January
The Herkimer Telescope, now owned by David Holt and J.
B. Robbins, ceases publication.
Mar 3
Congress declares Buffalo an official port of entry.
Mar 4
Thomas Jefferson begins his second term as President. New York
State governor George Clinton becomes vice-president. The Cabinet
consists of James Madison, State; Albert Gallatin, Treasury; Henry
Dearborn, War; Jacob Crowninshield, Navy; Gideon Granger, Postmaster
General, and Robert Smith, Attorney General.
Mar 28
Jefferson County, named for President Jefferson, is formed from
Oneida County, with Watertown as its county seat. Lewis County,
named for governor Morgan Lewis, is also formed from Oneida. The
Saratoga County Town of Malta annexes part of Saratoga.
Jul 8
Speaker of the Massachusetts legislature Timothy Bigelow, accompanied
by four friends, sets out from Boston to visit Niagara Falls.
Jul 23
The Bigelow party arrives at Niagara, visit the falls.
Sep 13
Harriet Wadsworth is born to James and Naomi Walcott Wadsworth
in Geneseo, their first child.
City
Frederic Tudor of Boston ships a cargo of ice from New York City
to Martinique. ** 13-year-old John Howard Payne, publishes a theatrical
review, The Thespian. ** John Lovett opens the City Hotel,
on Broadway. ** The city's tax valuation is $25,645,867 and tax
revenues are $127,094.87. ** Mozart librettist Lorenzo da Ponte
arrives from Europe to settle. ** Aaron Burr sells half of Greenwich
Village north of the city to John Jacob Astor, for $75,000. **
27,000 inhabitants of lower Manhattan leave the city to escape
yellow fever. 300 people die during the epidemic. ** The Tammany
Society's request to the state legislature for recognition as
a benevolent and charitable institution is granted
State
Lawyer George Washington Strong enters the New York State bar.
** The approximate date the town of West Pulteney (Riga) is settled.
** Kingston is incorporated as a village. ** Scottish highlanders
begin moving into the Phelps and Gorham Tract. ** The Caledonia
Presbyterian Kirk is founded. ** A customs agent is appointed
at Charlotte, on Lake Ontario. ** Joseph Ellicott lays out the
Big Tree Road, from Batavia to Leicester. The village of Pavilion
is settled, where the road from Warsaw to Le Roy crosses. ** Charles
Carroll, William Fitzhugh and Nathaniel Rochester buy Ebenezer
Allan's One Hundred Acre Tract - the nucleus of the future Rochester.
** Josiah Kellogg builds a clothing mill on Irondequoit Creek
in Penfield. ** Vermonters Josiah Jackman and Gideon and John
Walker return to the Canadice Lake area with their families to
settle on the farms they prepared in the autumn. ** Holt and Robbins'
Herkimer Farmer's Monitor begins publication in the offices
recently vacated by their Telescope. ** Construction begins
on Onondaga County's first courthouse, on Syracuse's Onondaga
Hill. ** The turnpike from Albany to Canandaigua is completed.
** State militia forces total 77,982. ** Oliver Loud moves from
Weymouth, Massachusetts, to western New York, where he will become
a tavern keeper. ** The approximate date Stephen and Clarissa
Prentiss build the first frame house in Prattsburg. ** Horatio
Gates Spafford invents an improved fireplace. He also publishes
a pamphlet on the properties of iron. ** Connecticut native Erastus
Granger begins buying land in the Buffalo area. ** Connecticut
native Bliss Corning arrives in the Troy, New York, area along
with son Erastus and the rest of his family. ** The Genesee River
floods. ** Charles Wilbur starts a settlement at Cold Spring,
near the future site of Lockport. ** Jonas Cleland builds a house
between Liberty (later Cohocton) and Avoca. He's soon joined in
the area by Job Biggs, Frederick Blood, Joseph Chamberlin, Harvey
Johnson, Albertus Larrowe, Alonzo Parks, Joseph Shattuck, Alvin
Talbot, James Woodard, and the Deusenbery family. ** President
Jefferson establishes the Port of the Genesee, at the river's
Lake Ontario mouth. ** An especially cold winter begins upstate.
