January
The New York Protection Insurance Company of Rome, New York, founded
in July of 1849, closes its doors.
Jan 1
The first public bath in the U. S., the Bath and Wash House, operated
by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, opens
in New York City.
Feb 21
Columbia University drama professor James Brander Matthews is
born in New Orleans to Edward and Virginia Brander Matthews.
Mar 13
Uncle Sam first appears in a newspaper cartoon, in the New York
weekly Diogenes, Hys Lantern (sic).
April
Auburn's Seneca Orphan Asylum is incorporated.
Apr 2
Albany's Dudley Observatory, founded with the aid of Mrs. Blandina
Dudley, is incorporated.
Apr 14
The New York State legislature passes "An Act for the Incorporation
of Companies formed to Navigate the Ocean by Steamships."
Apr 21
Dion Boucicault's dramatization of Dumas' The Corsican Brothers
premieres at New York City's Bowery Theatre.
Apr 23
Former governor John Young dies in New York City.
Apr 26
New York City's Staats-Zeitung publisher Jakob Uhl dies, in his
mid-forties.
Apr 28
Brooklyn City Hospital moves to new quarters.
May
The Century Club moves yet again, from 575 Broadway to 24 Clinton
Place.
May 12
Syracuse's Central City Bank is incorporated, capitalized at $
125,200.
Jun 2
New York City's Astor Bank is chartered, capitalized at $200,000.
It will fail in the early 1860s.
Jun 24
Charlotte's Lakeside Presbyterian Church, on Stutson Street, is
dedicated.
Jun 28
The Albany & Saratoga Railroad is organized, with a $300,000
capitalization, to connect Albany and Green Island. It's never
built.
July
The Leland Bank of New Lebanon opens for business.
Jul 5
Frederick Douglass delivers the Independence Day speech "What
to the Slave is the Fourth of July", in Rochester.
Jul 6
Ellen Blackmar, future maternal grandmother of Erastus Corning
2nd, is born to missionary parents in West Springfield Pennsylvania.
Jul 28
The Hudson River steamer Henry Clay, racing the steamer
Armenia, catches fire, off of Fort Lee, New Jersey. Close to 60
people drown or burn to death.
August
John and William Rockefeller enter Owego Academy.
Aug 30
New York State passes legislation governing steamboat safety.
Sep 8
James William Wallack opens New York City's Wallack's Lyceum theater.
Sep 20
The Albany and Saratoga Springs Rail Road is organized, capitalized
at $200,000. It's never built.
Sep 23
Physician William Stewart Halsted is born in New York City.
Sep 27
Actor-playwright George L. Aiken premieres his unauthorized dramatization
of Uncle Tom's Cabin in Troy.
Nov 3
The Warren County town of Athol is divided into the towns of Stony
Creek and Thurman.
Dec 2
New York City Police evict the 1000 occupants of the Old Brewery
building in the Five Points section of Manhattan in preparation
for the demolition of this breeding ground of crime.
Dec 19
Civil engineer Campbell W. Adams is born in Utica.
City
Shipbuilder Jacob A. Westervelt defeats Whig candidate Morgan
Morgans to become Democratic mayor. ** The city is granted jurisdiction
to underwater lands in the Harlem River. ** Collector Thomas Jefferson
Bryan returns to New York after touring Europe since 1823. He
opens a gallery in the New York Society Library on Broadway. **
English novelist William Makepeace Thackery arrives to give six
lectures on English writers to the First Unitarian Society. **
The print An Overview of New York City in 1852 is published. **
Law student Smith Edward Lane passes the New York bar exam. **
Liberty Street is widened between Greenwich Street and Broadway,
and Washington Street is extended from Twelfth Street to Gansevoort.
** The 1830 Tompkins Market is rebuilt. ** The Brooklyn town of
New Lots secedes from the town of Flatbush. ** The city buys close
to 60 acres on Ward's Island from A. R. Lawrence and 16 acres
from other owners, at about $1500 an acre, thus now owning all
of the land not belonging to the State. ** Ophthalmologist Cornelius
Agnew earns his medical degree, becomes an intern at New York
Hospital. ** London-born actor-manager James William Wallack settles
in the city. ** Brooklyn Eagle publisher Samuel G. Arnold
is fired, for supporting Henry Beecher Stowe's call for sending
rifles to Kansas, and is replaced by reporter Henry McCloskey.
State
The Erie Railroad builds a branch from Hornellsville to Buffalo.
** Seneca County surrogate judge J. K. Richardson retires. **
The Industrial Home Association founds the village of Mount Vernon.
** Brockport's Johnston Harvester works is destroyed by fire.
The operation is moved to Batavia. ** Angelica's Allegany Co.
Advocate merges with the Cuba Whig to become the Advocate and
Whig. ** The Le Roy Female Seminary becomes Ingham Collegiate
Institute (later Ingham University). ** Commodore Perry sails
his flagship the USS Mississippi to Japan. Among the crew are
state residents Jonathan Goble, marine, and Francis C. Pollay,
ship's carpenter. ** Geneva College is renamed Hobart Free College,
to honor its founder, the late Episcopal bishop John Henry Hobart.
** Buffalo congressman Elbridge G. Spaulding and designer John
Harley Selkirk rebuilds Spaulding's 1845 Exchange Building after
it's partially destroyed by fire. ** The Liberty Party considers
running abolitionist Gerrit Smith for President but he declines.
** The segment of Bristol annexed to Richmond in 1848 is restored
to Bristol. ** Yonkers mechanic Elisha G. Otis invents the safety
elevator. ** The New York and Harlem Railroad reaches Chatham
Four Corners in Columbia County. ** The Buffalo, Corning &
New York Railroad (later the Erie) reaches Wayland. ** The Monroe
County town of Union is formed from Clarkson. ** The third floor
addition to Hartford House, the Geneseo home of James S. Wadsworth,
is finished. ** Erastus Corning's Albany Iron Works is destroyed
by fire for the second time in three years. ** Mrs. Michael Anguish
of Tonawanda and her daughter die of cholera and are buried in
the Niagara River Burying Grounds. ** Efforts are renewed to move
the Lewis County seat from Martinsburgh to Lowville.
Albany
Susan B. Anthony is silenced when she attempts to speak at a temperance
rally. ** Erastus Corning's Albany Iron Works is destroyed by
fire for the second time in three years.
Canandaigua
Dungan Street, built by Thomas Howell and named for Dr. Samuel
Dungan, an early physician, is opened. ** St, Mary's Catholic
Church is enlarged.
Penn Yan
Captain William Henry Stewart dies, at the age of 72. ** Doctor
Andrew Oliver has a house built at 200 Main Street.
Rochester
A weighlock is built on the Erie Canal. ** Henry Bartholomay starts
a brewery. ** The Rochester Water Company is chartered, following
a cholera epidemic. ** The city has 14 boatyards. ** Susan B.
Anthony has a daguerreotype portrait made. ** Photographer Charles
C. Zoller is born. ** Rochester minister the Reverend John C.
Bywater publishes a pamphlet, "The Mystery Solved",
in which he attributes the abilities of spiritual mediums to electricity.
Tasmania, South Pacific
Irish political prisoner Thomas Francis Meagher escapes aboard
an American vessel, sails to New York City.
© 2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte