St. Patrick's Cemetery

In October I posted an account of Cemeteries in Rochester, NY.  In that post I noted that a number of siblings of my paternal grandfather were originally buried in the cemetery associated with St. Patrick's Church and later reburied in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.  Recently I came across a portion of a plat for the Pinnacle Hill area that shows St. Patrick's Cemetery.  Note that the city line goes through the cemetery.  In addition, note the location of St. Boniface Cemetery at the corner of Highland Parkway and Clinton Ave, South.

My Christmas Present

Here is my Christmas present from my lovely wife.  This is for our travels and will be inaugurating it on our California/Panama Canal trip starting two weeks from today.  You will note that the operating system is Windows XP but it will be changed to Linux (the Ubuntu version).

Thanksgiving in Scottsdale

Nancy and I spent six days over Thanksgiving in Scottsdale, AZ with three of our daughters and their families.  Here is a video of some of what we did.  The best part is the beginning with my grandson, Will, doing some of the driving.

Off to Scottsdale, AZ

This afternoon my lovely wife and I will be flying to Scottsdale to spend a week with some of our children and grandchildren.  And, by the way, today is our 25th Wedding Anniversary.  And some people thought that it wouldn't work!

Rochester Civil War Camps

In the summer of 2004, the Rochester History, a quarterly publication done by the Rochester City Historian had an article titled, "Campgrounds of the Civil War" by George Levy and Paul Tynan.  This piece describes three camps found in Rochester during the Civil War for assembly and training in preparation for shipping to the war sites.  These camps were Camp Hillhouse, Camp Fitz-John Porter and  Camp Genesee.

Camp Hillhouse was located at the Monroe County Fair Grounds that today is the site of of the Nursing School at Strong Memorial Hospital on Crittenden Blvd.  Camp Fitz-John Porter was located on Cottage Street on the corner of Cottage and Magnolia Street.  Camp Genesee was located at Maplewood Park on Lake Avenue.

Camp Hillhouse was looked at in 1862 as a possible site for a Prisoner of War camp.  At that time the exchange of prisoners between the North and South had ceased and additional facilities were needed.  As a result, Col. William Hoffman, in charge of prisons, detailed a Capt. H. M. Lazelle to visit camps at Albany, Utica, Rochester and Elmira and to report on the feasibility of using any of these camps as Prisoner of War camps.  We know that Elmira was chosen and in 1864 Rochester's 54th Regiment of the NY National Guard spent 100 days there as a guard unit.

The following from The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 2 - Volume 4, pages 74 thru 77, is the report that Capt. Lazelle sent to Col. Hoffman concerning Camp Hillhouse in Rochester.

DETROIT, MICH., June 25, 1862.

Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN,
Commissary- General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich.

COLONEL: In compliance with your order dated Washington June 12, 1862, requiring me to visit the permanent camps at Albany, Utica, Rochester and Elmira and the U. S. barracks at Buffalo to ascertain their capacity for quartering troops and to make to you a written report thereon accompanied by a general plan of each camp, I have the honor to submit the result of my examination of the camp so specified at Rochester, N. Y., as its condition when visited by me on or near the 22d instant.

This camp is known as the Camp of the State Fair Grounds. The grounds were rented by the Government at $100 per month for the first three months occupied; after that period at $50 per month. It erected on them quarters for 1,000 men, mess hall, kitchen, guard-house, stables, officers quarters, sinks, & c., and for a considerable period occupied them with volunteer troops. Within a few months, however, the buildings so erected and the furnishings contained in them have been sold, and they together with the grounds are now in possession of the authorities of the State Fair who contemplate holding there a fair in September next.