** Settlers begin arriving in the future Town of Tonawanda area.
Steuben County
The board of supervisors makes their first vote by ballot, to
designate official political newspapers. The parties will do so
later. ** The board agrees to allow the local Masonic lodge to
use the second floor of the court house if they will make any
necessary repairs. ** Connecticut pioneer Samuel B. Rice settles
the town of Troupsburgh.
Philadelphia
Lawyer and former Army captain Philip Church marries Anna Stewart.
Bishop White officiates. The couple will soon leave for New York's
southern tier.
Feb 6
The trustees of the estate of Manhattan landowner Captain Robert
Richard Randall, (property north of Greenwich Lane meant for the
Sailors' Snug Harbor home) are incorporated.
Feb 17
The Schuyler County town of Reading is formed from Frederickstown
(later Wayne, Steuben County). ** The Jefferson County town
of Henderson is formed from Ellisburgh.
Feb 22
The Hudson River thaws.
Feb 28
The Oswego County town of Hannnibal is taken off the Onondaga
County town of Lysander.
Mar 21
Madison County is created out of Chenango County, and named for
President James Madison. ** The Chenango County town of
German is formed from the Madison County town of De Ruyter.
** The Onondaga County town of Otisco is formed from Marcellus,
Pompey and Tully. ** The Oswego County town of Fredericksburgh
(later Volney) is formed from Oneida County's Mexico. **
The Rensselaer County town of Berlin is formed from Petersburgh,
Schodack and Stephentown.
Mar 28
Broome County is formed from Tioga County.
Apr 1
The New York City silversmithing firm of Sadd and Morgan announce
they will be dissolving. Elijah Morgan, Jr. will go into partnership
with Harry Cook.
Apr 4
The Eagle Insurance Company is incorporated in New York, the city's
first fire insurance company organized as a stock company.
** New York passes legislation for forming County Medical Societies,
to grant licenses and collect annual fees not exceeding $3.
** Geneva is incorporated as a village.
Apr 6
The township of Boyle is founded, to the south and east of the
future Rochester.
Apr 7
Allegany County is established out of Genesee County.
Apr 8
William Kirkpatrick is appointed Superintendent of Onondaga Salt
Springs.
May 19
The Free School Society opens the first Lancastrian school, in
New York City.
Nov 2
New Jersey appoints a commission consisting of Lewis Condict,
Alexander C. McWhorter, Aaron Ogden, James Parker and William
S. Pennington, to settle the state's border with New York. The
dispute will remain unsettled at this time.
December
Over 500 ships dock in New York City harbor this month.
Dec 13
Robert Fulton arrives in New York City, returning from England
on the Windsor Castle. .
City
Final work is completed on the State Street home of James Watson.
** Evening Post editor William Coleman, impressed
with the talent of teenage writer-dramatist John Howard Payne,
takes the young man under his wing. Payne's drama Julia, or
the Wanderer, is produced. ** Land agent Philip Church's
wife Anna, arrived for the purpose from the upstate Angelica frontier,
gives birth to their first child, Angelica, on their first wedding
anniversary. ** John Jacob Astor has invested $300,000 in
Manhattan real estate since 1803. He begins recording lease amounts
paid to him for the first time - $10,000 this year, as opposed
to $180,000 for outright sales. Still he decides, correctly, that
leasing might be the most profitable option in the long run.
** Jasper and Bartholomew Ward buy Great Barcut (Great Barn)
Island, in the East River, from Thomas Delavel. ** Construction
begins on a five-point defensive works on Bedloe's Island (later
Fort Wood). ** The city balks at paying a Manhattan (Water)
Company bill. After arbitration they agree to pay $1,244. **
The Manhattan Company hires John Fellows as its third superintendent.
** Tammany sachem and city comptroller Benjamin Romaine
is removed from office for acquiring free land in the middle of
the city. ** Public water pumps are required to be moved
out of city streets onto sidewalks. ** Valentine Mott receives
his M.D. degree from Columbia College.
State
Businessman William Kempshall settles ten miles east of Rochester.
** Samuel Church builds a sawmill beside Black Creek, west
of Rochester. The settlement growing up here will be named Churchville.
