Let’s imagine – a person celebrating his or her 75th birthday today, as you read this. That person would have been born in 1940, during Franklin Roosevelt’s second term of office.
Then imagine a person celebrating his or her 75th birthday on THAT day. THAT person would have been born in 1865, near the end of Lincoln’s first term. So two ordinary lifetimes would take us back to the Civil War.
Ah, but then imagine a THIRD person, having his or her 75th birthday on that day in 1865. That THIRD person would have been born in 1790, during George Washington’s first full year of office.
Three ordinary lifetimes comprise nearly the entire history of our country and its Constitution. But what happened during each of those 75-year spans – locally, and nationwide?
To start with our 1790 person… new states began to be admitted almost immediately, added to the original 13. A series of harsh treaties stole the land of the Iroquois. Charles Williamson and his party poled, rowed, or paddled up the river to found Bath, then start developing the region. Our Finger Lakes counties were erected during this time, starting with Ontario, then going on to Steuben in 1796, then a string of others finishing with Schuyler in 1856.
George Washington freed his slaves – numbering hundreds – in his will. That Constitutional abortion, the electoral college, caused a crisis in our fourth presidential elections, forcing the House of Representatives to choose between Adams and Jefferson.
The War of 1812 took hundreds of local men to (and even over) the Niagara Frontier. Ira Davenport, John Magee, John Kennedy and George McClure were all veterans. Then the electoral college screwed us up again, seating John Quincy Adams insead of Andrew Jackson, who actually won the votes.
Saddlebag preachers like Daniel Averitt (Presbyterian), James Brownson, and Moses Rowley (Baptist) scattered new churches across our region.
The fourth of July in 1827 marked a signal change. For the first time in two centuries, there were no slaves in the state of New York.
Arks and rafts floated down the rivers, carrying produce to Baltimore. The Erie Canal opened in 1825, yanking traffic away from the Southern Tier. By 1830 or so, steamboats started paddling the Finger Lakes. In 1851, the Erie Railroad brought lost traffic back. Along with the railroad came the telegraph.
During the Potato Famine a wave of Irish immigration (both nationally and locally) sparked rage against Catholics, a force that coalesced into the new American Party, or Know-Nothings.
Down in Virginia, Nat Turner raised his doomed (and excessively murderous) rebellion. Out west we picked a fight and launched the Mexican War, stealing almost half of that country. Ulysses S. Grant, who fought in the war, said it was the worst crime ever perpetrated by a strong country upon a weak one.
All of the towns in Steuben County were created during this period. Towns like Penn Yan, Prattsburgh, Bath, and Hammondsport created academies – what we would call high schools. Elsewhere kids went to one-room schools – 400 of them in Steuben County alone.
The vast forest that covered western New York all but disappeared. The wood went for construction and fuel, the land went for farming or grazing. Grape culture and winemaking began to appear along the lakes. Grapes were said to be the only thing that Pulteney folks had ever discovered that would justify the taxes on their land.
John Jones in Elmira, William Seward in Auburn, and Frederick Douglass in Rochester were among the thousands who clandestinely and illegally operated the Underground Railroad. Blood ran red in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry – even as it had already done, for 250 years, under the lash. Lincoln was elected with a pledge not to interfere with slavery in the states. Southern leaders lied to their people, said he was plotting a race war, and spurred many of their people into rebellion.
Thousands went to war from our region, and hundreds died. But that radical new government created the Homestead Act, the land-grant college system, absentee voting, income tax, the draft, and home delivery of the mail (in cities). Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and delivered the Gettysburg Address.
As we finished up our first 75-year span, well over half a million men were already dead. Grant’s army (including many local men) was besieging Petersburg, the key to Richmond. Sherman’s army (including many local men) had marched from Atlanta to the sea. Now they kicked off northward, pushing Joe Johnston’s troops before them. The end was in sight, but there was still a lot of dieing to go.