The barracks, mess halls and kitchens are now being removed of their furniture for that purpose. It occupies a fine situation, being located on an excellent road about two miles southeast from town on a plot of ground gently sloping, of a rectangular shape, being 400 by 800 yards. The soil is firm and hard at all times--is composed of gravel covered with sward. The camp at present contains no troops. The ground is quite as high as the surrounding country and there is not in its vicinity either marsh, standing water or forest or any locus of malaria or disease. The camp is abundantly supplied with pure limestone water from never-failing wells on the ground. The Genesee Canal [Genesee Valley Canal] passes within a few hundred yards of the west side of the camp and the New York Central Railroad lies very near it. It is surrounded by a high, close, board fence of about 8 feet.

The buildings Were all, with the exception of that formerly used as a hospital, erected by the Government. They are all new, of one story, of wooden frames, with rough board coverings both on the sides and roofs. These boards are matched and the seams again covered with outer boards. The roofs are pitched and are, at the ridge poles of the buildings used as the mens quarters, mess halls and kitchens, about 2O feet high and at the eaves 10 feet. The buildings used as officers quarters, hospital and guard-house are about 15 and 8 respectively. They all have firm floors of planks and are well ventilated. In two long buildings built closely together and parallel with each other, each 280 by 40 feet, are the quarters for the men and mess halls. At the south end of these two buildings and abutting against them is the kitchen, whose extreme length is, together with a small shed at one end, just equal to the united width of the two larger buildings plus the interval between them, viz, 90 feet. The kitchen is 30 feet wide and contains but little of ordinary cooking apparatus, most of it having been removed. In one of the large buildings above mentioned is a mess hall 130 by 40 feet and in the other another hall 70 by 40. They will comfortably seat 1,000 men, but most of the tables and benches have been removed to the outside since the sale
of the buildings.

There are two sets of quarters, one in each of the large buildings, each 40 feet wide and 150 and 210 feet long respectively. In each the bunks are placed end to end and are arranged in 5 rows of double bunks, the outer rows of 3 tiers and the 3 inner ones of 4 tiers each. By this arrangement the larger set of quarters will readily accommodate 600 men and the smaller 400, 1,000 men being the original adaptation of the buildings. There are sufficient bunks for the reception of this number but no ticks for straw. The hospital is 60 by 30 feet with an L of 20 by 10 feet. The guard-house is 20 by 15 feet with an addition for cells and prison rooms of 30 by 10 and is not sufficient but for temporary occupancy of the camp. There are 4 small buildings of 15 by 10 feet each, of 1 room each, used for officers quarters. There is no bake-house but the rations are furnished, cooked and placed on the tables, and furniture supplied for the tables, at 22 cents each, the contractor furnishing his own cooking apparatus. The sinks are filthy and out of repair. There is a good bath-house at the northwest end of the ground 70 by 15 feet. On the south side are stabling sheds for 100 horses, and on the north side of the grounds stabhing sheds for 50 horses.

Hard wood is delivered at the camp for $4 per cord and soft at $3; coal at $5 and $6 per ton. Lumber can be purchased at $9 and $10 per 1,000 feet. I was informed by General John Williams, of Rochester, under whose care these grounds formerly were, that at Le Roy, a point thirty miles west from Rochester, is a large stone building formerly used as a car depot, completely fitted with furniture and ready for the reception of 1,000 men; that the Government formerly hired and placed in this building its furnishings but that it has now sold them, but that they can be had complete at present if
desired as they are not in use, and have not since being occupied for military purposes been disturbed.

 I am, colonel, with the highest respect, your obedient servant,

H. M. LAZELLE,

Captain, Eighth Infantry.

Mad Dog's Device

This I think is neat:

Why I Love Rochester

This morning's Democrat & Chronicle carries an article concerning entitled "6 injured, vehicles struck by erratic driver, police say."  The lead paragraph pretty much lays it out:

A 27-year-old man is facing a slew of traffic tickets and felony charges after he allegedly drove his car into pedestrians, a bicyclist and a vehicle on South Plymouth Avenue Thursday afternoon before leading police on a chase through residential and commercial streets.

While doing doughnuts in the lot, the vehicle struck a bicyclist, another vehicle and about three pedestrians in the parking lot area of the gas station.

The article concludes with the following comment from the police,"[Police Officer] Markert said several alcohol containers were found inside the Maxima, which might have been a contributing factor to his erratic driving."  Brilliant!

UPDATE:  The following is from WHAM:  "According to court documents, Muthana allegedly got intoxicated and was seen going into the Kennedy Towers with a transvestite. It is not clear whether the suspect knew he was with a transvestite.

When someone on the street confronted Muthana with that information, it is alleged that Muthana became enraged and began intentionally running people over."

Rochester and the Railroads

 

I guess that all boys (and old men) are fascinated by trains. I remember my first train set I received on Christmas probably about 1948. It wasn't a new set. It had belonged to my cousin, Jack O'Brien, but he grown out of the set. (Jack was 17 years older than I.) For a number of years the trains - a Lionel set - was set up around the Christmas tree for a number of years. I suspect that when we moved to Trafalgar St. in 1950 the train set was packed up and was among the 'junk' in the attic there.

My grandson, Liam, had a train set around their Christmas tree when he was about three years old or so. My grandson, Will, has probably every train and accessory possible with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. In addition to my Lionel train set on Flint Street, I also had a grandfather, Frederick Maloney, an engineer on the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. Here is my grandfather, second on the right. The fellow on the right was my grandfather's fireman, Harry Hook.

I guess that today there are a few short line railroads in the Rochester area but not at all the number of main railroads that once served the Rochester area.  An interesting web site showing the Railroad History of Rochester from 1825 up to 2009.  The Rochester City Directory for 1900 shows 16 railroads, some sharing the same tracks and the same stations.  These were:

• Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway Co. - Passenger and freight stations, West Avenue and Oak Street.
• Erie Railroad Company - Passenger station on Court Street.
• enesee Falls Railway Co. (Inc. 1886) - Road leased in perpetuity to the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R.
• Irondequoit Park Railroad Co. (Inc. 1896) - Station Main St. E. corner Chamberlain
• Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad (Inc. 1852) - Road leased to Erie Railroad Co.
• Rochester & Suburban Railroad Co. (Inc. 1900) - Office and station Portland Ave. opposite Bay Street
• Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad - Station 434 State St. Road leased in perpetuity to the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R.
• West Shore Railroad - Station Central Ave. Road leased in perpetuity to the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R.
• Western New York & Pennsylvania Railway - Station 81 West Ave.
• Lehigh Valley Railroad - Passenger station South Ave.  corner Griffith Street.  City office 13 Main St. E.
• New York Central & Hudson River Railroad - Passenger station Central Ave. corner St. Paul St.
• Northern Central Railway - Penn. System - Trains arrive and depart from N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R. station Central Ave.
• Rochester, Charlotte & Manitou Railroad Co.
• Rochester Electric Railway Co. (Inc. 1888) - Leased to Rochester Railway Co.
• Rochester Railway Co. (Inc. 1890) - (Street) - 267 State St.
• Rochester & Sodus Bay Railway C. (Inc. 1898)

It certainly changed in the last 109 years.

Happy Birthday - United States Marine Corps

Today is the birthday of the nation's oldest branch of the armed serves, the United States Marine Corps.  Older, in fact, than the United States.  The Corps was founded in Tun Tavern in Philadelphia on November 10, 1775.  My active duty in the Marine Corps was from December 1961 to December 1964.  That three years saw me at: Parris Island, SC; Camp Lejune, NC; Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, CA; and Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, NC.  Semper Fidelis!

Sgt. Patrick J. Eagan, USMC (Ret)

(Ok, I didn't retire but it looks nice!)

The Underground Railroad to School

Ok, I didn't really take the Underground Railroad to school. In fact, the Underground Railroad was not a real railroad system but rather a system of secretly moving slaves to the north during the nineteen century. However, on my way to St. Monica's School on Genesee Street in Rochester I had to pass a house that everybody (well, not everybody) said was at one time a station on the Underground Railroad. At the time (in the late 1940s and early 1950s) we took these rumors only half serious. Only much later did I learn that this house probably was a part of the Underground Railroad.

