Jan 1
Rochester's Union Grays volunteer military company begins the
custom of making the rounds of New Year's holiday calls as a group,
visiting homes of public officials.
Jan 30
The "Young Men's" Ball (fathers are not permitted to
help with the cost) is held at New York's City Hotel.
Feb 23
An ordinance regulating cab fares in New York City is enacted
and approved. Rates for one passenger are 25¢ for the first
mile, with a charge of 12 1/2¢ for each additional mile.
The fare to Kingsbridge in the Bronx and back costs $3.50.
Mar 4
Abolitionist and Erie Canal supervising engineer Myron Holley
dies in Rochester at the age of 61.
Apr 5
The Lewis County town of Croghan is formed from Diana and Watson.
May 14
Wyoming County is created out of Genesee County. Warsaw becomes
the county seat, winning out over East Orangeville and Wethersfield
Springs.
Apr 10
Horace Greeley founds the New York Tribune .
June
Wyoming County holds its first court session.
Jun 30
The new steamer Lady of the Lake (with the Utica brass
band and close to 300 excursionists aboard) enters Sackets Harbor,
where the passengers are given a tour of Madison Barracks.
July
The Auburn & Rochester Railroad reaches Geneva, out of Rochester.
Jul 17
Hudson, New York, co-founder Ezekial Gilbert dies there at the
age of 85.
Jul 25
New York City cigar stand clerk Mary Cecilia Rogers disappears.
Jul 28
The body of the strangled Mary Rogers is found in the Hudson River.
The crime is never solved. Edgar Allan Poe, a customer of the
cigar stand, will base The Mystery of Marie Roget on the
case.
August
The Auburn & Rochester Railroad reaches Seneca Falls. ** Scottish
geologist Sir Charles Lyell visits the Rochester area.
Aug 9
The Lake Erie steamboat Erie leaves Buffalo, headed for
Chicago. It catches on fire off Silver Creek; 215 people are killed.
September
The Auburn & Rochester Railroad reaches Waterloo.
Sep 29
The first New York State Fair, presided over by Joel B. Nott,
opens in Syracuse, runs today and tomorrow. Admission is free.
October
The first Seneca County Agricultural Fair is held, alternates
among various county towns until permanently settling in Waterloo
in 1870. ** Secretary Nicoll of the New York Life and Trust begins
speculating in lottery tickets and stock.
Nov 1
Dansville, New York, holds a boisterous ceremonies to celebrate
the opening of the eleven-mile branch (Side-cut) of the Genesee
Valley Canal linking the village with Shaker Settlement (Sonyea).
Nov 4
The Auburn & Rochester Railroad reaches Auburn.
Nov 10
New York's Italian Opera House opens its second season, under
Porto and Sacchi.
December
Canandaigua merchants petition the Auburn & Rochester Railroad
for at least one freight train a week to pick up shipments, challenging
the monopoly of canal interests.
City
A fire in Astoria, Queens, destroys the roofs of four buildings.
** The brig John Gilpin runs aground in the harbor during
a storm. ** Democrat Robert H. Morris is elected mayor for each
of the next three one-year terms. ** P. T. Barnum buys the American
Museum on Astor Place. ** Due to the influence of the Erie Canal
the city's exports are now three times greater than Boston's.
In the period since the canal's completion, personal property
increased fourfold, manufacturing threefold, and the number of
businessmen fourfold. ** The Atlantic Dock Company begins building
a basin in Brooklyn. ** The city Board of Education is founded.
Catholic parochial schools lose state aid, only one year after
obtaining it. ** Fort Wood on Bedloe's Island is completed, replacing
defensive works built between 1806 and 1811.
Brooklyn
Isaac van Anden founds the Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County
Democrat, a morning newspaper. ** The U. S. Navy plans a dry
dock to be built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. ** The Atlantic Dock
Company begins building a basin in Brooklyn. ** The John Street
Methodist Church is completed.
State
Brockport Collegiate Institute opens. ** Samuel C. Wilson's Angelica
Reporter newspaper is bought by Horace E. Purdy and
Charles Horton. ** Macedon's Erie Canal Lock 60 is built. ** The
Long Island Railroad (LIRR), having resumed work early in the
year after a hiatus due to the 1837 financial panic, has tracks
extended to Farmingdale by the end of the year, as well as laid
west from Greenport. ** Wayne County peppermint farmer Peter Hill
moves his private grocery building of the way of the Erie Canal
enlargement. ** Former U. S. President Martin Van Buren buys a
1797 Federal-style home in Kinderhook (his birthplace), names
it Lindenwald. ** Concrete work is completed on Erie Canal Enlarged
Lock 18 at Cohoes. ** Responsibility for the promotion of agriculture
in New York State passes from the Board of Agriculture to State
and County Agricultural Societies. Albany County will spend $205
on promotion this year. ** Franklin's Literary Institute opens.
** The Steuben County Agricultural Society sponsors a fair in
Bath, at the end of Ark Street, for the next three years. ** William
Gallup begins publishing the anti-rent Heldersberg Advocate,
under the slogan "Banish Patroons". ** The Albany Rural
Cemetery is begun. ** Construction begins on the Genesee County
Court House at Batavia. ** Former Albany mayor Erastus Corning
is elected a state senator. ** Artist Fritz G. Vogt is born in
Germany. ** The Reverend John Todd travels through the Adirondacks.
Erie Canal
The Schoharie Creek Aqueduct is completed. ** Surveying begins
for an enlargement east of Nine Mile Creek.
Geneseo
Craig Wharton Wadsworth is born to James Samuel and Mary Craig
Wharton Wadsworth. ** William L. Stone, editor of New York City's
Commercial Advertiser profiles James S. Wadsworth and his
mansion.
Rochester
The Smith-Perkins and Pitkin-Powers mansions are completed. **
English-born Toronto carpenter William Williams moves to town.
** Seventeen-year-old Clarissa Reynolds, daughter of businessman
Abelard Reynolds, goes off to enroll at the Utica Female Academy.
The homesick girl writes many letters to family and friends in
Rochester during her year there. ** The city tax collector advertises
a half-column list of real estate lots to be sold for arrears.
Prices range up to $126.90 a lot. ** Many townspeople are upset
when the enlargement of the Erie Canal necessitates twenty to
fifty men laboring on Sundays. ** The Second Baptist Church (the
Baptist Temple) admits blacks into the man section of the church,
creating controversy.
( Updated 12 / 4 / 2004 )
January
Jordan resident Erastus Baker, Jr. submits a claim to Erie Canal
appraisers for land lost containing a tavern and a grocery. Even
though the buildings are declared to be of flimsy construction,
Baker is allowed close to $4,000.
Jan 11
Philosopher-psychologist William James is born in New York City
at the Astor House hotel, to Henry (who writes on philosophy and
religion) and Mary Robertson Walsh James.
Jan 18
Patent medicine manufacturer Hulbert Harrington (H. H.) Warner
is born in Van Buren.
Feb 14
2500 New Yorkers attend a ball at the Park Theatre given in honor
of visiting novelist Charles Dickens.
Feb 15
A private New York City mail delivery company issues the first
adhesive postage stamp in the U. S.
Feb 24
Editor-novelist-playwright John Habberton is born in Brooklyn.
March
Henry James (father of William, and later of author Henry) makes
the acquaintance of Ralph Waldo Emerson, beginning a long friendship.
Mar 15
The Madison County town of Chittenango is incorporated.
Mar 30
The Sullivan County town of Callicoon (from the Dutch and the
Indian for 'turkey') is formed from Liberty.
Apr 11
Part of the Steuben County town of Hornby is taken off and annexed
to the Schuyler County town of Orange. ** New York grants
Genesee County $92 annually, and Wyoming County $87, for the promotion
of agriculture.
Apr 12
The Ulster County town of Esopus annexes part of the Town of New
Paltz.
Apr 20
Water is let into Lock 18 of the Enlarged Erie Canal at Cohoes,
which follows a new route. The old route will be sold to the Cohoes
Company as a power canal.
Apr 21
Lock 18 is opened to general traffic.
May 10
Botanist-geologist Amos Eaton, co-founder of Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, dies in Troy, a week short of his 66th birthday.
May 22
Rochester mayor Cornelius R. Parsons is born in York.