** Lake Ontario shipments from the Genesee River total $30,000.
** Stephen Thoon begins a survey for the State of New York.
** John A. Stevens begins publishing the Ontario Messenger.
James Bogart begins the Geneva Gazette. ** Jurist J.
K. Richardson is born. ** A flour mill (the future Phoenix
Mill) is built at the High Falls of the Genesee River. **
Pennsylvania-born pioneer Nicholas Hetchler builds a log cabin
near Scottsville. ** Construction begins on Albany's first
Capitol building. Mayor Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer lays the
cornerstone. ** The Onondaga Salt Springs produces 154,760
bushels of salt. ** Future governor Myron Clark is born
to Major Joseph and Mary Sutton Clark in Naples, New York.
** A turnpike is built on Long Island, reaching from Jamaica
to Rockaway. ** James Wadsworth opens an inn in Hartford
(Avon) at the intersection of present-day West Main and Genesee
streets. He also settles the Genesee County town of Alabama. A
harsh winter leaves the brother broke and unable to make payment
on their debts. ** Philip Church's parents travel by wagon
to Angelica for the summer to see their new granddaughter, bringing
maids, a formal dinner service and a French chef. They start construction
of a summer home in Angelica. ** The Onondaga County courthouse
is completed. ** Part of the mortgage taken out with U.
S. Indian agent Israel Chapin by land speculator Oliver Phelps
in 1796, as security for the regular payment of the land rentals
due the Seneca Indians, is released in return for $1000 paid to
Chapin's successor. ** Robert Miles builds a large log canoe
on Chautauqua Lake, starts a freighting business. ** Pittsford's
log schoolhouse is replaced by a one-room frame building. **
Settler Jacob Teeples opens a tavern in Steuben County's Town
of Barrington, becoming the town's first citizen. ** The
Skaneateles First Presbyterian Church congregation hires a Utica
architect to draw up plans for a church building. ** Guildford,
Connecticut, resident Deacon Horace Fowler joins the earlier settlers
at Cohocton. ** William Bingham land agent Joshua Whitney
builds a $4,000 mansion on the banks of the Brandywine Creek near
Court and Robinson streets in Binghamton. ** Assemblyman
Archibald McIntyre is named state comptroller. ** The approximate
date Methodist circuit preachers begin covering the Lyons area
and surrounding Yates County.
Batavia
Ebenezer Cary is appointed postmaster at Batavia, serves until
1815, when his brother Trumbull is appointed.
Steuben County
Daniel Cruger becomes the first non-supervisor appointed to the
board of supervisors. ** $20 is spent on a ledger for the
clerk of the board. Joseph Rathbone is paid $7 to transcribe the
first minutes. ** Bound books are purchased, costing from
$6 to $8.50, for town clerk records. ** Citizens of the
town of Canisteo successfully petition the county to have a private
road laid out. ** The first combined tax warrants are issued
to town collectors and signed off on by supervisors. **
A bell and lightning rods are bought for the courthouse in Bath.
Germany
New York newspaper publisher Jakob Uhl is born in Wurzburg, to
an army officer and his wife.
Jan 24
Washington Irving, his brother William and James Kirke Paulding,
writing under the pseudonyms of Launcelot Langstaff, Will Wizard
and Anthony Evergreen, begin publishing the serial Salmagundi.
Jan 27
The First Presbyterian Church of Marcellus is organized.
Feb 6
Rochester businessman Hiram Sibley is born in North Adams, Massachusetts.
** The Madison County town of Lebanon is formed from Hamilton.
Feb 20
The Onondaga County town of Cicero is formed from the town of
Lysander.
Feb 28
Warren County's Town of Rochester is formed from the Town of Bolton.
Mar 20
The Rensselaer County town of Lansingburgh, named for village
founder Abraham Jacob Lansing, is formed from Resselaerwyck (Troy)
and Petersburgh. Brunswick and parts of Grafton are also taken
off Resselaerwyck.
Mar 23
Rochester businessman-politician Amon Bronson is born in Scipio.
Apr 3
The Oneida County town of Orange (later Bengal, then Vienna) is
formed from the town of Camden.
Apr 13
The New York City Board of Commissioners authorizes engineer John
Randel to prepare a City Plan.