The house was located at 669 Genesee St. on the corner of Elmdorf St. and in the 1850s it was owned by George H. Humphrey, a Rochester attorney and active abolitionist.  Humphrey and his family owned the house for only a couple of years and in the Rochester City Directory the house is referred to  by its name, 'Elm Grove,' rather by its street number.  (This may be because the west side of Genesee St. was not a part of the city but was in the town of Gates.  That land west of Genesee St. was not a part of the city until about 1893.) The house no longer exists and since 1968 the location is the site of a apartment house owned by the Rochester Housing Authority.

In the nineteen century Rochesterians was very active in the abolitionist movement and it looks like the 19th Ward was a part of that history.

Daylight Savings Time

Although I'm not a farmer (although I do play one on TV) I do like Daylight Savings Time but with the change I'm able to start my daily bike ride at 6:30 AM with the sun up. However, it is now 5:40 PM and the sun went down 3 minutes ago! That I could do without.

Rochester's Subway - An Interesting Blog

In July I wrote about the Kodak Park Athletic Association (KPAA) and the Rochester subway. Since then I have come across the Rochester Subway blog, an interesting site dealing with Rochester's long-gone subway. Anyone with even a tad bit of interest in Rochester history may want to look at it.

Grandpa Mack's 101st Birthday

Last weekend we were in Michigan for my wife's father's 101st birthday. The pictures are found here and a video is found here.  We had a wonderful time in spite of the miserable weather - cold, windy and rain.  I'm at a loss as to how anybody can live there year round!

On the Road

Last week Nancy and I were in Miami Thursday thru Saturday babysitting our granddaughter, Alexa. Today we are off to the Detroit area for my father-in-law's 101st birthday and we will be back home on Monday afternoon.  (By the way, the temperature in Boca Raton right now is 79 with a high forecasted of 86; in Detroit it is 56 with a projected high of 59.  Just lovely!) After that we will be home for four weeks and then we will off for a week in Scottsdale, AZ with three of our daughters and their family for Thanksgiving.

Cemeteries in Rochester, NY

For the thirty or so years that I lived in Rochester, I knew that Rochester had two large cemeteries: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery on Lake Avenue for Catholics and Mount Hope Cemetery on Mount Hope Avenue for everybody else.  I guess that I may have heard of two smaller ones, the Rapids Cemetery and Riverside Cemetery, although at the time I probably couldn't tell you where they were.  I have subsequently learned that the Rapids Cemetery was located in my neck of the woods, the 19th Ward.  It is on the north side of Congress Avenue just about seven lots from Genesee Street.  Riverside Cemetery in located on the east side of Lake Avenue just north of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.  I suspect that if I had gone north on Lake Avenue I would have assumed that Riverside was just a continuation of Holy Sepulchre.  Looking at a map the two abut each other.

When I started looking at my family's history I found that some of my Eagan Grandfather's siblings had been originally buried at St. Patrick's cemetery located on Pinnacle Hill.  When the large plot of land on Lake Avenue was purchased by the Diocese of Rochester for a cemetery (and also St. Bernard's Seminary) all bodies from Pinnacle Hill were removed to Holy Sepulchre.  Also were removed to Holy Sepulchre were those buried at other Catholic cemeteries that I did not even know about.

Here is how William F. Peck describes the Rochester cemeteries in his History of Rochester and Monroe County, New York: From the Earliest Historic Times to the Beginning of 1907.

