Table of Contents
| R.G.S. OFFICERS 1988 - 1989 | |
| President: | Judy Markham |
| Co-Vice Pres. & Program Chairpersons: | William Welch Letitia Welch |
| Recording Secretary: | Sheryl Weissert |
| Corresponding Secretary: | Letitia Welch |
| Treasurer: | Diane Partridge |
| Membership Chairperson: | Richard Halsey |
| Hear Ye co-editors: | Robert Hesselberth James Roome |
| Rochester Genealogical Society, Inc. P.O. Box 92533 Rochester NY 14692 | |
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Table of Contents
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Judy Markham
As we embark on our next half-century, I can't let go of 1987-88 without a mention of just a couple of highlights from our 50th year:
The beginning - with James Walker of the National Archives, speaking at one of our largest and most informative meetings in recent history.
The middle - with our 50th anniversary meeting, honoring our founders and reuniting many old members. It will rank as one of my favorite meetings and gave those of us who are interested in history more of a sense of our own history,
The end - the annual picnic at Sheldon Fisher's Valentown Museum.
Back in 1983, Jean Burr, our innovative VP and program planner, wondered aloud whether we ought to have a picnic to cap off the year. So we began with a friendly pot luck supper at the Rochester Canoe Club on Irondequoit Bay. Since then we have prowled around the Stone-Tolan house, tramped through Mt. Hope Cemetery, picked our way cautiously to the top of the Charlotte Lighthouse and generally found that June can be a time when family fun and family research intertwine.
On the subject or special meetings, please note our November 1988 get-together, for it will be unique. Members of the Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass., where they recreate the life of early l600's, will be our guests and speakers in what promises to be both fun (they will be in character for part of the meeting) and informative. This will be a joint meeting with the Kodak Genealogy Club and will be on Friday, November 18th at 7 pm at the Kodak Recreation Building #28 at Kodak Park. Appropriately, it is the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Please try to arrange your calendar to accommodate this departure from our usual place and time. And bring a friend.
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1988 - FALL PROGRAM
William & Letitia Welch
The Rochester Genealogical Society will continue to meet the third Thursday of each month (except December, July and August), at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, East Avenue and Vick Park B. The mini-workshops will start at 7 P.M. (except as noted below), followed by the business meeting at 7:30 P.M. and the main program at approximately 8:00 P.M. Visitors are welcome.
Thursday, September 15th
Mini-workshop: "How, Where & How Much to Purchase Tools of our Trade."
Program: "The Catholic Church Records for the LDS Library" - Dr. Rogar Adams, Nazareth College
Thursday, October 20th
Mini-workshop: "Sharing Book List for Inter-club Lending." Member participation. Bring a list of genealogy books you own and are willing to share with other members. Make a list of other members books that you may have access to.
Program: "Allegany County, History and Its People" - Craig Braack
Friday, November 18th
Friday not Thursday this time.
Special joint meeting with Kodak Genealogy Club at Building 28, Kodak Park. "Coming to America" - Plimoth Plantation Pilgrims (See Presidents Message for details).
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PROGRAM REVIEWS for March, April, May, June
Sheryl Wiessert
March - "GENEALOGY THRU HOUSE HISTORY" - by Sally Light
Sally Light's genealogical research activities are unusual: She doesn't necessarily trace the ancestors of a particular family. Instead she gleans information on previous owners of a house for those interested in knowing their homes family tree. Many homes were built in the late 1700's and early 1800's. Often the style of the home helps place it in a specific time period. Her research includes title searches, mortgage information, tax lists, church records, wills, census information, and stories handed down by oral tradition. The extent of her research depends on the wishes of the current owner and is presented as a written historical narrative.
April - "CELEBRATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE ROCHESTER GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY"
Bob Gustafson made the opening remarks about the birth of the Rochester Genealogical Society and introduced the three founding members, Sheldon Fisher, Katherine Thompson and Charles Shepard. Each honoree spoke of their memories of the beginning of the society. A panel discussion following with questions from the audience. Bob presented each founder with a copy of a New York State Senate resolution, passed on April 19th, recognizing the society and its charter members. Judy Markham then made a presentation of plaques to the three 50 yr. members and one to Milford Spencer, long time treasurer and member for 47 years. The celebration ended with a cake and coffee reception for all. (Past president, Robert Holroyd, and first editor of the HEAR YE was also at this celebration. The original (one page) volume 1, number 1 was published on September 1st, 1975. Five years later in Spring 1980, volume 1, number 1 of the current HEAR YE was published. Ed.)