Jun 29
The Lake Ontario steamer Lady of the Lake departs from
Oswego on a overnight excursion to Kingston, Ontario.
Jun 30
The Lady of the Lake returns from Kingston in record time.
Jun 31
The Lady of the Lake visits Sackets Harbor, carrying owners
Monson and Faxton, the Utica Brass Band, and close to 300 passengers,
who disembark and tour the village.
Jul 4
The Croton Aqueduct System is completed. Croton water first reaches
New York; the city is no longer dependent on well water.
Jul 11
Poet Henry Abbey is born to Stephen and Caroline Vail Abbey, in
Rondout (Kingston), where he will live most of his life.
Aug 9
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settles British-U. S. boundary disputes
over Maine, Minnesota and New York. The 1774 Canada-New York boundary
is restored and Albert Smith (U. S.) and J. B. B. Estcourt (Britain)
are assigned to a new survey.
Sep 21
Soldier-politician John Baptiste Weber is born on Oak Street in
Buffalo.
November
Election riots break out in New York City's Five Points neighborhood.
Nov 2
A public meeting is held at Cuba, New York, to discuss the state's
Stop and Tax Law.
Nov 1
Tammany politician Mike Walsh uses physical intimidation to get
on the ballot for the New York legislature during a nominating
session in New York City .
Nov 14
The New York City coroner rules the death of Westchester County
Irish immigrant Robert Davis, found with his throat slit, a suicide.
Nov 18
A fire breaks out at New York City's Tombs Prison. The body of
condemned murderer John C. Colt, brother of inventor Samuel Colt,
is found with a knife in his heart. Rumors persist that the "suicide"
was faked and that Colt had escaped.
Dec 7
The New York Philharmonic gives its first concert.
Dec 17
The New York coroner rules the death of 50-year-old Elizabeth
Becket as due to typhus fever.
City
Isaiah Roger's Merchants' Exchange is erected on the Wall Street
site of the First Merchants' Exchange, destroyed in the 1834 fire.
The New York Stock and Exchange Board moves here from its Jauncey
Court location. ** The price of a seat on the New York Stock
Exchange rises from $150 to $350. ** Town, Davis and Frazee's
Customs House is erected on the site of the old City Hall, on
Wall Street. ** Phineas Taylor Barnum opens the American
Museum, features midget Charles S. Stratton (Tom Thumb). **
Sweets Restaurant opens in lower Manhattan. ** A stove
fire destroys the building at 231 Water Street. ** Charles
Dickens tours the U. S., visits the city. ** The New York
Democrat begins publication. ** 92,000 Irish arrive
in the U. S. ** Editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold becomes editor
of "Graham's Monthly", moves to Philadelphia. **
Dry goods merchant Aaron Arnold takes on James M. Constable
a partner.
State
The first U. S. grain elevator is built at Buffalo by Joseph Dart,
utilizing his Evans Elevator. ** Henry Wells organizes Wells
and Company, a freight express outfit. ** The steamboat
Lady of the Lake is launched. ** Reports of the state
geological survey are published: the Second District (Adirondacks
counties) by Dr. Ebenezer Emmons, Ebenezer Emmons, Jr. and James
Hall; and the Third District (central New York counties) by Lardner
Van Uxem, James Eights and S. Can. ** Dr. Lewis C. Beck,
William Horton and L. D. Gale issue the report of the New York
State Mineralogical Department. ** Dr. James E. DeKay and
John W. Hill begin publishing the report of the Zoological Department.
It will come out in five volumes over the next year. **
Erastus S. Palmer begins publishing Angelica's Allegany Co.
Advocate. ** The New Style Presbyterian Synod of Genesee
begins stewardship over the Le Roy Female Seminary (later Ingham
University). ** Rensselaerville's Presbyterian Church is
built. ** Stephen Olmsted opens a plaster plant in Oakfield.
** The state runs out of money as a result of the 1837 Panic.
A Stop and Tax Law halts all canal construction for the next five
years. ** Agents of the Society of True Inspiration arrive
from Europe to locate a new home. They settle in Erie County and
form several towns, including Ebenezer. They will later move on
to Iowa and found the Amana communities. ** Commercial traffic
begins on the Dansville branch of the Genesee Valley Canal.
