Rochester, New York

“ The villages on this road are Hartland, Oak Orchard, Gaines, and Clarkson, all thriving little places.
Rochester.—I arose early, as usual, and found a delightful morning. After breakfast I spent several hours in rambling through and about this town of rapid growth. There is no great beauty about it, and at this time I consider it a dirty place. All the streets are [Pg 47] filled with mud and rubbish. Building is the order of the day, but there are few houses in the place which can be called handsome; and even the best are nothing to what I have seen in the other towns. ”

“ In writing you farewell—and in regret at our separation—we have only to state, in the names of thirty individuals, our ardent satisfaction in the cause you have so energetically undertaken. Should fortune compel us to visit your country, we will not fail in calling at the good city of Rochester. ”

“ ROCHESTER—AND HER NEIGHBORS The three great cities of western New York—Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo—are like jewels to the famous railroad along which they are strung, and effectively they serve to offset the great metropolitan district at the east end of the state. They have many things in common and yet they are not in the least alike. Their growth has been due to virtually a common cause; the development of transportation facilities across New York state; and yet their personality is as varied as that of three sisters ”

“ To the unmarried Printers of Rochester: May they, when locked up in the chase of matrimony, be so well justified as never to fall out.
Rochester: Its mills furnish the best flour in all our Northern borders, which gives fat takes to every body that loafs upon it.
The Printer Volunteers: May they handle their shooting-sticks with the best success, and may their forms be returned from the squabble unbattered.
The Ladies of Rochester: The fairest Nonpariels in the case of womanhood—of beautiful fact and elegant form. ”

“ Four gentlemen from Rochester and its vicinity will be engaged this winter in propagating the principles of Association by lectures etc., in western New York. At Rochester they have commenced the publication of tracts upon Association, which we trust will be extensively circulated. That city is becoming an important center of propagation, and will, we believe, exercise a very great influence, as it is situated in a flourishing region of country, inhabited by a very intelligent population. ”

“ Rochester is an attractive city, with a park system comprising 1,649 acres. The largest parks are the Durand-Eastman, the Genesee Valley, Seneca, Maplewood and Highland. The Durand-Eastman Park occupies a beautiful tract of wooded ground on Lake Ontario.
The University of Rochester, founded 1851 as a Baptist institution, but now non-sectarian, occupies a tract of 24 acres on University Ave. in the eastern part of the city. Notable men who have been connected with the university include Henry Augustus Ward, professor of natural history from 1860 to 1875 ”

“ The blacksmiths have become so lazy that they even make it blow their bellows. There is an oil mill at this place, calculated for sixteen runs of stones, eight of which are now in operation; with many others having six, seven and eight, all in complete operation. Several manufactories and mills for different purposes are now building; and I have no hesitation in saying, that although Rochester can never be a handsome town, owing principally to its low situation, yet I believe it will see the time, perhaps very soon, when no place in the Union can exceed it in point of variety and manufactures. ”

“ Rochester, in Monroe county, in the western part of New York, is the most populous and important village in the state. Its growth has been wonderfully rapid. Thirty years ago there was a wild uninhabited tract, where now is a flourishing population of more than twenty thousand people. This growth has been owing to the passage of the Erie canal through the town, thus furnishing a conveyance to the numerous manufactures which the great water power of the Gennessee enabled them to carry on. The canal crosses the river three hundred yards above the falls. ”

“ People in Syracuse, however, have Sunday picnics and outings off into the country, while Buffalo has always been known for its "liberal Sunday," whatever that may mean. Rochester has always frowned upon that sort of thing. She has the same point of view as her Canadian neighbor across Lake Ontario—Toronto—a city which we shall see in a little time. Rochester rather cleaves to the old-fashioned Sabbath; even her noisy beach down at Ontario's edge, which has always served as a sort of Coney island to western New York, has been a thorn in the side of her conservative population. ”

“ Instead of turning to the northeast at Batavia and going through Newkirk, Byron, Bergen, North Chili, and Gates to Rochester, keep more directly east through Le Roy, Caledonia, Avon, and Canandaigua to Geneva; the towns are old, the hotels, most of them, good, the roads are generally gravel and the country interesting; it is old New York. No one driving through the State for pleasure would think of taking the direct road from Rochester to Syracuse ”

“ For many years Rochester was the most important flour milling centre in the country, owing to the valuable water furnished by the falls and the fertility of the wheat fields of the Genesee Valley. Flour milling is no longer so important an industry here—Minneapolis having taken first rank in this respect—but Rochester ranks high among the great manufacturing cities of the country. Its total output is valued at more than $250,000,000 annually. ”

“ The Printers of Rochester were the first to move in this matter, in Western New-York—nobly and generously have they carried it forward thus far. They deserve, and I doubt not, will receive, the thanks of the Craft generally. Such a gathering of the Craft—entertaining as they do, various and discordant opinions on many of the exciting topics of the day—is calculated to do good. ”

“ At last we were suffered to tear ourselves away from New York; and ah, what sighs of relief we breathed when we got back to our dearly beloved Rochester, where we resumed our former happy domestic life, in which we all [143] divided our days, going at pleasure to and fro, between my house on Troup Street and the farm, the homestead and father’s house, now a sort of adjunct to the latter; every one of which dwellings was always an open house to any one of the family. ”

“ Settlers from New England made a clearing at the site of Rochester about 1810, but growth was slow until the railroad—now the New York Central—was built connecting it with Albany and Buffalo.
The Genesee River rises in Pennsylvania and flows nearly 200 miles in a northerly direction through western New York. Within a distance of 7 M. between Rochester and Lake Ontario the river has a fall of 263 ft. The principal falls consist of three cataracts, 96, 26 and 83 ft., respectively. The banks of the first fall, which is in the heart of the city, rise to a height of 200 ft. ”

