittsford, New York, host an informal
meeting at the cemetery to lay flowers – contributed by landowner Julian
Geare – on the graves
of fallen veterans. It’s probably the first Memorial
Day observance for the village. |
| |
••••• |
6/28.
1881
|
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (D&C) announces that
U. S. mail will be coming to Pittsford twice a day (from two
different directions) via the Auburn Line of the New York Central
and Hudson River Railroad. |
| |
••••• |
Oct.
1881
|
John Wood is appointed Pittsford’s first police patrolman. |
| |
••••• |
10/8
1881
|
A passing train frightens farm horses hitched in front of Pittsford’s
cobblestone warehouse belonging to James M. Wiltise. The horses
bolt to the south on North Main Street, smash the front steps
of Seymour Boughton’s home near Monroe Avenue. |
| |
••••• |
Nov.
1881
|
Pittsford’s Methodist Church, without a pastor since
February of 1880, has been closed in the interim.
A female
tramp enters people’s homes, intending to stay overnight.
Patrolman Wood handles the problem.
A locomotive enters the
village, crashing into a group of standing cars, derailing them
and splitting in two.
Cabinetmaker and technology aficionado/lecturer “Doctor” Charles
Came dies.
Contributions to the Presbyterian Church eradicate
its debt, with much of the credit given to Reverend J. Edward
Close for his handling of the church’s finances.
Birdsall
and Wiltsie ship 21 boxcar-loads of potatoes to the St. Louis
firm of Dunn and Company. |
| |
••••• |
Dec.
1881
|
The Methodist Church announces there will be no services for
the coming year.
The blind Gabe wood carries on a chess game
with a Doctor Dunning of Elmira via postcard.
A hot sulfur
spring appears on the farm of John Eckler near Mendon, the geyser
shooting 105 feet into the air. |
| |
••••• |
12/19
1881
|
Ellen Crump, seven-year-old daughter of Pittsford merchant
Shelly G. Crump, dies of a throat malady. |
| |
••••• |
12/23
1881
|
The Rochester D&C reports that the new West Shore Railroad
will not pass through the village of Pittsford, but will be routed
through the northern part of the Town of Pittsford. |
| |
••••• |
Jan.
1882
|
Pittsford’s Baptist and Presbyterian churches hold services
every evening of this month’s first week. At the week’s
end the Baptist Church holds a benefit oyster supper, at week’s
end, at Armstrong Hall, over the Armstrong store (later Burdett’s).
The supper brings in $45.
Toward the end of the month Catholics
hold a fund-raising supper and festival to finance the building
of what will become St. Louis Church. They collect $100.
While
riding from Rochester to Pittsford Henry Brown freezes his feet. |
| |
••••• |
Feb.
1882
|
The Agate brothers grist mill is now capable of processing
up to 2,000 bushels of grain a week.
It’s announced
that Geneva, New York’s Dr. Hartmann will arrive to establish
a drugstore. |
| |
••••• |
Mar.
1882
|
Surveyors from the West Shore & Buffalo Railroad have moved
into town for the next year or so.
William Reynolds buys 80
acres on French Road from William Schenck, at $120 an acre, to
add to his own farm (current location of the Sisters of St. Joseph
Home). |
| |
••••• |
Apr.
1882
|
Rev. William C. Kingsbury arrives from Sodus to serve
as minister to the Methodist Church.
Shelly Crump is enlarging his store
at the northwest sector of the four corners. The foundation is
laid for the addition.
Three infants have died of diphtheria
so far this year. Dr. Paul Carpenter, president of the Board
of Health, is instructed to take measures against unsanitary
conditions in schools and funeral parlors.
Frank Marcus offers
a $25 reward for his stolen horse. The animal’s later located
in Palmyra where a buyer had unknowingly paid the thief $60.
The
area suffers from an outbreak of Thrush, an infection in horses. |
| |
••••• |
May
1882
|
Businessman Jeffrey Birdsall buys the Railroad Hotel on North
Main Street, as well as the adjoining warehouse and sheds, from
Ben Eckler, for $7,000. It will become known as the Birdsall
Hotel.
141 Pittsford men turn out for Charter (Village) elections,
as opposed to only 45 last year. The Trustees re-elect Sam Stone
as president.
Noyes L. Parsons and Jarvis Lord sell nearly six
tins of a two-year-old crop of tobacco, for 16.5 cents a pound,
making somewhere near $1,600.
When two Rochester undertakers
go out of business Pittsford undertaker D. W. Smith enlarges
his facilities.
With the malting season ended the William
and John Agate, brothers, treat their staff to a fishing expedition
to Irondequoit Bay. |
| |
••••• |
5/30
1882
|
A memorial service is held at Pittsford’s cemetery to
replace flowers and emblems on soldiers’ graves. A committee
is appointed to make arrangements for a Decoration Day next year. |
| |
••••• |
Jun.
