Editing Rochester, New York (section)

=== Nineteenth century ===
Rochester was founded shortly after by a wave of English-Puritan-descended immigrants from [[New England]], who were looking for new agricultural land. They were the dominant cultural group in Rochester for over a century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peck |first=William F. |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~digitized/books/History_of_Rochester_and_Monroe_County_volume_I.pdf |title=History of Rochester and Monroe County, New York, From the Earliest Historic Times to the Beginning of 1907 |publisher=The Pioneer Publishing Company |year=1908 |volume=I |location=New York and Chicago |pages=181}}</ref> On November 8, 1803, three men from [[Hagerstown, Maryland]], purchased a 100-acre (40-[[hectare|ha]]) tract from [[The Pulteney Association|the Pulteney Estate]] along the Genesee River: Major Charles Carroll, Colonel William Fitzhugh Jr, and Colonel [[Nathaniel Rochester]], the namesake of the city. They chose the site because its three [[Waterfall#Types of waterfalls|cataracts]] on 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.<ref>Peck, pp. 32–35</ref> In 1817, the Brown brothers and other landowners joined their lands with the Hundred Acre Tract to form the village of Rochesterville. This name was unpopular, and in 1822 it was shortened to Rochester.<ref>Peck, p. 51</ref>

By 1821, Rochesterville became the seat of Monroe County.<ref>Peck, p. 59</ref> In 1823, the [[Erie Canal]] aqueduct over the Genesee River was completed, connecting the city to the [[Hudson River]] to the east.<ref>Peck, p. 60</ref> New commerce from the canal turned the village into America's first [[boomtown]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKelvey |first1=Blake |title=ROCHESTER THE WATER - POWER CITY 1812-1854 |date=1945 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |page=99 |url=https://archive.org/details/rochesterthewate000355mbp/page/n115/mode/2up |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref> By 1830, Rochester's population had grown to 9,200,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1850a-02.pdf|title=Census|publisher=United States Census|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808210104/http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1850a-02.pdf|archive-date=August 8, 2010}} page 36</ref> and in 1834, it was rechartered as a city.<ref>Peck, p. 68</ref> Rochester was first known as "the Young Lion of the West", and then as the "Flour City". By 1838, it was the largest flour-producing city in the United States.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last1=Desrochers|first1=Pierre|url=https://archive.org/details/locavoresdilemma0000desr|url-access=registration|quote=flour producing cities 1838.|title=The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet|last2=Shimizu|first2=Hiroko|date=June 5, 2012|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=978-1-58648-940-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/locavoresdilemma0000desr/page/68 68]|language=en}}</ref> A series of religious revivals occurred in the as part of the [[Second Great Awakening]], including a particularly notable revival led by [[Charles Grandison Finney]] which inspired local social reform movements.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKelvey |first1=Blake |title=ROCHESTER THE WATER - POWER CITY 1812-1854 |date=1945 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |pages=190–193 |url=https://archive.org/details/rochesterthewate000355mbp/page/n115/mode/2up |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref>

During 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 [[Plant nursery|nursery]] business, giving rise to the city's second nickname, the Flower City. Nurseries ringed the city, the most famous of which was started in 1840 by immigrants [[George Ellwanger]] from Germany and [[Patrick Barry (horticulturist)|Patrick Barry]] from Ireland.<ref>Blake McKelvey, [http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/%7Erochhist/v20_1958/v20i1.pdf "The Germans of Rochester: Their Traditions and Contributions"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608184254/http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/%7Erochhist/v20_1958/v20i1.pdf |date=June 8, 2011 }}, ''Rochester History'', Vol. 20, No. 1 (January 1958), pp. 7–8.</ref> [[Shoemaking]] also became a major local industry as the city began to industrialize.<ref name="industry">{{cite journal |last1=Rosenberg-Naparsteck |first1=Ruth |title=Two Centuries of Industry and Trade in Rochester |journal=Rochester History |date=Fall 1989 |volume=LI |issue=4 |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v51_1989/v51i4.pdf |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref>

In 1847, [[Frederick Douglass]] founded ''[[The North Star (anti-slavery newspaper)|The North Star]]'', an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] newspaper, in Rochester. A former slave and an antislavery speaker and writer, he gained a circulation of over 4,000 subscribers in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schmitt |first1=Victoria Sandwick |title=Rochester's Frederick Douglass: Part One |journal=Rochester History |date=Summer 2005 |volume=LXVII |issue=3 |page=18 |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v67_2005/v67i3.pdf |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref> Douglass lived in Rochester until his home was destroyed in a fire in 1872, and a historical marker was erected at the site on South Avenue.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schmitt |first1=Victoria Sandwick |title=Rochester's Frederick Douglass: Part Two |journal=Rochester History |date=Fall 2005 |volume=LXVII |issue=4 |page=3 |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v67_2005/v67i4.pdf |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref> Many other prominent abolitionists operated in the area and operated on the [[Underground Railroad]], such as [[Thomas James (minister)|Thomas James]] and [[Austin Steward]].<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.syracuse.com/living/2021/02/upstates-forgotten-abolitionists-the-former-slave-who-wrote-his-autobiography.html|title = Upstate's forgotten abolitionists: The former slave who wrote his autobiography|date = February 22, 2021|access-date = May 19, 2021|archive-date = May 19, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210519155948/https://www.syracuse.com/living/2021/02/upstates-forgotten-abolitionists-the-former-slave-who-wrote-his-autobiography.html|url-status = live}}</ref>

Around the same time, the nearby Finger Lakes region was the birthplace of the [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage movement]]. A [[Seneca Falls Convention|critical suffragettes' convention]] was held in 1848 in nearby Seneca Falls, and Rochester was the home of [[Susan B. Anthony]] along with other notable Suffragettes such as [[Abigail Bush]] and [[Amy Post]]. The city itself played host to the [[Rochester Women's Rights Convention of 1848]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKelvey |first1=Blake |title=ROCHESTER THE WATER - POWER CITY 1812-1854 |date=1945 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |page=287 |url=https://archive.org/details/rochesterthewate000355mbp/page/n115/mode/2up |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref> The [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], in 1920, which guaranteed the right of women to vote, was known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment because of her work toward its passage, which she did not live to see.<ref>{{cite news|title=Senators to Vote on Suffrage Today; Fate of Susan B. Anthony Amendment Hangs in Balance on Eve of Final Test|newspaper=New York Times|date=September 26, 1918|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60F17F63E5511738DDDAF0A94D1405B888DF1D3|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-date=December 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225181245/https://www.nytimes.com/1918/09/26/archives/senators-to-vote-on-suffrage-today-fate-of-susan-b-anthony.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Anthony's home is a [[National Historic Landmark]] known as the [[Susan B. Anthony House|National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/ny/NY.pdf|title=Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New York|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=September 10, 2016|archive-date=November 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117072134/https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/ny/NY.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>