“ Many friends to the new cause urged their advice that we should establish ourselves in one of the great centres of population and movement, where the thousands and tens of thousands of our locomotive people could conveniently come and hear for themselves. New York was naturally indicated for this purpose, but Cleveland and Cincinnati disputed her claim; while our friends in Rochester insisted that their city was the most appropriate and natural home and centre for the “Rochester Knockings.” ”

“ Gentlemen:—Your favor, under date of the 9th ult., inviting me to attend the celebration of the birth-day of the Immortal Franklin, to be held at Rochester on the 18th proximo, came to hand a few days since. It would afford me much pleasure to be present and join my brethren of the craft in the festivities of the occasion, but my duties are such in the office that it will be out of my power to do so. I rejoice to see the printers of Western New York so mindful of the memory and fame of our illustrious craftsman; though dead, he still lives in the hearts of all who appreciate true greatness. ”

“ Everard Peck has been more or less connected with the Printing and Bookselling business in Rochester for many years. With good business habits, and strict integrity of purpose, he has worked his way through life thus far with success. He has retired from his former pursuits, but continues to reside in Rochester, where, in its infancy, he commenced business thirty years ago, and in the growth and prosperity of which he has always manifested a lively interest. ”

“ RETURN TO ROCHESTER. Letters and Newspaper Articles Respecting our New York Campaign—Letter from Amy Post—Letters from John E. Robinson—Article from a Sunday Newspaper—From the New York Day-Book—Letter from Dr. C. D. Griswold—Letter from Jacob C. Cuyler—Article by Horace Greeley—Poem from the Sunday Dispatch.
Such was our first campaign in New York, through all the hot months of that summer of 1850. Toward the close of September our friends, as well as ourselves, recognized the necessity for us of some rest and recuperation, and we decided to return to Rochester. ”

“ About noon we passed the village of Newark, thirty-seven miles east of Rochester. It is a very interesting and thriving place. After passing it there is a great sameness until you arrive near Lyons, the county town of Wayne. Lyons is finely elevated, and looks well. There is no other place of much size until you reach Montezuma, which is situated on the east side of the great marshes of the Seneca river, which are about six miles wide. The canal is here made to correspond in height with the river, which is about a mile wide, having apparently no current. ”

“ There are several different routes of greater or less distance by which you may return to Rochester.
Edward J. Brown.—There are several kinds of chain-cleaners, but none of them are of very much use. An ordinary rag that is clean, used with some care, is quite as effective as anything else.
Note.—Map of New York city asphalted streets in No. 809. Map of route from New York to Tarrytown in No. 810. New York to Stamford, Connecticut in No. 811. New York to Staten Island in No. ”

“ By Elizur Wright, Esq., Editor of the Boston Chronotype—The Pavors of the High Road to Immortality to others: beginning at the lower end may they finish their job at the summit.
By F. A. Cheever, Foreman—The Printers of Rochester: Worthy of all praise for their regular and spirited celebration of this Anniversary. May their example be imitated until the "Franklin Festival" shall be proverbial throughout the Union.
By A. H. Bailey—The cities of Rochester and Boston: The indispensable granaries of the New World: the one for the body, the other for the mind. ”

“ The city is situated between Lake Ontario and the River Genesee, the many falls of which turn its celebrated flour-mills. By means of the great lakes Rochester has communication with all the States which are situated round them as well as with Canada, and by means of the Genesee and Hudson, the Erie canal and innumerable railroads, it is connected with the Eastern States. Rochester is one of the children of the Great West in respect to growth. ”

“ The resident of the town will lead you over into its Third ward—a compact community almost within stone-throw of the Four Corners, and shut off from the rest of the vulgar world by a river, a canal and a railroad yard. In that compact community, its tree-lined streets suggesting the byways of some tranquil New England community, is the seat of Rochester social government. The residents of the Third ward are a neighborly folk, borrowing things of one another and visiting about with delightful informality among themselves, and yet their rule is undisputed. ”

“ Those amiable friends who had made our visit in Rochester so agreeable, accompanied us to the shore, after having presented us with a great number of flowers and the most beautiful fruits, really Hesperian in beauty and excellence. Rochester, with its varied scenes of mills and knockings of life and lies, its good people and beautiful fruit, left upon us an impression of vigorous life. ”

“ Its fire-proof office buildings and warehouses, are a credit to the city; only few, even in the metropolis, are equal to them in magnificence.
In the center of the city are the upper Falls of the Genesee, a perpendicular cataract of ninety-six feet, over which Sam Patch made his last and fatal leap.
To the prominent public institutions of Rochester belong the State Industrial School, two large hospitals, an Institution for Deaf-Mutes, and charitable organizations of every description. ”

“ They live their lives and live them well. For when all is said and done, the glory of Rochester is not in her public buildings, her water-power, her fair, her movements toward social reform, not even in her parks—although Rochester parks are superb, for Nature has been their chief architect and she has executed her commission in splendid fashion—nor does it reside in her imposing Main street, nor in her vast manufactories that may be translated into stunning arrays of statistics—her glory is in her homes. ”

“ There are many men in Rochester, now verging into the sixties, who were more familiar with it at that time than they have ever been since, and who remember distinctly its damp and earthy smell, its darkness and general air of neglect and decay. ”

“ Rochester consists of little more than one long street, stretching away from the castle and the river toward neighbouring Chatham, and edged with low brick houses, of intensely provincial aspect, most of which have some small, dull quaintness of gable or window. Nearly opposite to the shop of the old lady with the dissentient husband is a little dwelling with an inscribed slab set into its face, which must often have provoked a smile in the great master of laughter. ”