May
Robert Fulton's steamboat is ready for painting. ** Clark Crandall
of New York State's Rensselaer County settles near Alfred Center
in the future Allegany County, New York, Town of Alfred. ** The
removal of public water pumps from Manhattan's lower Broadway
to the sidewalks is begun.
May 2
The first city tour guide, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill's The Picture
of New York, is published.
May 30
New York acquires the deserted reminder of the Cayuga Nation reservation
for $4,800.
Jul 2
Allegany County courts begin sitting, at Angelica.
Jul 18
Fulton lectures to New York City officials on his torpedoes.
Jul 20
Fulton demonstrates his torpedoes in New York harbor, sinking
a target ship after three attempts.
August
Widowed Connecticut minister Moses Rathbun moves his family, including
son Benjamin, to New York State to join his brother, at Beardsley's
settlement in Otsego County. Benjamin will visit another uncle,
wholesaler John Rathbun, in New York City. Later in the year he
will be sent on business to a cousin in Oxford, New York. ** Secretary
of the Treasury Albert Gallatin notes that anti-British feelings
among New York City businessmen seems to be declining. ** A broke
James Wadsworth scrapes together enough money this month and next
to pay $200 to a creditor.
Aug 9
Fulton tests his new steamboat in Manhattan's East River. It makes
a successful one-mile run.
Aug 16
Fulton makes a steamboat run around the southern tip of Manhattan.
Aug 17
Fulton's steamship, the Clermont, begins the first steam voyage,
from New York to Albany, averaging 5 mph. He reaches Haverstraw
Bay by nightfall.
Aug 18
Fulton reaches Livingston's home, Clermont, at 1 PM. His average
speed is 4 1/2 miles an hour.
Aug 19
Fulton steams north out of Clermont, reaches Albany in slightly
over 8 hours.The entire sailing time is 28 hours and 45 minutes.
Aug 20
Fulton begins the return trip, with French botanist Francois Andre
Michaux on board.
Aug 21
Fulton completes his first round trip to Albany, arriving in New
York.
September
The sloop Fox rams Fulton's boat, trying to disable it.
Sep 2
The Albany Gazette advertises that the Clermont
will leave New York City for Albany the day after tomorrow.
Sep 3
Fulton registers his vessel as the North River Steam Boat.
Sep 4
Fulton begins regular steamboat service to Albany, as the boat
departs New York at 9 AM. Cost of a ticket - $7.
Sep 5
The Clermont arrives in Albany at 9 PM.
Sep 14
John Jacob Astor's daughter Magdalen marries former St. Croix
governor Adrian Bentzon, a Dane. The couple will live at Richmond
Hill, which Astor once leased to former governor and current U.
S. vice-president George Clinton.
October
Fulton leaves New York for Washington. ** The Clermont
now carries sixty passengers and makes the round-trip, New York-to-Albany
run, in 28 hours.
Oct 3
Surveyor William Peacock marries Alice Evans, daughter of Joseph
and Ann Ellicott Evans.
Oct 30
English-born trader Theophylact Bache dies in New York City, at
the age of 72. He will be buried at Trinity Church. ** Future
general James Samuel Wadsworth is born in Geneseo to James and
Naomi Wolcott Wadsworth.
November
Washington Irving publishes "The Renowned and Ancient City
of Gotham" in his Salmagundi; tells of the attack
by the Hoppingtots.
December
Fulton tries again to interest Jefferson and the Secretary of
the Navy in using his torpedoes on the British. He leaves for
New York.
Dec 16
Panama Railroad financier William Henry Aspinwall is born in New
York City.
City
John McComb Jr.'s Castle Clinton is built, as a fortification,
on the lower tip of Manhattan. ** 300 people are imprisoned for
debt this year. ** Marinus Willett is appointed to replace De
Witt Clinton as mayor, for a one-year term. ** The city is granted
a northward extension of its underwater land rights along the
Hudson and East rivers, 400 feet out from shore. ** Black Shakespearean
actor Ira F. Aldridge is born. ** Plans for an underwater tunnel
are drawn up, but the technology is nowhere near ready. ** The
Manhattan Company introduces wooden fire hydrants, enabling itself
to charge for water used in fighting fires. ** The city has used
$40,000 worth of dirt to fill in the Collect Pond. ** Tammany
politicians Philip Arcularius, almshouse superintendent, and public
repairs superintendent Cornelius Warner are let go for financial
irregularities. ** Canadian John Lambert visits the city.