One of the first duties of the new common council was to provide a suitable resting-place for the dead. The early settlers had used for that purpose a half-acre lot on the corner of Plymouth avenus and Spring streets, by permission of its owners. Rochester. Fitzhugh and Carroll, who finally deeded it, as a free gift, to the village corporation in 1821. Three months later it was exchanged for a lot of three and a half acres on West Main street, where the City hospital now stands, and all the bodies were removed thither. This was always known as the Buffalo street buryingground, while a smaller one on the east side of the river was called the Monroe street bury ing-ground. But both together were too circumscribed and too near to a growing population, so in 1836 the common council, approving a selection unofficially made by a committee of citizens, purchased of Silas Andrus a piece of ground comprising the first fifty-three acres of what is now Mt. Hope. Fortunately for posterity Silas Cornell was the surveyor of the city at that time, to whose rare skill as a landscape architect, and equally perhaps to his wise forbearance in altering as little as possible the undulations of the ground, it was owing that Mt. Hope has always been one of the most beautiful resting-places for the departed in nil the land. The spirit of the original design has been adhered to by successive superintendents, notably by George D. Stillson, who held the position for sixteen years. Additions were made to the necropolis from time to time, the largest being in 1865, when seventy-eight acres were purchased, so that it now contains about one hundred and eighty-eight acres. The first interment, that of William Carter, was made on August 18th, 1838; on the 1st of June, 1894, the fifty thousandth burial took place and up to this time some sixty thousand have been laid away there, a veritabla city of the dead, a silent city.

While there were some few Catholics interred at Mt. Hope in early days, the great majority of that communion, practically all of them, preferred to bury their dead in ground consecrated by their church, and so the trustees of St. Patrick's bought an extensive tract on the Pinnacle hills, southeast of the city, in 1838, and for the next thirty-three years the interment of English-speaking Catholics was made in the Pinnacle burying-ground, as it was always called, since which time much of the light, sandy soil of that eminence has been removed for building purposes. The German Catholics have had three cemeteries—that of St. Joseph, on Lyell avenue; of Sts. Peter and Paul, on Maple street, and of St. Boniface, on South Clinton street—but almost all the bodies have been removed from these and deposited in the Holy Sepulcher cemetery. This comprises about one hundred and forty acres, situated on Lake avenue, north of the city line, in the town of Greece, and extending to the bank of the river. The location is a most desirable one, and since it was opened, in 1871, it has been increasingly beautified, so that it has become very attractive to all visitors.

Perceiving the advantage that the Holy Sepulcher had over Mt. Hope in being located so far from the dwellings of the living, several persons formed themselves into a corporation in 1892 and bought one hundred acres of land just north of the former, where the grounds were at once laid out in a suitable manner and were tastefully decorated, the result being that lots were speedily purchased and interments are very frequent in the lovely Riverside cemetery. One other place of the dead might have been mentioned before, on account of its antiquity. Although within the city limits, near the southern end of Genesee street, it was doubtless intended for the use of the dwellers ir Scottsville and Chili, for it is said to have been established in 1812, when there were no residents here. It has always been known as the Rapids burying-ground. 

Trafalgar Street in Rochester, NY

Yesterday we looked at my home until 1950 on Flint Street.  Here you see my home from 1950 until 1961 when I enlisted in the Marine Corps.  While in the Corps I was married and when I returned to Rochester at the end of my enlistment my wife and son moved into my father-in-law's house on  Shelbourne Road.  Originally when we moved here the front door was in the middle of front with a window on the right.  Inside there were relatively small halls/rooms and the living room.

My father wanted a large living room so he (with my help) tore down the walls for the smaller halls/rooms and made one large living room.  I'm surprised that the second floor didn't fall into the first floor and then into the basement as at least one of those walls that were taken down was a load bearing wall. To take the place of the load bearing wall, my father laid two very long "two by tens" against the studs and up against the ceiling and then cut the studs.  After some time he also had to but a jack in the basement to keep the first floor living room from sagging?

The details of the house at the City of Rochester property site note that there are seven rooms.  I guess that they don't count the three rooms in the attics.  Also it lists one bathroom but no mention to the toilet ("the throne") in the basement; the one that my sisters and I painted!

The house on the right was the Websters and on the left were the Hartwell.  Next to the Hartwells on the corner of Trafalgar and Montgomery were the Griffins.  If you look at a map of this area of Rochester you will note that we were three houses from West High School (now Wilson Magnet High School). My sisters could leave for school minutes before it started and be there on time.  Not me, I went to Aquinas Institute on Dewey Avenue.  For me to get to school I took a bus downtown to the Four Corners (Main and State) and transfer to the Dewey Avenue bus (number 10 bus if I recall).

Flint Street in Rochester, NY

Here is the house I lived in on Flint Street in Rochester until 1950 when we moved to Trafalgar Street. This wasn't very far as you can see on a map of Rochester. It was just the other side of Genesee Street.

The small stoop at the front door is not the way it was when we lived there.  Then there was a porch with railing that went the entire front of the house.   One spring just before Easter (I think) we were getting ready to take the bus downtown to shop for Easter outfits.  Because the railing was to walk on (what else would they be there for) my sister, Kathy, fell.  Naturally, she broke her arm.  I don't for the life of me recall how she got the break set and the cast put on.  If I had to guess she went to St. Mary's Hospital just up Genesee St. at Bull's Head.  (I'll talk about Bull's Head and other locations in Rochester at some other time.)  I'm pretty sure we didn't go downtown that day!

It's funny but I can remember more of the neighbors on Flint Street than I can on those on Trafalgar Street.  The neighbors to the right of our house was the Trimbles (Herb and his wife) and next to them was Mr. Trimble's mother and sister.  As I recall, the two houses were always painted the same and had shared garage in the back.  (In those days almost all garages were detached from the house.)

On the left was the Dipples.  I don't think I ever knew Mr. and Mrs. first names but I just looked in the City Directory for 1929 and Mr. Dipple was George.  Mrs. Dipple was a regular crone.  Their back yard was a regular jungle and if anything went over their fence you had to hunt for it.  More often or not Mrs. Dipple saw you and she would come out the back door screaming.

Next to the Dipples were the Schwartz (I think that was the name).  They had a garage in their back yard where my father kept his car.  Next to them was the Porters.  They had three older girls, an older boy and Billy.  Billy was probably five years older than I or more and quite stocky.  No, not stocky, he was fat.  He was taking flying lessons when he was in high school (Edison High) and crashed and died.  I don't recall whether it was at the Rochester Airport or Hyland Field, a small air field in either Brighton of Henrietta.

Next to the Porters, at 502 Flint St., were the Neary family: Jim (a policeman) and Helen, and Fred, Barbara and Bob.  They were probably our closest friends on Flint Street.  Until about 1944, the grandfather, Patrick J. Neary, also lived there.  I recall when he died as he was laid out at home (as was common then) during a terrible storm.  That was probably my earliest recollection of Flint Street.  Quite a neighborhood.

At another time I'll introduce you to the Denices (assholes), Johnny Montuli (or as my father called him, Johnny Ma-got-no-teeth), Annie Conner, and the rest of the crew on Flint Street.

Ireland Does Not Have A Prime Minister

This morning's New York Times had an article relating to Secretary of State Clinton and her visit to Ireland accompanied by a photo with Brian Cowen. Although the article refers to Cowen as the Irish Prime Minister, the Republic of Ireland has no Prime Minister. The head of government in Ireland is the Taoiseach, an Irish term meaning Chief. 

President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

I'm not sure that he has done anything yet to warrant that prize but one thing is certain. It certainly will piss off those cretins on the right!

Heat Index 104 in Boca Raton

Right now (noon) in Boca Raton it is about 90 degrees and the heat index stands at 104. That has been the norm for the last five days or so. As a result, after my morning bicycle ride and a shower I strapped my beach chair and umbrella on my back, hopped on my motorscooter and headed to the beach. Breakfast at the beach was Gatorade, a bagel and the New York Times. It doesn't get any better than that!