** The Catskill & Canajoharie Rail Road is abandoned.
Its track is sold for $11,000. ** 17-year-old Fultonville
native John Starin moves to Albany to study medicine. **
Church leaders in the western part of the state deliberate on
methods for keeping Sundays strictly religious. ** A cobblestone
house is built near Victor. It will later become a home to quiltmaker
Sarah Hall Bonesteele. ** Authorization is granted to construct
a waste weir at the north end of the Tonawanda dam, despite the
1842 Stop and Tax Act. ** Unsold state land in Cattaraugus
County reverts to the Holland Land Company. ** Construction
begins on Fort Porter where the Niagara River emerges from Lake
Erie. ** Batavia's Genesee County Court House at Main and
State Streets is completed. Total cost: $17,000. ** Congressman
Fernando Wood fails in his re-election bid. ** The state
can now be crossed by rail.
Albany
A new State Hall, built to hold various government offices, including
those of canal commissioners, is completed at an approximate cost
of $350,000. The old State Hall is converted to a geological hall.
** The Meneely bell is cast for the main Dwelling House
of the Shaker Community at Watervliet.
Erie Canal
The Jordan Level, between Montezuma and Camillus, is almost completed.
Work halts because of the Stop and Tax Law.
Rochester
The construction of the new Erie Canal aqueduct over the Genesee
River, under the supervision of Josiah W. Bissell, is completed.
** The O'Rorke family arrives from Ireland, settles in the
Irish "Dublin" section. ** Miller Charles J. Hill
is elected mayor on the Democratic ticket. ** Another religious
revival lead by Charles Grandison Finney finds many city lawyers
seeking salvation. ** The First Presbyterian Church severely
disciplines a member for hauling wood on Sunday. ** Temperance
forces prevent a reduction in the price of liquor licenses.
** Asbury Church is erected at Main and Clinton. **
The Unitarian Church is built on North Fitzhugh Street. **
William B. Morse, 18, begins work in the lumber business.
Syracuse
The city raises its water rates. Captain Oliver Teall finally
agrees to accept a 35-year franchise top provide the city's water,
starts Syracuse City Waterworks Company. ** The Slocum
family buys the Gridley House. ** Militia brigadier general
Orrin Hutchinson of Onondaga Hill dies. His family home on the
West Seneca Turnpike is acquired by Ezra Downer. ** Former
politician and state salt superintendent Nehemiah Hezekiah Earll
moves into a house at 211 Court Street.
Jan 2
Secretary Nicoll is discovered to have lost $2500,000 of the New
York Life and Trust Company's funds in speculations. He resigns.
Jan 5
The pit of New York's Park Theatre is converted to accommodate
Welsh's Olympic Circus. Some citizens consider the change a desecration
of the building.
Jan 26
A land transfer is made in Lewiston for the site of the future
Ways-Evans-Scovell Cemetery, passing from Judith Evans to Joseph
E. Ways.
Feb 2
New York begins requiring railroad companies to report annually
to the Secretary of State.
Mar 6
Welsh's Olympic Circus ends its run at the Park Theatre.
Mar 16
A late winter storm sweeps across the U. S., from the Gulf of
Mexico to Maine.
Apr 10
New York's Atlas Mutual Insurance Company is chartered.
Apr 12
The St. Lawrence County town of Colton is formed from Parishville.
** The Steuben County town of Avoca is formed from Bath, Cohocton,
Howard and Wheeler. ** The Oneida County town of Clinton is incorporated.
Apr 15
Novelist Henry James is born at 21 Washington Place in New York
City, to Henry and Mary Robertson Walsh James.
Apr 18
The state abolishes the office of Bank Commissioner and the responsibilities
are passed on to the State Comptroller.
Apr 23
Members of the Millerite sect gather on rooftops to await the
end of the world.
May 13
Cabinet maker Hermann Fox is born in Savoy, Germany. He will serve
in the 126th New York Infantry during the American Civil War.
Jun 1
Former slave Isabella Van Wagener hears a voice telling her to
take the name Sojourner Truth and travel as a preacher. She leaves
her job and follows the instructions.