State
The first printing press in Genesee County. Elias Williams starts
The Intelligencer, the first newspaper in the county. ** Jesse
Hawley, imprisoned for debt in Canandaigua, writes thirteen essays
under the name Hercules, proposing a canal across New York State.
** The keel of the Lake Champlain steamboat Vermont is laid. **
Samuel Gates pioneers Perry. ** Construction begins on the Cayuga
County courthouse at Auburn. ** Charles Harford builds a grist
mill at the high falls of the Genesee at Frankfort (later Rochester).
** Daniel D. Tompkins is elected governor, serves to 1817. **
The approximate date the Starr Tavern at Williamsburgh burns down.
Richardson's Tavern is built diagonally across the square. It
burns down sometime in the 1860s. ** 67 turnpike companies have
been chartered to build 3,000 miles of road through the state.
** Lansingburgh's Farmer's Register moves to Troy. ** A courthouse/jail
is built in Watertown. ** The approximate date Joseph Thompson
of Peru, Massachusetts, builds a story-and-a-half trading post
on the road to Braddock's Bay in Monroe County. His Massachusetts
partner David Tuttle sends supplies and trade goods to Thompson.
** Holt and Robbins' Herkimer Farmer's Monitor ceases publication.
** The approximate date Benjamin Corey begins publishing the Herkimer
Pelican. ** Christian Schultz travels up the Mohawk, later writes
about it. ** Construction is begun on Philip Church's Angelica
home Belvidere. Church is elected first judge of Allegany's County
Court of Common Pleas. ** The approximate date Joseph Teall, Reuben
Streeter, A. Simmons, O. Malterner, A. Keeney, Jr., S. Bonfy,
S. Waters and J. Stearns settle the St. Lawrence County, New York,
village of Rossie. ** Schenectady County's The Western Spectator
ceases publication. ** The Cayuga sell their lands and move west
to join the Ohio Mingo (Seneca of Sandusky). ** 13-year-old Erastus
Corning leaves his family farm in Chatham to work in the Heartt
& Smith Hardware store co-owned by his uncle Benjamin Smith,
in Troy. ** Construction begins on a school at Swan and Pearl
streets in Buffalo, the village's first. ** Vernon, Vermont, native
Martha Howe arrives in Prattsburgh with her widowed mother, to
settle. ** Ballston Spa is incorporated. ** The Baroness Hyde
de Neuville sketches the village of Geneva.
Albany
The State House is completed, at a cost exceeding the original
$120,000 estimate. ** A ferry sinks in the harbor. Thirty passengers
drown.
Steuben County
The board of supervisors forms its first standing committee, to
examine the county treasurer's accounts. ** The county grants
$2,000.02 for towns to pay for bridges, including those at Canisteo
and Dansville. ** A bounty of $5 each is offered on wolves and
panthers.
London, England
Glen Cove, New York, doctor Valentine Mott studies under Sir Astley
Cooper. He will also begin studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Science
Visiting German botanist Frederick Pursh travels through Pennsylvania
and New York, collecting plant samples as a context for the samples
sent back east by Lewis and Clark. He draws a map of the regions
he covered.
January
Mobs of sailors demonstrate in New York's City Hall Park, demand
food and work.
Jan 5
Fulton leaves New York City to go upstate.
Jan 7
Fulton marries Harriet Livingston, in Teviotdale.
Jan 26
The New York Evening Post, a Federalist newspaper, criticizes
the condition of the Manhattan Company's water supply infrastructure.
February
James Wadsworth just manages to pay $750 to a creditor.
Feb 14
The Steuben County town of Troupsburgh, named for Pulteney land
agent Robert Troup, is formed from Middletown (later Addison)
and Canisteo.
March
New York City mayor De Witt Clinton obtains a charter extension
for the Manhattan Company, of which he is a director. The Company,
which supplies the city's water, is given another ten years in
which to provide sufficient service. In the case of a municipal
takeover, the firm's banking functions will be able to continue
a further thirty years. ** Saratoga County physician Dr. Billy
J. Clark reads Dr. Benjamin Rush's "An Inquiry Into the Effect
of Spirituous Liquors on the Human Body and Mind".
