The Greatest Highway in the World / Historical, Industrial and Descriptive Information of the Towns, Cities and Country Passed Through Between New York and Chicago Via the New York Central Lines. Based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

by New York Central Railroad Company

370 M. ROCHESTER, Pop. 295,750.

(Train 51 passes 4:05; No. 3, 5:25; No. 41, 9:56; No. 25, 10:23; No. 19, 2:11. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 12:59; No. 26, 1:51; No. 16, 6:18; No. 22, 8:47.)

Rochester is built around the Falls of the Genesee River, about 7 M. above the place where the river empties into Lake Ontario.

Rochester in 1812

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. above the river. The river, in fact, cuts through the center of the city in a deep gorge, the banks of which vary in height from 50 to 200 ft. The Genesee Valley south of Rochester is a very fertile and beautiful stretch of country where the river flows between meadows that rise gradually to high hills. The appearance of the country here, with its immense pasture-land dotted with oak and elm, is distinctly English. Besides being exceedingly productive both for crops and pasturage, the Genesee Valley is famous as riding country, although the hunting interest has of late somewhat waned. But foxes are still found, and the flats along the river give wonderful opportunities for the chase.

The modern city, however, has spread north until it now embraces the large village of Charlotte on the western side of the mouth of the river. The region about Rochester was visited about 1650 by Jesuit missionaries who worked among the Seneca Indians in the neighborhood, and in 1687 the Marquis de Denonville fought a battle with the Iroquois near the Falls.

The Senecas were members of the League of the Iroquois and eventually became one of the most important tribes of that league. Their territory lay between the Seneca Lake and the Genesee River and they were the official guardians of the league's western frontier. At the height of their power they extended their range to the country west of Lake Erie and south along the Alleghany River to Pennsylvania They fought on the English side in the War of Independence. About 2,800 are now on reservations in New York State.

Jacques René de Bresay, marquis of Denonville, succeeded La Barre, who succeeded Frontenac, as governor of Canada in 1689. La Barre, an inefficient leader against the insurgent Iroquois, held the administration for only one year. Denonville was of great courage and ability, but in his campaign against the Indians treated them so cruelly that they were angered, not intimidated. The terrible massacre of the French by the Iroquois at Lachine, Quebec, in 1689, must be regarded as one of the results of his expedition. In 1687 he built Fort Denonville, which was abandoned during the following year when an epidemic wiped out its garrison.

Although by 1710 the French had established a post on Irondequoit Bay not far from the mouth of the Genesee, it was not until Ebenezer Allan (called "Indian Allan") built a small saw and grist mill near the falls that a settlement began to grow up. In 1802 three Maryland proprietors, Charles Carroll, William Fitzhugh and Nathaniel Rochester acquired a large tract of land which included the site of the present city. Rochester, from whom the city took its name, established a settlement, largely of New Englanders, at the falls in 1810-12, but growth was slow, as it was not at that time on the direct road between Albany and Buffalo, and the region was malarial.

Nathaniel Rochester (1752-1831) was a native of Virginia. He had been a manufacturer of Hagerstown, Md., and after settling in Rochester in 1818 was elected to the N.Y. Assembly (1822).

The completion of the Rochester and Lockport section of the Erie Canal gave Rochester the impetus which made it a city, and the building of the railroad a few years later placed it on the direct route between the Hudson and Lake Erie.

The course of the old Erie Canal lay through the heart of the city. It crossed the Genesee River by means of an aqueduct of seven arches, 850 ft. long, with a channel 45 ft. wide. The aqueduct cost $600,000. The new barge canal passes through the city about three miles south of the old canal, and has a harbor in connection with the Genesee River, which is dammed for that purpose.

Rochester, between 1828 and 1830, was the centre of the anti-Masonic movement and here Thurlow Weed published his Anti-Masonic Enquirer.

The Anti-Masonic party arose after the disappearance in 1826 of William Morgan (1776-1826), a Freemason of Batavia, N.Y., who had become dissatisfied with the order and had planned to publish its secrets. When his purpose became known, Morgan was subjected to frequent annoyances, and finally in September, 1826, he was seized and conveyed by stealth to Ft. Niagara, where he disappeared. His ultimate fate was never known, though it was believed at the time that he had been murdered. The event created great excitement, and furnished the occasion for the formation of a new party in N.Y. This new party was in fact a rehabilitation of the Adams wing of the Democratic-Republican party, a feeble organization, into which shrewd political leaders breathed new life by utilizing the Anti-Masonic feeling. The party spread into other middle states and into New England; in 1827 the N.Y. leaders tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade Henry Clay, though a Mason, to renounce the order and become the party's candidate for president. In 1831 the Anti-Masons nominated William Wirt of Maryland, and in the election they secured the seven electoral votes of Vermont. In the following year the organization grew moribund, most of its members joining the Whigs. Its last act in national politics was to nominate William Henry Harrison for president in Nov. 1838.

