<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param>1837
<smaller>Feb 10
Rioters protest high food prices in New York City, storm the
wheat-and-flour store of Eli Hart & Company. Several people die and
much grain is destroyed. The prices soon rise again.
Apr 3
Naturalist John Burroughs is born near Roxbury.
May
The first locomotive for the Rochester & Tonawanda Railroad Company
arrives by boat on the Erie Canal.
May 2
William B. Ogden, brother-in-law of New York investor Charles Butler,
is elected Mayor of Chicago.
May 10
New York banks suspend specie payment, precipitating a financial panic
in the U. S. and seven years of a depression.
May 11
The first train leaves Rochester for Churchville, Bergen, Byron and
finally Batavia, where its passengers are treated to a dinner at the
Eagle Hotel, before making the return rail trip to Rochester.
</smaller>
<smaller>August
Former Batavia newspaper editor Frederick Follett returns from Texas to
resume the editorship of the <italic>Spirit of the Times</italic>.
** William C. Redfield's account of the Mount Marcy climb begins
appearing in the New York <italic>Journal of Commerce</italic>.
City
The Sandy Hook Bar, stretching from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to
Rockaway,Long Island, is dredged to a depth of twenty-three feet. **
Whig alderman Aaron Clark is elected mayor for the next two one-year
terms. ** The city is granted jurisdiction over underwater land
on the North (Hudson) River as far north as 13th Avenue. ** The
U. S. Navy's first steam warship <italic>Fulton </italic> is launched
from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
State
The Le Roy Female Seminary (later Ingham University), the first woman's
college in the U. S., is founded in Le Roy, by sisters and former
Attica schoolteachers Mariette and Emily Bingham. ** Brockport's
Baptist Institute closes due to financial problems of the New York
Baptist Convention. ** The Ellenville Glassworks opens. **
Contracts are let for construction of the Genesee Valley Canal. **
T. A. Conrad is given the task of compiling a paleontological survey
of the state. ** Work on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) line
between Mineola and Hempstead is halted for the next four years by the
financial panic. ** Batavia's Holland Land Office sells its
remaining land and ceases operations. ** Troy's Carr Mansion is
built. ** William Henry Bartlett paints a view of the Hudson
River from Hyde Park. ** The Genesee and Wyoming Seminery operns
in a cobblestone building in Alexander. ** Last year's climbing
party succeeds in reaching the top of Mount Marcy, the first recorded
ascent.
</smaller></fontfamily>
<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><smaller>
Albany - The city ceases using Maezlandt Kill for its water supply.
Rochester
Construction begins on a new Erie Canal aqueduct over the Genesee
River. ** The city's first murder occurs. ** A wall is
built along the Genesee River through downtown. ** A public
market is built on Front Street. ** Wealthy St. Louis fur trader
Henry Shaw builds a house for his parents.
1838
Apr 23
The British ship <italic>Sirius</italic>, the first ship to steam
across the Atlantic, arrives in New York City.
Jun 15
The steamship <italic>Pulaski</italic> is wrecked off Cape Hatteras.
100 die, among them New York State judge and former candidate for
governor William B. Rochester.
Oct 29
Isaac C. Sheldon begins publishing Cuba, New York's <italic>Cuba
Advocate</italic>.
Nov 7
William Henry Seward is elected governor of New York.
City
Lawyers George Griffin and George Washington Strong dissolve their
practice. Strong takes on Marshall S. Bidwell as his new partner.
Strong's son George Templeton Strong also joins the firm as a clerk.
State
The Scottsville and Le Roy Railroad is built at the cost of $40,0000,
using wooden rails. It only reaches from Scottsville to Caledonia.
** Rochester boat tonnage drops to 408 tons. Oswego's reaches 6,582
tons and Buffalo's is 9,615 tons. ** The steamboat
<italic>Washington</italic> burns off Silver Creek. Twelve people die.
** Meteorologist Cleveland Abbe is born.
Rochester
Clyde Street is renamed St. Paul Street for the local Episcopal church.
River Street becomes South St. Paul.** The public cemetery is moved
from the west side of town to the east bank of the Genesee River. The
street and cemetery are named Mount Hope. ** The Rochester
Carthage horse-car railroad is discontinued. ** Henry O'Reilly's
<italic>Sketches of Rochester</italic>. ** George Ellwanger
and Patrick Barry establish the Mount Hope Garden and Nurseries. **
Abelard Reynolds is named alderman of the first ward.
