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"Nathaniel
Rochester, second son of John Rochester, was born on the 21st day of
February, 1752, in Cople Parish, Westmoreland county, Va., on the
plantation on which his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather
had lived. When
he was two years old his father died, and when he was seven his
mother married a Mr. Thomas Critcher, who, in 1763, removed with the
entire family to Granville county, N. C. 'During
his childhood the opportunities for a liberal education were
extremely limited. The varied and practical information for which he
was distinguished in private intercourse, as well as in the public
trusts he so honorably filled, was the fruit of the later application
of a clear and vigorous mind, in the intervals of leisure afforded by
a life of no ordinary activity and vicissitude.'
In the autumn of 1768,
when sixteen years old, he entered the mercantile establishment of
James Monroe, in Hillsboro, N. C. (forty miles from home), as a
clerk, where he remained till 1783, when he entered into partnership
with his former employer and Colonel John Hamilton, who was consul
for the British government in the middle states after the close of
the revolution. In 1770 he was clerk of the vestry of Hillsboro'. In
1775 the partnership was dissolved by the breaking out of the
revolution, and the same year (being only twenty-three years old at
the time) he was appointed a member of the committee of safety for
Orange county, N. C., whose business it was, to use his own words, 'to
promote the revolutionary spirit among the people, procure arms and
ammunition, make collections for the people of Boston, whose harbor
was blocked up by a British fleet, and to prevent the sale and use of
East India teas.'
In August of the same
year (1775) he attended, as a member, the first provincial convention
in North Carolina, and at that time was made paymaster (with the rank
of major) for the North Carolina line, which at the time consisted of
four regiments. About the same time he was also made justice of the peace.
At the reassembling of
the convention, in May, 1776, the North Carolina line was increased
to ten regiments; and in the proceedings of the convention, on
Friday, May 10th, 1776, it was 'Resolved,
That Nathanial Rochester, esquire, be appointed deputy
commissary-general of military and other stores in this county for
the use of the Continental army, and that he be allowed the same
allowance as provided by the Continental congress for such officer;
and that he give security in £10,000 for the faithful discharge
of the trust reposed in him.'
On the adjournment of
the convention he,entered upon the active duties of providing food
and clothing for the army; the fatigue incident to which, accompanied
by unusual exposure in unhealthy districts, brought on disease so
permanent in its. character as to compel him to resign, in accordance
with medical advice. Returning to Hillsboro he found that he had been
elected a member of the legislature, in which he soon took his seat;
thus becoming a member of one of the earliest legislative bodies
organised and assembled in defiance of British claims to dominion.
During this session he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of militia,
and in the following spring was made clerk of Orange county, which
office had been held for many years by General F. Nash, who was
killed at the battle of Germantown.
In 1777 he was appointed
commissioner to establish and superintend a manufactory of arms at
Hillsboro', the iron for which had to be drawn in wagons from
Pennsylvania, a distance of over four hundred miles.
Resigning the office of
county clerk, 'because
the fees of the office would not pay for the postage,'
he was appointed one of a board of three to audit the public
accounts, and was also promoted to be colonel.
In 1878 he again
embarked in mercantile pursuits with Colonel Thomas Hart
(father-in-law of Henry Clay) and James Brown (afterwards minister to
France). In 1783 he and Colonel Hart began the 'manufacture of flour,
rope and nails, at Hagerstown, Md.'
On the 20th day of
April, 1788, he married Sophia, daughter of Colonel Wm. Beatty, of
Frederick, Md. She was born in Frederick, Md., Jan. 25th, 1768.
While living at
Hagerstown, Md., he successively filled the offices of member of
Assembly of Maryland, postmaster at Hagerstown, judge of the county
court, and, in 1808, was chosen a presidential elector (with Dr. Jno.
Tyler, of Fredericktown, Md.), in favor of James Madison for
president (Frederick, Washington, and Allegany counties forming the district).
In 1808 he was the first
president of the Hagerstown bank. A portrait taken while he held that
position is now in the possession of the bank, and is highly prized.
All this time he was carrying on extensive manufacturing
establishments in Hagerstown, and had in operation two mercantile
establishments in Kentucky.
In 1800 he first visited
the 'Genesee
country,'
where he had previously made a purchase of 640 acres; and in
September of that year, associating with him Major Charles Carroll,
Colonel William Fitzhngh and Colonel Hilton, made large purchases of
land in Livingston county, near Dansville. In 1802, with Colonel
Fitzhugh and Major Carroll, he purchased the '100-acre
or Allan mill tract'
(in what now is called Rochester, at that time called Falls Town),
for seventeen and a half dollars per acre. In May, 1810, having
closed up his business in Maryland, he first became a resident of
Western New York, and, removing to Dansville with his family,
occupied his purchase there. Here he remained five years, and erected
a large paper-mill, and made many improvements.
In 1815, having disposed
of his interests in Dansville, he removed to a large and well
improved farm in Bloomfield, Ontario county. After staying here for
three years, during which time he constantly visited the falls of the
Genesee and his property there, laying it out into lots to be brought
into the market, he, in April, 1818,.took up his residence there, the
town in the interim having been called after him, 'Rochester.'
In 1816 he was a second
time an elector of president and vice-president.
In January, 1817, he was
secretary of the important convention at Canandaigua which urged the
construction of the Erie canal. During this year he went to Albany,
N. Y., as an agent of the petitioners for the erection of what is now
known as Monroe county, but was not successful till the year 1821 in
obtaining its accomplishment. He was the first clerk of the new
county, and also its first representative in the state legislature,
1821-22. In 1824 he was one of the commission for taking
subscriptions to the capital stock of the Bank of Rochester, and,
upon the organisation of the institution, was unanimously elected its
president. He resigned this, position the December following on
account of an impaired physical constitution and the increasing
infirmities of age. This was the last of his numerous public and
corporate trusts. From this time he retired from active duties, but
was always a good and willing counselor to those in the young and
thriving town which was rapidly growing up around him. He had always
been attached to the Protestant Episcopal church, and was one of the
founders of St. Luke's church, Rochester. It was the will of God to
remove him by a most painful disorder, forbidding him even an hour's
troubled repose; but the end finally came, and the pain ceased, and
there was quiet and peace that was so gradual that those about him
scarcely knew the moment of his final departure; he died on the
morning of the 17th of May, 1831.
Starting in life with
but few advantages, thrown upon his own resources at the early age of
sixteen, with energy and integrity of purpose, and a fearless self-reliance,
he had a long career of usefulness. His country demanded his
services, and he freely gave them, alternating in its financial,
military and legislative work. Its exigencies terminating, he was a
zealous co-worker in all that related to the beneficial uses of free
government. Almost constantly filling important public trusts, he was
at the same time the founder of business establishments, the promoter
of public prosperity, and, finally, the founder of a city.
His wife, Sophia Beatty,
was a descendant of John Beatty, who was born in Scotland in 166o,
from which, on account of religious persecutions, he emigrated to
Ireland, and from thence to England, where he married Susanna
Affordby. He then went to Holland, and about 1700 came to America,
and settled at Esopus, New York, where he died, leaving six sons and
two daughters. His widow removed with the children to Maryland about
the year 1728, where she purchased a large tract of land. Their son,
whose name was William, was born about the year 1693, and died in
1737, leaving one son, William, and five daughters. The son William,
was born January 17th, 1739, and married Mary Dorotha Grosh (daughter
of Jno. Conrad and Maria Sophia Grosh, of Mayence, on the Rhine, who
settled in Frederick, Maryland, in 1757). He died April 25th,1801,
and his wife on August 2d, 1810. They had sixteen children, of whom
Sophia, born January 25th, was the sixth.
Col. Nathaniel Rochester
and Sophia his wife had twelve children: William Beatty Rochester,
Nancy Barbara Rochester, John Cornelius Rochester, Sophia Eliza
Rochester, Mary Eleanor Rochester, Thomas Hart Rochester, Catharine
Kimball Rochester, Nathaniel Thrift Rochester, Anna Barbara
Rochester, Henry Elie Rochester, Ann Cornelia Rochester, Louisa
Lucinda Rochester."
From
"Semi-centennial History of the City of Rochester: with
illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent
men" by William F. Peck, published in Syracuse, N.Y. by D. Mason
& Co. in 1884. |
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