May - "GANONDAGAN STATE HISTORIC SITE" - by Peter Jemison
Peter Jemison, descendent of Polly who was Mary Jemison's daughter, is the current manager of the Ganondagan State Historic Site. His talk and slide presentation explained the history of the Seneca town established in the seventeenth century in the Boughton Hill area. Hiking trails have been established and are open seven day a week until dusk. Trail markers designed by Indian artists provide information about the flora, fauna and history of the site and its archaeology. A visitor's information center and museum contains artifacts of Seneca life.
June - "PICNIC AT VALENTOWN MUSEUM"
Sheldon Fishers invitation to Valentown Museum for our June picnic proved to be not only informational but shocking. Ask anyone who volunteered for the demonstration on static electricity. The large group of members who attended this last meeting of the year were rewarded with an exuberant host who kept us hopping through his most interesting collections and exibits.
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MY MOST INTERESTING ANCESTOR
Jim Roome
An answer to my query in the CONNECTICUT NUTMEGGER brought a most interesting response from a lady in Honolulu. Thomas Baxter, an Englishman, first recorded in New Amsterdam in 1642. He built the wall to keep the Indians out where Wall Street is now located in New York City. He lived among the Dutch until the outbreak of war with England. Capt. Baxter with authority of the Rhode Island colony appeared on Long Island Sound with an armed sloop to prey on Dutch shipping. One of his victims, however, was a ship from the Plymouth Colony. He was subsequently arrested for "plundering, spoiling, robbing and looting a vessel which belongs to the Plymouth Colony," fined 10 pounds Stirling "for disturbing the peace" and banished from the Colony. He turned out to be a real scoundrel as he later deserted his wife and family and returned to England. His wife, Bridget, divorced him, (first divorce in NYS) and married John Palmer. An infant son, Thomas, Jr., was to become one of the leading citizens of Westchester, NY. The pirate is my seven greats grandfather, a descendent of my grandmother, Julia Ellen Baxter.
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IRONDEQUOIT'S HOOKER PIONEER CEMETERY (continued from Vol. 9, No. 2)
Bob Gustafson
The period since the summer of 1985 has been unusually productive for two very different reasons. The Department of Parks and Recreation of the town was able to put crews to work at the task of excavating the northwest portion of the cemetery to a depth of ten feet, as previously noted, and this resulted in a number of fragments and entire markers, representing interments not previously known. Fragments must still be joined to others, and even then legibility will be questionable at best. Because excepting the veterans sites and those of the Hooker and West families family plot sites are not known, future restoration will see the cemetery as a memorial park with the towns pioneer families being recognized through the establishment of plots in which the markers and footstones for each particular family group will be placed. Some evidence exists as to the chronological sequence of interments, and this will be used to assure as much historical accuracy as is possible under the circumstances. Two separate problems arose: first, it was absolutely essential that no remains be disturbed, and second, that extreme caution be exercised to avoid damaging the fragile stones and also to avoid personal injuries.
The second major impact came from an unexpected source: the 1837-1860 register of Mt. Hope Cemetery in the city of Rochester. Here it was found that in this first register the interments in more than thirty cemeteries other than Mt. Hope were recorded, including thousands in the early Catholic cemeteries, St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's. Included, too were a number from Hooker, often referred to simply as 'Irondequoit,' as there was no other public burying ground in the town at that time. From this it is apparent that Hooker was used by residents of the city of Rochester, as well as surrounding towns such as Brighton and Webster.
This must be considered as an on-going project; this is the fourth version of this monograph, and the readers assistance is solicited. Any bit of information about Irondequoit's pioneers will help to improve the completeness and accuracy.
Note: Reader should refer to HEAR YE issues v5-#2, v6-#1 & v6-#2, and v8-#2 & v8-#3 for additional information about Hooker Cemetery interments and the Blackhawk War by Mr. Gustafson. Also for out-of-town members, Hooker Cemetery is located in the Town of Irondequoit, Monroe County, New York between the city of Rochester and Lake Ontario on the east side of the Genesee River.
