| 12,000 |
The Genesee Valley glacier ice recedes to the Portageville area. |
••••••••••
|
••••••••••
|
| 9,000 |
The first humans, Paleo-Indians, arrive in the Genesee Valley. |
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|
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|
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. |
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|
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|
| 1635 |
The approximate date French missionaries to Canada begin writing about the Genesee region. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
••••••••••
|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 1789 |
Captain Simon Stone and Lieutenant Isreal Stone, cousins and
Revolutionary War veterans from Salem, New York, purchase a Phelps
and Gorham tract at Big Spring containing 13,296 acres, for
$4,786.56. They make a $30 down payment. This large land mass
would be named Northfield.
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. |
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|
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|
| 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.
Northfield, in the area that would eventually become Pittsford,
has 28 people in eight families, making it the first permanent
settlement
in
the
future
Monroe
County. |
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|
••••••••••
|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 1795 |
Area pioneer Isreal Stone dies and is believed to be buried
in Washington County, N.Y. though the location is unconfirmed.
Northfield 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. |
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|
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|
| 1798 |
Englishman Thomas Billinghurst, who immigrated in 1795, arrives in Northfield. |
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|
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|
| 1799 |
A log house is built in Northfield for use as a town hall.
The Reverend J. H. Hotchkin preaches there as well. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. (This library was dissolved in 1809)
Sections of the land area known as Northfield are partioned
off and the area, part of which will one day become Pittsford,
is
now called Boyle. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 1805 |
The Genesee River floods its banks portending an especially cold winter for Upstate New York. |
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|
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|
| 1806 |
The settlement of Boyle replaces it's log schoolhouse with
a one-room frame building. |
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|
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|
| 1807 |
The first church in Monroe County is built in Boyle.
Glover Perrin opens an inn on the future State Street, later the site of the Phoenix Building. |
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|
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|
| 1810 |
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. |
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|
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|
| 1811 |
The first post office opens in Monroe County. It is run by
John Acer and delivery is once a week. |
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|
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|
| 1812 |
More land area is partioned
off from Boyle. (Penfield and Perinton) and the resulting
smaller settlement is renamed from Boyle to Smallwood. |
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|
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|
| 1814 |
The final division of Smallwood occurs and on
March 21, in an area located southeast of "Rochesterville",
the current boundaries of Pittsford (formerly Northfield,
Boyle, Smallwood)
are established. |
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|
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|
| 1815 |
The first newspaper in the Monroe County area is published. |
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|
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|
| 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.
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. |
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|
| 1818 |
A farmer named Pardee erects a two-story building along the
future Erie Canal route in Bushnell's Basin. (Now the
Richardson's Canal House restaurant.) |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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). |
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|
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|
| 1821 |
Monroe and Livingston counties are formed from parts of Ontario and Genesee counties. |
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|
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|
| 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.) |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 1831 |
The brick Methodist Church is built on land donated by Ebenezer Sutherland on the western block of Lincoln Avenue. |
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|
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|
| 1832 |
Pittsford pioneer Simon Stone dies at the age of 68. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 1843 |
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. |
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|
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|
| 1844 |
The Reverend Henry Lockwood convenes the congregation of Christ Church. |
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|
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|
| 1846 |
Christ Church is officially organized and meets on South Main Street, in the future Hicks and McCarthy building. |
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|
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|
| 1847 |
The state legislature passes “An Act to provide for the Incorporation of Villages” on December 7. |
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|
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|
| 1853 |
A house is built at 41 Monroe Avenue for Doctor Hartwell Carver, who is instrumental in the development of the transcontinental railroad. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 1859 |
Lawyer Charles Hastings Wiltsie is born on January 13 to James
and Emily Hastings Wiltsie, in a Pittsford house on North Main
Street. (This structure will later house the Pittsford Library
and now the Village Offices). |
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|
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|
| 1863 |
The enlargement of the Erie Canal is completed. |
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|
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|
| 1868 |
A. J. Warner's Medina sandstone Christ Episcopal Church is completed. |
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|
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|
| 1869 |
Jarvis Lord is elected to the State Senate.