Subsequently, Rochester became the centre of the Abolitionist movement in New York State and for many years before the Civil War it was a busy station on the "Underground railroad," by which fugitive slaves were assisted in escaping to Canada. The fervor of the movement gave prominence to Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), the mulatto orator and editor, who established a newspaper in Rochester in 1847, and to whom a monument has been erected near the approach of the New York Central Station. The city was a gathering place for suffragists from the time when Susan B. Anthony settled here in 1846.

Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906), born at Adams, Mass., was the daughter of Quaker parents. Her family moved to N.Y. State where, from the time she was 17 until she was 32, she taught school. She took a prominent part in the Anti-slavery and Temperance movements in New York, and after 1854 devoted herself almost exclusively to the agitation for women's rights. She was vice-president-at-large of the National Women's Suffragist Association from 1869-1892, when she became president. She was arrested and fined $100 (which she never paid) for casting a vote at the presidential election in 1872. She contended that the 14th Amendment entitled her to vote, and when she told the court she would not pay her fine, the judge simply let her go. The case created much comment.

In Rochester also lived the famous Fox Sisters, Margaret (1836-1893) and Katharine, whose spiritualistic "demonstrations" became known in 1850 as the "Rochester Rappings." The city has been a centre for American spiritualists ever since.

Kate Fox
(From a daguerreotype)

The demonstrations of the famous Fox sisters began in the following way: in 1847 the Fox family moved to a house near Rochester believed to be haunted, from which tenant after tenant had moved out, alarmed by mysterious rappings. The Foxes did not hear these sounds until 1848, and then Kate, hardly more than a child, began questioning the rappings, and having opened what seemed to be intelligent communication, suggested the use of the alphabet. That was the beginning of what spiritualists call the "science of materialization." The exhibitions consisted of the usual phenomena, table turning, spirit rapping and the moving of large bodies by invisible means. The two young women gave public séances throughout the country, arousing an interest that spread to England. In 1888 Margaret made a confession of imposture which she later retracted. Claiming to be the wife of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, she published a book of his letters under the "Love Life of Dr. Kane." He had met her between voyages of exploration, fallen in love with her, and in one of the published letters addressed her as "my wife," but even she admits that there never was a formal wedding. He died at Havana in 1857.

Modern spiritualism is generally dated from the "demonstrations" produced by the Fox Sisters. These exhibitions consisted of the usual spiritualistic phenomena: table turning, spirit rapping and the moving of large bodies by invisible means. The sisters gave public séances through the country, and interest in spiritualism spread to England. In 1888 Margaret made a confession of imposture, which she later retracted. She claimed to be the wife of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, and published a book of his letters under the title of the "Love Life of Dr. Kane." Kane had begun his career as an explorer when he was appointed surgeon and naturalist for the Grinnell expedition in 1850, which set out to search for Sir John Franklin, who was lost somewhere in the North. After spending 16 fruitless months of search, they returned, but Kane fitted out a new expedition of which he was given command, and spent two winters in polar exploration and collection of scientific data. The voyage lasted years and brought him fame. It was between these voyages that he met Margaret Fox, and in one of the published letters he addressed her as "my wife," though there seems never to have been a formal wedding. He died in 1857 at Havana.

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; Martin Brewer Anderson, president from 1854 to 1888, and David Jayne Hill, president from 1888 to 1896.

David Jayne Hill was born at Plainfield, N.J., June 16, 1850. After obtaining his first degree at the University of Bucknell, Pa., he studied for his A.M. in Berlin and Paris. He was president of the University of Rochester from 1888 to 1896, then spent 3 years in the study of the public law of Europe. As one peculiarly fitted by education and training for a diplomatic career, he was minister first to Switzerland (1903-1905), then to the Netherlands (1905) and from 1908 to 1911 ambassador to Germany. His numerous writings cover a wide field in biography, rhetoric, diplomacy, history and philosophy.

Falls of the Genesee River at Rochester About 1850
(From a print in the N.Y. Public Library)

For many years Rochester was the most important flour milling centre in the country, owing to the valuable water power furnished by the falls and the fertility of the wheat fields of the Genesee Valley.

Rochester Theological Seminary prepares students for the ministry of the Baptist Church, and has no organic connection with the university. The Mechanics' Institute, founded in 1885 by Henry Lomb of the Bausch-Lomb Optical Co., is an unusually successful school of trades and handicrafts. It occupies a large building, the gift of George Eastman of the Eastman Kodak Co.

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. It leads the world in the manufacture of cameras, lenses, and photographic materials, and it is one of the principal cities of the country in the distribution of seeds, bulbs and plants, and in the manufacture of clothing and shoes. Other important products are machinery of various kinds, lubricating oil, candied fruits, syrups and confectionery clothing, tobacco and cigars, enameled tanks and filing devices.