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MARRIAGES, EARLY ONTARIO COUNTY, NY NEWSPAPERS: WESTERN REPOSITORY
Jim Roome
Note: From time to time lists of marriages from early Ontario County newspapers are published in HEAR YE. These newspapers are in the Ontario County Historical Society Archives in Canandaigua, NY. The abstracts were originally compiled under the supervision of the late Bernhardena Stratton. ED.
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RELOCATED CEMETERIES IN MONROE COUNTY, NY
Dick Halsey
After the October, 1987, meeting of the Rochester Genealogical Society, I was asked to write up my talk for the HEAR YE so that others could share in my research. Also, I've added some notes on other Monroe County cemeteries that have been moved.
Like most genealogists, my interest in cemeteries was limited to the inscriptions and family information on the stones. On July 25, 1984 something happened that changed my outlook on cemeteries. On that date a bulldozer, grading part of Highland Park in the southern part of Rochester, unearthed some human bones from a long abandoned cemetery. As the day went on more bones were uncovered. The Rochester Museum and Science Center was called on to excavate the site and archeological students very carefully uncovered three hundred and five skeletons. The site was later found to be the cemetery for the Monroe County Poor House. I heard about the discovery early and visited the site. The day I visited, it was found that sometime in the late 19th century a sewer line was installed through part of the cemetery. Question: what happened to the bodies that were dug up at that time? There have been other cemeteries in Monroe County that have been moved from one place to another. Was good care taken to move the remains?
The first part of my story is about the early cemeteries in Rochester as there is much more information available on them.
The first cemetery in Rochester was on a half-acre lot set aside as a place to bury the dead by the proprietors of the village, Nathaniel Rochester, Charles Carrol and William Fitzhugh, when they laid out the village. This lot was on the east side of what is now South Plymouth Avenue. It is said that the first burial in that cemetery was the wife of Dr. Gibbs. That small cemetery was considered by many to be too close to the homes and in June 1821 a new larger cemetery, called West Cemetery, was opened farther to the west on Buffalo Street (now West Main Street) outside of the village. The old cemetery on South Plymouth Avenue was soon built on so it was supposed that the bodies were moved to the Buffalo Street cemetery.
By 1837, 570 of the 579 plots in the West Cemetery had been sold and Rochester needed a larger cemetery. Fifty-four acres were bought in the Town of Brighton, and Mt. Hope Cemetery came into being. Although there were no more sales of lots in West Cemetery, family members of lot owners were buried there until August 1848. Even before then the cemetery was suffering from neglect. In November 1844 it was reported that the fence around the cemetery was broken and cattle were grazing in the cemetery. In 1851 the West Cemetery lot was sold to Rochester City Hospital on the stipulation that they either fence in the cemetery, or if they wanted to build on that part of the lot, they must find a suitable place for the bodies. It was not until the latter half of 1859 that the remains were moved. There were probably about one thousand bodies moved from West Cemetery to Mt. Hope Cemetery. Many were moved to family owned plots and the remainder were put into a section along Indian Trail Road in Mt. Hope. The tombstones were also moved and many are still readable.
You would think that would be the end of the story of West Cemetery, but during the building of an addition to the Hospital in March of 1906 workman discovered two large boxes buried in the eastern lawn. When opened, one box contained thirty seven skeletons, all neatly arranged in a row and the other contained seventy one skeletons. These remains were probably the remains of the persons that were originally buried in that first cemetery on South Plymouth Avenue. Then again while building another addition to the hospital in October 1959, workman dug up a skull but failed to find any more bones. One must wonder how much care was taken to move the bodies from West Cemetery to Mt. Hope.