Mar 11
Part of Steuben County is annexed to Allegany County. The Allegany
county seat is permanently moved to Angelica and construction
of a courthouse and a jail are mandated. The town of Alfred is
formed from Angelica. ** Cattaraugus County is formed. Asa Ransom,
Jonas Williams and Isaac Sutherland are chose to select a county
seat. They will chose Ellicottville, as yet just a wilderness.
** Franklin County, named for Benjamin Franklin, is created from
part of Clinton County. ** Niagara County is formed from Genesee
County. ** The Livingston County town of Ossian is formed from
the Allegany County town of Angelica. ** The Erie County town
of Clarence, including the future Buffalo, is established; the
county's first.
Mar 19
The Essex County town of Keene is formed from Elizabethtown and
Jay.
Mar 20
Martin Van Buren is appointed surrogate of Columbia County.
Apr 6
The state legislature renames 33 towns having duplicate names.
The town of Fairfield, in Warren County, is changed to Lake Luzerne.
Ontario County's Town of Pittstown has its name changed to Honeoye
(it will finally be named Richmond). Yates County's Augusta changes
its name to Middlesex. Cayuga County's Milton is renamed Genoa.
** The legislature approves the incorporation of John Jacob Astor's
American Fur Company.
Apr 8
Cortland County, named after the first state Lieutenant Governor
Pierre Van Cortlandt, is formed from Onondaga County. The town
of Preble, named for Commodore Edward Preble, is formed from Tully.
Apr 11
The village of Colonie becomes a town.
Apr 13
New York native John Lambert notes in his diary that financial
disaster is facing the city because of the embargo, with 120 businesses
failing, at a loss of $5,000,000, while 500 vessels rot at wharves,
and thousands of sailors and merchants' staff are out of work,
all for "extremely doubtful" benefits. ** Tammany Society
member parade to the East River from Martling's Tavern and take
boats to Brooklyn, where they hold a burial ceremony for the bones
of 11,500 victims of the British prison ships in Wallabout Bay
during the Revolution. The state legislature will give $1,000
for a monument to be erected on the spot. It's never built.
Apr 30
Dr. Clark forms the Union Temperance Society of Moreau and Northumberland.
Jun 13
New York's State Surveyor Simeon DeWitt writes to Holland Land
Company's Batavia agent Joseph Ellicott, seeking his thoughts
on a canal route across the state.
July
New York's U. S. Senator Samuel Latham Mitchell writes to Jefferson
requesting permission for supposed Chinese national Punqua Wingchong
to slip through the embargo in order to return to Asia aboard
John Jacob Astor's ship Beaver. Local merchants rightfully
suspect a ruse, in order for Astor to ship goods to China. He
ships $200,000 worth of furs.
Jul 14
The first church in Warsaw is founded by the Congregationalists.
Jul 30
Ellicott replies to DeWitt. While strongly advocating a canal,
he does not advise following the Niagara escarpment east to Mud
Creek because of the number of ravines that would be encountered.
He also advises against a combination of a canal along the Niagara
River and one from Oswego to the Mohawk, due to the rock in the
various regions. He advocates an east-west canal from Lake Erie
to Mud Creek, and offers to subscribe $2,500 to such a project.
August
The Federalists convene in New York City, nominate Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney for President, Rufus King for Vice-president.
Aug 17
The Beaver sails for China.
Aug 24
DeWitt writes to Ellicott thanking him for his insights and agreeing
on the suggested route, primarily because it would keep the canal
commerce within New York, instead of its being diverted to Canada.
Oct 20
Joseph Ellicott writes from Philadelphia to his nephew David E.
Evans in Batavia, reporting that land agent Paolo Busti has seen
their correspondence and has now changed his mind, expressing
an interest in investing in a cross-New York canal.
Nov 15
John Jacob Astor's ship Enterprise leaves New York City
to prepare Indians of the Vancouver area for trading in furs,
and to secretly assess the Russian presence in the west of Canada.