September
Batavia newspaper publisher Frederick Follett is named postmaster
and sells his Spirit of the Times to Lucas Seaver.
Sep 23
Brooklyn Bridge engineer's wife Emily Warren (Roebling) is born.
December
Clergyman-historian John Stevens Cabot Abbott joins his brother
Gorham Abbott to be on the faculty of New York City's Abbott's
Institute for young ladies.
City
The first school built by the Board of Education opens. ** William
Kirkland and his wife, author Caroline Matilda Stansbury Kirkland
leave Michigan after failing to make a financial success there
out of the new town of Pinckney, arrive in New York. ** Immigrant
German Jews form B'nai B'rith. ** P. T. Barnum fires American
Museum employee John Hallett, possibly his bother-in-law. ** 8-year-old
Lyman Abbott moves here with his family from Farmington, Maine,
upon the death of his mother. ** Henry James, Sr. takes his family
and his wife's sister Catherine Walsh on an extended trip to London
and Paris.
State
The state geological survey is completed. The report of the First
District (Hudson Valley counties), compiled by William W. Mather,
Caleb Briggs, J. Lang Cassels and ______ Seymour, is published.
The Fourth District report (western New York), prepared by James
Hall, J. W. Boyd and E. N. Horsford, is published. ** Dr. John
Torry publishes the report of the State Botanical Department.
** State Paleontologist T. A. Conrad resigns and is replaced by
Professor James Hall. ** When his wife dies General William Kerley
Strong sells Geneva's Rose Hill Farm. ** The state founds its
first lunatic asylum, Utica State Hospital. ** New York physician
Elijah J. Smith settled in DuPage County, Illinois, on an unclaimed
80 acres, the future town center of Itasca. ** Western photographer
William Henry Jackson is born in Keeseville. ** Buffalo financier
Benjamin Rathbun, having served a sentence for forgery, is released
from, Auburn Prison. ** Perry doctor Jabez Ward, suffering from
pneumonia, rides out to attend an emergency case, returns home
and lapses into delirium. He dies the next day. ** Andover, Maine,
carpenter Horatio N. White moves to Syracuse, soon gets a job
as contractor on the Church of the Messiah. ** 2,136 boats use
the Erie Canal. ** The Old School Presbyterian Church organizes
the Buffalo Synod, covering 5,028 parishioners in 62 churches,
for Buffalo City, Genesee River, Michigan, Ogdensburgh and Rochester
City. ** The approximate date William Rockefeller, father of John
D., buys property in Moravia, near Owasco Lake, moves his family
there from Richford. A second daughter, Mary Ann, is born to William
and Eliza. ** The Steuben County Agricultural Fair, held at Bath,
will be the last for nine years. ** The Suffolk County town of
The Wheelers is renamed Hauppauge.
Rochester
The city acquires Mason Street property for a hay scale, and widens
Bugle Alley, home of burgeoning handicraft shops, changing its
name to Works Street. ** A three-story post office is erected
on Works Street, next to the Reynolds Arcade. ** The city annexes
part of the town of Gates, increasing its own area to 7.57 square
miles. ** Dr. J. B. Beers begins the use of gold teeth in dentistry.
** Miller Charles J. Hill is appointed state commissioner of deeds
by newly-elected governor William C. Bouck. ** Real estate agent
Hiram Sibley is elected sheriff of Monroe County. ** Anthropologist-historian
George H. Harris is born in West Greece to a lumberman and his
wife.
Mar 3
George William Curtis writes from New York City to his friend
John S. Dwight at the Brook Farm commune in Concord, Massachusetts,
discussing his feelings about the experiment there and his past
experiences with the group.
Mar 27
Curtis writes to Dwight to tell him his brother Burrill heard
from Ralph Waldo Emerson that they could rent a farmhouse at Concord
from Captain Nathaniel Barrett.
April
One of the new Erie Canal boats built at Rochester carries a 75-ton
load, a record.
Apr 4
Fourierists convene in New York City's Clinton Hall and elect
George Ripley as their president and Charles A. Dana, Parke Godwin
and Horace Greeley as vice-presidents.
Apr 12
George Curtis and his brother Burrill leave New York for Concord,
Massachusetts, to live on a farm and learn about agriculture.