Enos Stone gave a small plot on the east side of the Genesee River to be used for burials. It was on the south side of East Avenue, opposite Gibbs Street. This small plot quickly filled and on June 10th, 1827 the Village of Rochester bought two acres of land on Monroe Avenue. This cemetery, called East Cemetery, may have been used for burials before the date of sale. Eventually 200 bodies were moved from the small cemetery on East Avenue to the East Cemetery. The first recorded grave sold in East Cemetery was sold to Samuel Joy who paid $5.00 for the plot. In the 1840s some bodies were being moved from East Cemetery to family plots in Mt. Hope. Still, new burials were made in the East Cemetery until the 1860's. In 1872 the City of Rochester wanted to move the rest of the bodies and use the lot for a school. The remaining bodies were moved in 1873 to a very small plot in Mt. Hope Cemetery west of the lot of the removals from the West Cemetery. The tombstones were also moved. Then while building an addition on the school in July of 1926, workman dug up some bones, which were later pronounced to belong to a 12 year-old girl. One wonders if bones could still be found on that site today
There were also other smaller cemeteries in Rochester that were moved. Frankfort Cemetery on the eastern corner of Frank and Smith Streets. A Methodist Church was built on that site in 1853 so the graves must have been moved before that time. There was a cemetery in McCrackenville, on the west side of the river near the Driving Park bridge. This cemetery probably contained no more than a dozen graves. Recently I found records that at least three of the McCracken family were moved from this cemetery to Mt. Hope in April 1846. A cemetery for the old village of Carthage was located on Tyler Street near the Veterans Memorial Bridge. When it was moved is not known. Two other small cemeteries were on the east side of Mt. Hope Avenue, across from Mt. Hope Cemetery . The West Brighton Rural Cemetery was moved to Mt. Hope in 1893 and some bodies were moved to family plots. The remainder were moved to a very small plot along Indian Trail in Mt. Hope. Some records remain of this cemetery including a map of plot owners. Next to West Brighton Cemetery was the Friends (Quaker) Cemetery. It is not known when or to where these graves were moved.
The old Catholic cemeteries didn't have any better fate. St. Patrick's was the first Catholic Church in Rochester to have a cemetery. At first there was a small graveyard behind the Church. Then in 1838, St. Patrick's bought a large lot on the corner of South Clinton and Field Streets, on part of Pinnacle Hill. After Holy Scpulchre Cemetery was opened in 1872, no more lots were sold in St. Patrick's Cemetery, and some bodies were moved to family plots in Holy Sepulchre. The last recorded burial in St. Patrick's was on December 4, 1900. The cemetery was abandoned and became overgrown. There were about 6000 persons originally buried there. A newspaper account of 1929 said some of the graves had been moved. In 1935 the remaining 4769 bodies were moved to Holy Sepulchre. A photo in the Democrat & Chronicle of September 2nd, 1935 show a steam shovel digging off the top layer of dirt. Another photo dated September 17, 1935 shows workman setting up a tombstone. But what happened to the tombstones? In the plot in Holy Sepulchre, to where the graves were moved, there is only one stone memorializing the dead from St. Patrick's Cemetery.
The St. Patrick's Cemetery was sold for $40,000 in 1960 but still remains vacant. I had heard about tombstones remaining there so I went to check it out last summer. I found many bases of tombstones and one whole stone still there with the inscription; "Eleanor Agnes, wife of Amos H. Greeno, died August 23, 1864 at 35 years." Also part of another stone of someone who died aged 72 years. Are the rest of the tombstones buried on the lot? Time may tell. The lot owner wants to sell it to the City of Rochester for $5,700,000 to be used as a park.
(to be continued)
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VITAL RECORDS FROM THE MONROE REPUBLICAN (Rochester,NY)
Dick Halsey
Note: Date refers to date that paper was published, inst. = instant (in this month), ult. = ultimo (the month before the present).
(to be continued)
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QUERIES and other things:
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BUTTS, PARKHURST, HULBERT . . . Phobe A. BUTTS born 1821, married Marvin PARKHURST and died before 1860. Louisa BUTTS lived with her from 1850 until her death in 1871. Louisa's father may have been Rev. Moses BUTTS. Susie HULBERT married Leonard Vincent PARKHURST and had two children, Leonard and Mary. Susie did about 1885 and the children were raised in Iowa. I have a picture of Susie and Leonard and would be glad to share information. |
BRINGHAM . . . According to the Bingham Family Genealogy, Elisha BRINGHAM died in Wheatland, Monroe County, New York about 1830. I would like to correspond with anyone researching the BINGHAM family in Monroe County. |
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