1882
|
The Reverend George H. Gomph of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
is designated orator for next year’s Decoration Day.
The
Franklin Square Library opens.
The post office announces a
quarterly box rental cost of 10¢, lowest in the county
for towns of Pittsford’s size.
A deed for new streets – Boughton
Avenue and Jackson Park – is drawn up. Both names will
become permanent.
Doc” Hartman and his
wife Joyce join the Pittsford Presbyterian Church by letter of
transfer from Rochester’s United Presbyterian Church. Their
daughter Lillian (Dolly) will run the drugstore as well as serving
as local correspondent for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
for many years.
Cemetery Association plot owners vote in a
new board of director. Noyes L. Parsons is named president, Judge
Charles True secretary and D. W. Smith sexton.
Thomas Spiegel
has a sickness in the family and goes from his wagon shop and
home at the four corners to James M. Wilsie’s cobblestone
warehouse and general store nearby to get some ice. He discovers
Wiltsie’s shop entrance is wide open and the safe door’s
been blown off. Six dollars have been stolen, money left there
by clerk Ed Bailey, the town collector, town funds which he’d
deposited there temporarily. Such petty thefts are common during
this period.
Six girls from Pittsford’s cobblestone
school (Number 6) take the entrance exam for Rochester’s
Free Academy. They will pass, and commute by train.
The Franklin
Square Library opens with Mrs. Krill as head librarian. The collection
consists of 80 works and has 100 subscribers. |
| |
••••• |
6/26
1882
|
A Buffalo canal boat named Caroline, owned by a Mr. Chase,
passes through Pittsford en route to Newark, New Jersey, it’s
discovered one of the drivers aboard has smallpox. He’s
dropped off for treatment. |
| |
••••• |
Jul.
1882
|
Local farmers experiment with using buckwheat, through its
encouragement of wasps, to control cabbageworms. Eventual results
will prove positive.
A 2,900-pound ox passes through town
on its way from Egypt, New York, to west of Pittsford.
A farmer
named Payne imports 30 to 40 Holstein cattle from Germany, holds
them for two months at the Wilmarth Farm, then ships them by
canal to Ohio.
Three reaping machines are demonstrated at a public
exhibition at Jarvis Lord’s Farms – the Wood, the
Champion and the Osborne. One of the three horses powering the
Osborne collapses and dies. |
| |
••••• |
Aug.
1882
|
A party of Rochestarians visiting Pittsford’s Hargous
mansion and returning around 10 PM, are injured when their carriage
goes off the road and down an embankment.
B. F. Wood, sexton
of Pittsford’s Baptist Church has the spire gilded.
At
one point during the month close to 50 carriages are parked by
the Wilmarth Fram pasture to view the Holstein cattle, a novelty
in the Pittsford area. |
| |
••••• |
Sep.
1882
|
Vought and Son begin construction on a three-story, steam-powered
flouring mill on the Erie Canal.
A heavy wind destroys much
of the area’s apples, plums and pears.
Edward W. Gaskin
wins the contract to provide seating and a pulpit in the newly-remodeled
Baptist Church, which will also receive new stained glass windows.
The
Main Street Bridge over the Erie Canal is condemned, due to unsound
wooden timbers. |
| |
••••• |
Oct.
1882
|
The Methodists begin raising funds to repair their church.
The
Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) organizes
for the coming year. Out-of-town temperance speaker George Vibbet
lectures at Armstrong Hall. |
| |
••••• |
Nov.
1882
|
A bonfire on Ira Todd’s Clover Street property gets out
of control, spreads all the way to East Avenue. By the next day
it’s still burning on the Barnes farm on Allen’s
Creek. The village will not have its own fire department until
1898.
Reverend Gomph is paid $2,600 from the newly-announced Westshore
and Buffalo Railroad for his house at 19 Stoutenburg Road (Golf
Avenue). He buys lots at Morningside Park (Lincoln Avenue) and
begins construction of a stable. (This becomes the Lutheran Church
lot)
The newly-remodeled Baptist Church is dedicated.
A
derrick constructing the flouring mill is damaged when two boys
swing on its rope. The two are fined $60. |
| |
••••• |
Dec.
1882
|
Tolls are abolished on the Erie Canal.
Railroad activity
has spread as far as Stoutenberg (Golf) Road in Perinton, Webster
and Farnham’s farmland, and Main Street north to the village
limits.
The new West Shore & Buffalo Railroad purchases
eleven acres from the Isaac Sutherland estate, where it will
locate its ticket depot and freight house. |
| |
••••• |
12/15
1882
|
A number of Italians arrive at the White Tavern on State Street
to apply for ‘board’. Later in the month, when it’s
discovered the laborers have no bread and are substituting macaroni,
arrangements are made to supply them with rye bread. |
| |
••••• |
12/23
1882
|
The Italians, having exhausted Pittsford’s bread supply,
leave after arrangements are made to supply them with rye bread. |
| |
••••• |
| |
|
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