May
The polka is introduced to the U. S. at New York City's Chatham
Theatre.
Jul 21
The inaugural season of the Italian Opera House ends, after 68
performances, with a deficit of nearly $22.500.
Jul 27
Three Long Island Railroad (LIRR) excursion trains arrive in Greenport,
having made the first trip on the line from Brooklyn in 3 1/2
hours rather than the expected five.
October
Connewango settler Samuel Cowley falls from a hickory pole during
the presidential excitement, breaks both legs.
Nov 10
The Italian Opera House opens its second season, under Porto and
Sacchi.
Nov 25
Alfred Bunn and Michael William Balfes' The Bohemian Girl opens
at New York City's Park Theatre.
Dec 4
James K. Polk and George M. Dallas are elected President and Vice-President
of the U. S. Rochester abolitionist Myron Holley draws enough
votes from Whig Henry Clay to give the state to Polk.
Dec 6
The Prison Association of New York is formed, to work for prison
reform.
Dec 23
The singer Fanti, of the Porto and Sanchi company, walks out on
her contract, terminating the second season of the Italian Opera
House.
City
The first terminal of the Atlantic Dock Company is completed.
** Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue subway tunnel is built. ** Publisher
James Harper is elected Native Party mayor of the city for a one-year
term, defeating Locofoco Party candidate Jonathan I. Coddington
and Whig Morris Franklin. ** The New-York Gallery of Fine Arts
is founded to preserve the collection of the late merchant-patron
Luman Reed. ** The 1825 U. S. Navy frigate Hudson (formerly the
Liberator) is broken up. ** The grandfather of photographer Alice
Austen purchases the site of a 1690s Staten Island Dutch house
near The Narrows. ** The Apollo Association for the Promotion
of the Fine Arts in the United States changes its name to the
American Art-Union. ** The first warehouse at Brooklyn's Atlantic
Basin Terminal is completed. ** Rabbi Samuel Adler attends a Rabbinical
Reform Conference at Brunswick, Germany. ** Philologist George
Adler graduates from New York University, valedictorian of his
class. ** The Presbyterian church on the north side of Wall Street
is demolished. ** Two-thirds of the city's population earn about
a dollar a week.
State
The University of Albany is founded. ** The Rochester & Tonawanda
Railroad builds a spur to link its Rochester terminal with the
Auburn & Rochester, several blocks away, finally linking Buffalo
and Albany by rail. ** Charles Horton becomes the sole proprietor
of the Angelica Reporter. Angelica's Republican Era begins publication,
is published for a short time. ** Control of the State Library,
containing around 10,000 volumes, is transferred from state-appointed
trustees to the Regents of the University, headed by Dr. T. Romeyn
Beck. ** Representative Millard Fillmore is defeated in his bid
for the governorship. ** General Peter Porter, a commander during
the War of 1812, dies at his Niagara Falls home at the age of
74. ** The abolitionist Liberty Party nominates James Gillespie
Birney of New York for president. ** Citizens of Dansville raise
$6,000 to construct a slip to extend the Genesee Valley Canal
spur into the village. State-sponsored rowdies attempt to disrupt
the project and are attacked and driven off. 30 citizens are indicted
but never brought to trial. A nearby street is named Battle Street
(now Booth Street). ** The state legislature removes all restrictions
on the practice of medicine. ** Genesee Valley pioneer James Wadsworth
dies, in his mid-seventies. ** New York's State Normal School
is established for the training of teachers, at Howard and Lodge
streets in Albany. ** Waterloo native John K. Loring begins practicing
medicine in Penn Yan.
Rochester
Front Street's Cottage Hotel opens. ** The first Erie Canal bridge
at Exchange Street is built. ** Clarissa Street is created. **
The city annexes the west side of the Genesee River Gorge and
part of the Lexington Avenue area as far north as the Ridge Road
area, increasing its own area to 7.65 square miles. ** Merchant
Levi W. Sibley dies of consumption. ** Miller Charles J. Hill
is elected Monroe County clerk. ** 42 of the new and larger canal
boats are built here. ** The first apparent Jewish name appears
in the city directory.
© 2001 David Minor / EaglesByte