City
The American Academy of Fine Arts is incorporated. ** 1300 people
are imprisoned for debt this year, up from 300 the year before.
** Printer John Wiley is born. ** The approximate date Columbia
College professor Lorenzo Da Ponte begins writing short plays
in Italian to be presented by his students. ** De Witt Clinton
is inaugurated mayor for a second, consecutive term. ** Construction
begins on the Castle Williams fort, on Governor's Island. ** A
summer fire kills five and destroys a seed store owned by Grant
Thorburn, several other business and a school. Water for fighting
the fire is inadequate. ** The city has 238 public water pumps.
State
An inn is built at Riga, the town's first building. ** Pork, potash,
wheat, whiskey, etc. worth $100,000 is shipped from the Genesee
River. 15 schooners ply the Lake Ontario shore ports. ** Daniel
P. Tompkins, the "farmer's son", is elected governor
of New York State. ** Martin Van Buren moves to Hudson. ** Stagecoach
service is inaugurated between Batavia and Canandaigua. ** Michael
and Cynthia Loomis settle in a log cabin in Wyoming. They will
be the great grandparents of newspaperman and author Arch Merrill.
** Warsaw is incorporated as a township, with pioneer Elizur Webster
as supervisor. ** John K. Gould, editor of Ontario County's Western
Repository and Genesee Advertiser, dies. ** William L. Marcy graduates
from Brown University and soon begins practicing law in Troy.
** East Bloomfield blacksmith Peter Holloway builds a tavern.
** Daily mail service begins between Utica and Canandaigua. **
Former Land Agent Charles Williamson dies at sea. ** A portion
of the Jefferson County town of Rodman becomes part of Lewis County.
The founding of the town of Pinckney causes a few changes in the
boundary of Lewis County. ** The New York State Legislature introduces
a bill to fund a feasibility study for a New York State canal,
retains Judge James Geddes to make surveys of routes across the
state, to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. He completes his study and
reports the project can work, even with a 500 foot elevation from
west to east. ** The Black River association of Baptist churches,
with 32 churches and 2,958 parishioners, and the Madison County
association with 19 churches and 2,290 parishioners, are organized.
** Benjamin Rathbun opens a branch of his family's New York City
wholesale business in Oxford, New York. He will remain into next
year. His father Moses buys a farm in Monticello, New York. **
Poughkeepsie's second Dutchess County courthouse and jail is destroyed
by fire. ** Missionary Narcissa Prentiss (Whitman) is born in
Prattsburg. ** New Town is renamed Elmira. ** Jesse Hawley's treatise
"Observations on Canals" is published, predicting that
a canal across the state would greatly increase New York City's
trade and importance. ** Johnstown lawyer Daniel Cady is elected
to the state assembly and is made a village trustee. ** S. Southwick
takes over as editor of the Albany Register. ** Delegate
Abraham Yates, Jr.'s, notes on the U. S. constitutional convention
are published. ** The log Steuben County jail at Bath is replaced
with a stone structure. A dog pound is authorized, at a cost of
eighty-two dollars.
Avon
The name of the Livingston County village of Hartford is changed
to Avon. ** George Hosmer opens a law office.
Business
John Barker Church, English-born business ally of Aaron Burr,
dies.
Cooperstown
Quaker lawyer and former Philadelphia mayor Miers Fisher visits
his friend Judge William Cooper. ** Cooper begins publishing The
Impartial Observer , hires English born editor William Andrews
to run the enterprise. John H. Prentiss soon takes it over, changes
the name to The Cooperstown Federalist.
January
John Stevens visits Robert Livingston at Clermont. They build
an iceboat.
February
Stevens entertains Livingston in New York City.
Feb 20
Fulton leaves Washington for New York City.
Feb 24
Entomologist Asa Fitch is born in Salem, New York, to doctor and
judge Asa Fitch and Abigail Martin Fitch. The Fitches are descended
from the Brewsters of Plymouth.
March
Fulton's North River (Steamboat) goes back into Hudson River service.
** James Wadsworth publishes notices to lure settlers to the Genesee
Valley.
Mar 7
Schenectady County is formed from Albany County.
Mar 10
The ice goes out of the Hudson River for the year.
Mar 16
Fulton leases a house at 75 Chambers Street.
