Rochester, New York<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Seneca<\/a>\u00a0tribe of Native Americans lived in and around Rochester until they lost their claim to most of this land in the\u00a0Treaty of Big Tree<\/a>\u00a0in 1797.[10]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Settlement before the Seneca tribe is unknown.<\/p>\n Development of Rochester followed the\u00a0American Revolution<\/a>, and forced cession of their territory by the\u00a0Iroquois<\/a>\u00a0after the defeat of Great Britain. Allied with the British, four major Iroquois tribes were forced out of New York. As a reward for their loyalty to the British Crown, they were given a large\u00a0land grant<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0Grand River<\/a>\u00a0in Canada.<\/p>\n Rochester was founded shortly after the American Revolution by a wave of English-Puritan descended immigrants from\u00a0New England<\/a>\u00a0who were looking for new agricultural land. They would be the dominant cultural group in Rochester for over a century.[11]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0On November 8, 1803, Col.\u00a0Nathaniel Rochester<\/a>\u00a0(1752\u20131831), Maj. Charles Carroll, and Col. William Fitzhugh, Jr. (1761\u20131839), all of\u00a0Hagerstown, Maryland<\/a>, purchased a 100-acre (c. 40\u00a0ha<\/a>) tract from the state in Western New York along the\u00a0Genesee River<\/a>. They chose the site because its three\u00a0cataracts<\/a>\u00a0on the Genesee offered great potential for water power. Beginning in 1811, and with a population of 15, the three founders surveyed the land and laid out streets and tracts. In 1817, the Brown brothers and other landowners joined their lands with the Hundred Acre Tract to form the village of Rochesterville.<\/p>\n By 1821, Rochesterville was the seat of Monroe County. In 1823, Rochesterville consisted of 1,012 acres (4\u00a0km2<\/sup>) and 2,500 residents, and the Village of Rochesterville became known as Rochester. Also in 1823, the\u00a0Erie Canal<\/a>\u00a0aqueduct over the Genesee River was completed, and the Erie Canal east to the\u00a0Hudson River<\/a>\u00a0was opened. In the early 20th century, after the advent of\u00a0railroads<\/a>, the presence of the canal in the center city was an obstacle; it was re-routed south of Rochester. By 1830, Rochester’s population was 9,200 and in 1834, it was re-chartered as a city.<\/p>\n Rochester was first known as “the Young Lion of the West”, and then as the “Flour City”. By 1838, Rochester was the largest flour-producing city in the United States. Having doubled its population in only 10 years, Rochester became America’s first “boomtown<\/a>“. Rochester experienced one of the nation’s biggest revivalist movements, led by Charles Finney.<\/p>\n By the mid-19th century, as the center of the wheat-processing industry moved west with population and agriculture, the city became home to an expanding\u00a0nursery<\/a>\u00a0business, giving rise to the city’s second\u00a0nickname<\/a>, the “Flower City”. Nurseries ringed the city, the most famous of which was started in 1840 by immigrants Georg Ellwanger from Germany and Patrick Barry from Ireland.[12]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n In 1847,\u00a0Frederick Douglass<\/a>\u00a0founded the\u00a0abolitionist<\/a>\u00a0newspaper\u00a0The North Star<\/a><\/i>\u00a0in Rochester. Douglass, a former slave and an antislavery speaker and writer, gained a circulation of over 4,000 readers in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean. The\u00a0North Star<\/i>\u00a0served as a forum for abolitionist views. The Douglass home burnt down in 1872, but a marker for it is found in Highland Park off South Avenue.[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Susan B. Anthony<\/a>, a national leader of the\u00a0women’s suffrage<\/a>\u00a0movement, was from Rochester. The\u00a0Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution<\/a>, which guaranteed the right of women to vote in 1920, was known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment because of her work toward its passage, which she did not live to see.[14]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Anthony’s home is a\u00a0National Historic Landmark<\/a>\u00a0known as the\u00a0National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House<\/a>.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n At the end of the 19th century, anarchist\u00a0Emma Goldman<\/a>\u00a0lived and worked in Rochester for several years, where she championed the cause of labor in Rochester sweatshops. Rochester was also home to significant unrest in labor, race, and antiwar protests.<\/p>\n After the Civil War, Rochester had an expansion of new industries in the late 19th century, founded by migrants to the city, including inventor and entrepreneur\u00a0George Eastman<\/a>, who founded\u00a0Eastman Kodak<\/a>; and German immigrants\u00a0John Jacob Bausch<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Henry Lomb<\/a>, who launched\u00a0Bausch & Lomb<\/a>\u00a0in 1861. Not only did they create new industries, but Eastman became a major\u00a0philanthropist<\/a>, developing and endowing the\u00a0University of Rochester<\/a>, its\u00a0Eastman School of Music<\/a>\u00a0and other local institutions.<\/p>\n In the early 20th century, Rochester became a center of the garment industry, particularly men’s fashions. It was the base of enterprises\u00a0Bond Clothing Stores<\/a>,\u00a0Fashion Park Clothes<\/a>,\u00a0Hickey Freeman<\/a>, and Stein-Bloch & Co. The\u00a0carriage<\/a>\u00a0maker James Cunningham and Sons founded a pioneer\u00a0automobile<\/a>\u00a0company \u2013 Cunningham.[16]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n