The Medina sandstone Christ Church, at South Main and Locust is completed. |
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|
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|
| 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. |
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|
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|
| 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.
The Pittsford Union School (later the Cobblestone Academy,
and then the Masonic Temple) closes its doors on June 27th.
The Pittsford chapter of the Grange (formerly The Patrons
of Husbandry) is founded, with 18 charter members and George
Canfield as the first Master. |
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|
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|
| 1879 |
Severe snowstorms immobilize western New York on January
2nd and finally ends on January
10th, after causing several deaths.
The first of a series of weekly inpromptu temperance meetings
is held in Pittsford starting in February. By April, the
Pittsford Women’s Christian Temperance Union
is organized.
On April 17th, the wooden bridge across the Erie Canal in Pittsford
is removed and construction on a new iron bridge begins eight
days later. The iron bridge is completed on May 13th |
••••••••••
|
••••••••••
|
1880 |
In March, 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.
In June, the Pittsford Cemetery Association purchases extra
land to add to the north side
of
its
North Main Street cemetery. Its "Potters
Field" is then closed and the bodies are transfered to other
locations. The
site of the Potter's burial ground is no longer known. |
••••••••••
|
••••••••••
|
1881
|
The telegraph line at the Auburn Railroad station of the New
York Central is made part of Western Union, located locally
in blind telegraph operator Gabe Wood’s home.
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.
In October, John Wood is appointed Pittsford’s first police
patrolman.
Village residents are disappointed to learn that the new West
Shore Railroad will not pass through Pittsford's village,
but
will be routed
through
the northern
part of
the town. |
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|
••••••••••
|
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.
(This is possibly the first "Memorial Day" commemorated
in Pittsford.)
A new circulating library, called the "Franklin Square Library" is
established.
The collection consists of 80 works and has 100 subscribers.
A Buffalo canal boat, named Caroline, passes
through Pittsford en route to Newark, New Jersey. It is
discovered that one of the drivers aboard has smallpox. He is
dropped off for treatment and Pittsford residents cease all unnecessary
public gathering.
Pittsford’s Baptist Church has its spire gilded.
Due to unsound wooden timbers, the Main Street Bridge over the
Erie Canal is condemned.
Tolls are abolished on the Erie Canal beginning in December.
Railroad activity has spread as far as Stoutenberg Road (Golf
Avenue) 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. |
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|
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|
1883
|
Pittsford is connected by telephone to Rochester; a line to
Fairport is in the works.
Village trustees meet and
decide to open a new street along Sutherland Lane (the future
Sutherland Street), crossing the new Morningside Park (later
Lincoln Avenue).
The Pittsford Post office sees a rise in business as Italian
workers, from the railroad advancement, begin purchasing more
stamps and cards.
Workmen from Fairport arrive in Pittsford to build the West Shore
Railroad station.
Late in the year, the West Shore bridge over the New York Central
lines is nearly completed. A locomotive and construction cars
have crossed
the
bridge, over
Main Street, the Auburn line tracks and the Erie Canal.
The roof of Pittsford West Shore rail depot in the north section
of the town is covered with a metallic shingle roof, the first
of its kind. |
•••••••••• |
•••••••••• |
1884
|
A second circulating library in
Pittsford is established and is located at the J. Lockwood
store.
The new passenger station of the West Shore railroad opens and
with the new rail line in place, Pittsford residents can
go
directly
to Fairport – for ten cents - rather than only by way of
Rochester. The
Stoutenberg Road Lutheran Church congregation, disturbed by
the proximity of the new railroad, begins seeking a new location.
Pittsford suffers outbreaks of diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, and typhoid
and rheumatic fevers.
H. H. “Hi” Cronk and J. W. Olney open a coal and lumber business
between North Main and State streets. (on Schoen Alley / Place).
In June, a West Shore Railroad freight train is completely wrecked east of Pittsford.
Doctor Paul Carpenter introduces the first lawn tennis court in the village.
It is on
his property on Monroe Avenue.
Pittsford’s Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) post #288 is founded and named
for Mendon volunteer veteran E. J. Tyler.
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Lincoln Avenue is built. The old structure
on Stoutenberg Road (Golf Avenue) becomes a private residence. |
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