1839
Jan 26
Stephen Van Renssalaer, last of the Dutch patroons, dies.
Feb 16
Albany Medical College is incorporated.
</smaller></fontfamily>
<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><smaller>Jun 12
The claimed date that Abner Doubleday invents modern rules for
baseball, at Cooperstown.
Sep 2
Corning residents meet at the home of S. B. Denton to establish a
school system for the village.
Sep 28
Temperance leader Frances Elizabeth Willard is born in Churchville.
Oct 1
Herman Melville arrives back in New York City on the
<italic>Lawrence</italic>.
Nov 13
Abolitionists convene at Warsaw leading to the formation of the Liberty
party. They nominate James G. Birney for President of the United States
and Pennsylvania's Francis J. Lemoyne as Vice-President.
December
Anti-rent protestors in western Albany County disperse quietly when the
governor sends forces to assist the civil authorities.
City
Democratic lderman Isaac I. Varian wins two one-years terms as mayor,
defeating Whig candidate Aaron Clark this year and Whig J. P. Phioenix
in 1840. ** William F. Harnden starts a Boston-to-New York
package service, carrying them in a carpetbag.
State
Builder John Canfield is born in Churchville. ** The Genesee
Valley Canal reaches Mount Morris. ** William Henry Seward
becomes the state's first Whig overnor, serving two terms - 1839-1843.
** General William Kerley Strong erects a Greek Revival mansion on
Geneva's Rose Hill Farm. ** A railroad connects Corning with the
Pennsylvania coal fields. ** Junius peppermint farmer Peter Hill
moves to Lyons, having bought property at the future site of Erie Canal
Lock E-56. ** A Stafford silkworm operation contains 6,000
mulberry trees and 72,000 worms. ** American Revolution heroine
Sybil Ludington dies in her late seventies. ** The Albany
Exchange Building is erected. ** Geneva-born author Caroline
Matilda Stansbury Kirkland publishes <italic>A New Home: Who'll
Follow</italic>, an account of her life in the Detroit frontier
settlements. ** Ulysses S. Grant enters West Point. **
Northern general-tactician Emory Upton is born in Batavia. **
Company directors liquidate the Rochester Canal and Railway Company.
1840
June
Batavia newspaper publisher Frederick Follett sells the <italic>Spirit
of the Times</italic> to Lucas Seaver, and joins Peter Lawrence in
publishing the new <italic>Batavia Times and Farmers and Mechanics
Journal</italic>.
Aug 19
Daniel Webster speaks at Saratoga.
Sep 1 </smaller></fontfamily>
<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><smaller>The first boat to use New
York State's Genesee Valley Canal, traveling from Rochester to Mount
Morris, stops at Cuylerville's National Hotel for a celebration.
Sep 10
The locomotive <italic>The Young Lion</italic> inaugurates New York's
Auburn & Rochester Railroad.
Sep 12
The first train on the Auburn & Rochester Railroad arrives in
Canandaigua.
City
The Atlantic Dock Company is established, in Brooklyn. ** The
Admiral's House is built, on Governor's Island. ** Henry James
marries Mary Walsh. They will be the patrents of William and Henry
James.
State
The town of Irondequoit is carved out of the town of Brighton, on the
outskirts of Rochester. ** Angelica's <italic>Allegany
Gazette</italic> begins publication. ** The first Orange Counyt
Fair is held. ** Population: Albany: 34,000; Rochester: 20,195;
Utica: 13,000. ** Wayne County peppermint farmer Peter Hill
bewgins dismantling his private grocery building to move it out of the
way of the Erie Canal enlargement. ** William Tecumseh Sherman
graduates from West Point. ** The approximate date Elijah T.
Hayden builds Syracuse's Leavenworth House hotel, at the corner of
James and McBride Streets.
Corning
Advance crews of the New York and Erie Railroad arrive for preliminary
studies. ** The village's first school house is built.
Rochester
Construction begins on East Avenue's Smith-Perkins (Woodside)
andPitkin-Powers mansions. ** The city annexes Mount Hope
Cemetery, increasing its own size to 7.438 square miles. ** The
Phoenix Mill is destroyed by fire, rebuilt.</smaller></fontfamily>
David Minor
Eagles Byte Historical Research
Rochester, New York
716 264-0423
------- End of forwarded message -------
-- Marc Nozell <marc@nozell.com> http://www.rootsweb.com/~nozell (genealogy stuff)