Mar 27
Sullivan County, named for Major John Sullivan, is taken off Ulster
County.
Mar 31
Former U. S. president Thomas Jefferson writes from Monticello
to Nathaniel Rochester, chairman of Maryland's Republican Citizens
of Washington County, thanking him for his retirement wishes.
Apr 5
Fulton completes the cabins on the Steamboat.
Apr 26
The Steamboat makes its first voyage up the Hudson.
May 8
The New York Bible and Common Prayer Book Society, a precursor
of the American Bible Society, is formed in New York City.
Jun 10
John Stevens takes his Phoenix out of New York City into
the open seas, headed for Philadelphia - the world's first oceangoing
steamboat.
Jun 14
Fulton and Livingston's Car of Neptune is launched, in
New York City.
Aug 13
Future Governor Hamilton Fish is born in New York City to naval
officer Nicholas Fish and his wife Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish.
Dec 1
Fulton, Livingston and Stevens agree to a compromise. Fulton and
Livingston get the steamboat monopoly on all New York State waters,
the run to New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers. Stevens gets Chesapeake Bay, the Connecticut, Delaware,
Santee and Savannah Rivers, and the run from Long Island Sound
to Providence, Rhode Island.
Dec 6
Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York
is published.
City
Teenaged journalist-playwright John Howard Payne makes his acting
debut, playing Young Norval in Douglas. ** Robert Fulton
is invited to join the American Philosophical Society. ** The
city commissions John Randall, Jr. to create a street map. He
will complete the map in 1821. ** John Jacob Astor's ship Beaver
returns from China, the first ship entering the harbor since last
year's embargo began. Possible profits - $200,000. ** The approximate
date Astor buys the brig Sylph, for the China trade. The
first cargo consists of $92,000 in specie, and pelts, cotton,
ginseng and cochineal dyes. ** The city's corporation accepts
Samuel Burling's offer to plant the main streets with poplar trees.
State
Engineer James Geddes surveys a possible route for a state canal.
It's eventually adopted. ** Solomon Chadwick settles on the shore
of Lake Erie, founding the community of Chadwick's Bay. It will
become Dunkirk. ** Schenectady County is formed from part of Albany
County. ** Early settler John Hooker arrives in Angelica from
Vermont. ** Architect Ephraim Russ begins practicing in the Rensselaerville
area. He builds the Stevens home. ** Transplanted Virginian Robert
Selden Rose builds a frame house outside of Geneva, names it Rose
Hill Farm. ** The Elba Iron Works is established, near Lake Placid.
** Folk artist Noah North is born in Alexander. ** Temperance
author Timothy Shay Arthur (Ten Nights in a Bar Room and What
I Saw There) is born in Newburgh. ** Albert Brisbane is born
to Batavia postmaster James Brisbane and his wife Mary. ** Silas
Newell arrives from the Hudson Valley and builds a house in the
Town of Wyoming. The place becomes known as Newell's Settlement
(later Wyoming). He plants apple and pear trees. ** Steamboat
service is inaugurated on Lake Champlain as the Vermont
goes into service. ** Hermitage, near Warsaw, is settled. ** The
Cayuga County courthouse at Auburn is completed. ** Philip Hooker's
new Capitol building at Albany is occupied by the state government
as well as the Mayor's office, City Council and Board of Supervisors.
** The first religious services are held in Canadice. ** A playhouse
in Canandaigua features an apparatus called the Invisible Lady
[if you have any idea what this is, send it on]. ** Allegany County
court judge Philip Church buys two male slaves, at $100 each.
** Sylvester Hosmer marries Laura Smith, daughter of Avon innkeeper
Major Isaac Smith. ** Lenox, Massachusetts, native Enos Stone
acquires a farm at the Falls of the Genesee River, part of the
future Rochester. ** Elijah Blodgett, James Sayres, and Moody
Truman settle in the Clarkson area of Monroe County. ** After
running his relatives' general store in Oxford, New York, for
a year-and-a-half young Benjamin Rathbun rejoins his family in
Monticello. ** Ballot boxes in front of Willard's Tavern in Schenectady
are found to have been tampered with, and Federal votes substituted
for Republican ones.
© 2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte