Editing Mendon, New York (section)

== History ==
The earliest known inhabitants of the land where the town of Mendon is located were the [[Seneca people]] of the [[Iroquois|Iroquois Confederacy]]. [[Totiakton]], the native settlement in present-day Mendon, was home to about 4,000 people.<ref>{{Cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Jones |first=Eric E. |date=December 2008 |title=Iroquois Population History and Settlement Ecology, AD 1500-1700 |url=https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/8916 |via=Penn State Electronic Theses and Dissertations for Graduate School (ETDA)}}</ref> In 1687, the town was destroyed by the [[Jacques-René de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville|Marquis de Denonville]], the governor of [[New France]], during his expedition against the Seneca.<ref name="Peck">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/semicentennialhi00peck_0 |title=SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER |last1=Peck |first1=William F. |date=1884 |publisher=D. Mason & Co. |location=Syracuse |page=[https://archive.org/details/semicentennialhi00peck_0/page/n66 57] |access-date=February 3, 2018}}</ref> Shortly after the destruction, the surviving natives moved elsewhere. The rest of the Seneca suffered a similar fate when, in 1779, Major General [[John Sullivan (general)|John Sullivan]] was ordered by [[George Washington]] to wage war against [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] and four nations of the Iroquois Confederacy who had sided with the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] in the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]. The [[Sullivan Expedition]] pushed the tribes to the British-controlled [[Niagara Frontier]], the western edge of New York.

Following the Revolutionary War, in 1788 [[Oliver Phelps (politician)|Oliver Phelps]] and [[Nathaniel Gorham]] bought {{convert|6000000|acre|sqkm|-3}} of land in what is now [[western New York]] from the [[Commonwealth of Massachusetts]]. Included in the [[Phelps and Gorham Purchase]] was the land that would later become the town of Mendon (known as Township Number 11, Range 5 in the purchase's 1788 survey).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/landmarksofmonro00rain |title=Landmarks of Monroe County, New York |last1=Raines |first1=Thomas Ed |last2=Aldreich |first2=Lewis Cass |last3=Peck |first3=William Farley |publisher=The Boston History Company |year=1895 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |pages=[https://archive.org/details/landmarksofmonro00rain/page/305 305]}}</ref>

For a short period, the area that is now Mendon was ostensibly part of New York's [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery County]] until January 27, 1789, when [[Ontario County, New York|Ontario County]] was formed. From 1789 to 1812, the area was within the town of [[East Bloomfield, New York|Bloomfield]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofontario00aldr |title=History of Ontario County, New York |last1=Aldrich |first1=Lewis Cass |last2=Conover |first2=George Stillwell |publisher=D. Mason & Co. |year=1893 |location=Syracuse, NY |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofontario00aldr/page/402 402]}}</ref> On May 26, 1812, the town of Mendon separated from Bloomfield, holding its first town meeting and elections on April 6, 1813.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/landmarksofmonro00rain |title=Landmarks of Monroe County, New York |last1=Raines |first1=Thomas Ed |last2=Aldreich |first2=Lewis Cass |last3=Peck |first3=William Farley |publisher=The Boston History Company |year=1895 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |pages=[https://archive.org/details/landmarksofmonro00rain/page/308 308]}}</ref> In 1821, Mendon was annexed by [[Monroe County, New York|Monroe County]] when the county was created.

According to a local historian, Mendon most likely got its name from Caleb Taft, an early settler, who came from [[Mendon, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.townofmendon.org/index.php?l=t&pageStewardLink=4907 |title=HISTORY: TOWN OF MENDON |last=Ham |first=Diane |website=www.townofmendon.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505080442/http://www.townofmendon.org/index.php?l=t&pageStewardLink=4907 |archive-date=May 5, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=July 27, 2017}}</ref>

On June 7, 1825, the [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Marquis de Lafayette]] was escorted from the village of [[Rochester, New York|Rochesterville]] to the hamlet of Mendon where he was met by representatives from the village of [[Canandaigua, New York|Canandaigua]] during his [[Visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States|tour]] of all 24 states of the union.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 8, 1825 |title=LA FAYETTE |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=onrb18250608-01.1.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------- |work=Ontario Repository |pages=2}}</ref>

The first train travelled through Mendon on January 1, 1853, when a railroad was built between Canandaigua and [[Batavia, New York|Batavia]]. The "Peanut Line", as it would later be referred to after it was acquired by the [[New York Central Railroad]], was opened and had a station in the village of [[Honeoye Falls, New York|Honeoye Falls]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.crookedlakereview.com/articles/136_150/142springsummer2007/142sheret.html |title=The "Peanut Line" of the New York Central Railroad |last=Sheret |first=John G. |date=2007 |website=www.crookedlakereview.com |access-date=July 27, 2017}}</ref> In 1891, the [[Lehigh Valley Railroad]] (LVRR) completed its mainline from [[Manchester, New York|Manchester]] to Buffalo, which travelled right through the heart of Mendon.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://lvrrhs.org/history/index.htm |title=Lehigh Valley Railroad Historical Society {{!}} History |website=lvrrhs.org |access-date=July 27, 2017}}</ref> At the height of the LVRR, there were three stations located in the town; one in the hamlet of Mendon, the second at [[Rochester Junction station|Rochester Junction]] (a major hub where track split off the mainline to downtown Rochester), and the third in the village of Honeoye Falls.

In 1954, the [[New York State Thruway]] was built on the northern border of Mendon, which became [[Interstate 90 in New York|Interstate 90]] when the [[Interstate Highway System]] was created in 1957.<ref name="opening">{{cite news |title=Across the Map |last=Dales |first=Douglas |date=June 20, 1954 |pages=XX21 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

The [[Adsit Cobblestone Farmhouse]], [[Cole Cobblestone Farmhouse]], [[Gates-Livermore Cobblestone Farmhouse]], [[Mendon Cobblestone Academy]], [[Mendon Presbyterian Church]], [[Miller–Horton–Barben Farm]], [[Sheldon Cobblestone House]], [[Stewart Cobblestone Farmhouse]], and [[Whitcomb Cobblestone Farmhouse]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref><ref name="nps">{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/listings/20150123.htm|title=National Register of Historic Places Listings|date=January 23, 2015|work=Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 1/12/15 through 1/16/15 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>