As people who obsessively follow my every word no matter where I post them may know, I am not a fan of the Arizona Cardinals franchise. When people started bailing off the media-created bandwagon, I was not surprised. As usual, the Cardinals have managed to start their season in the same way they have for years untold: by losing three in a row.

The Arizona Cardinals also raised their seat prices again this year, proving once again that they are the exception to the Economic Theory of Supply and Demand.

FIVE CARTTER BROTHERS, THEIR SISTER AND MOTHER

Little personal record is available concerning the family of David Kellogg Cartter as it struggled, following his death, to take part in community life and at the same time help prepare each member for his or her future contributions in different states of the nation.

PHEDERUS, 1807-1865. Oldest son, was born at Lowville, N.Y. He was the only son content to settle down in Rochester and consequently, with his family proved to be of real help to his mother n her declining years. He married Lydia Ann Wright and became an attorney, having studied law with an early member of the bar in Rochester. He practiced as a member of the firm Bishop and Cartter in both Rochester and Scottsville, N. Y. State. His name appears on the list of practicing attorneys as late as 1853.

Due to health problems he eventually gave up his law practice and entered the nursery business with his brother-in-law Dennis McCarthy in Syracuse, N. Y. where he stayed for nine years. It is said that Phederus was a great lawyer and that he once cleared a thief. This was a fact that he couldn’t reconcile with his conscience. This may have played an important role in his turning to the nursery business.

The family of Phederus consisted of six children: Nancy, Edward P., Martha F., Charles F., Frederic Oberlin, and David Kellogg. Edward, Martha and Charles never married. David served as special deputy and later as Collector of Customs at the Port of Rochester from 1869 to 1879. He resided on a farm in Rigo township engaged in business as an accountant and followed farming as a side line. Frederic Oberlin, who spent some time during his early years with James Bruce (2), established residence in Chicago, was on the police force and later a private detective. Nancy Cartter Weaver the oldest daughter was a very good correspondent. It is her letters that tell us most about Phederus’ life and that of his children. For instance she says in one letter.

“Father was a large man, when in his prime, standing well over six feet and weighing close to 300 pounds.” She characterizes him as follows: “he was the most splendid man I ever saw and in all his dealing with men, he was strictly honest and upright.”

George H., younger brother of James Bruce in a letter written after being back in Rochester on a visit says this of Phederus – – “None can be under the influence of his mind and conversation without becoming a better and brighter man. There are few but that will yield to him a supremacy of mind and listen to learn while he speaks.”

Phederus’ later years were marked by much sickness and he died in Boston June 22, 1865 being buried at the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester.

HARLEIGH, 1811 – 1874. Second son was born at Lowville, N.Y. He too read law in Rochester. It is probable that he left Rochester about 1834 with James Bruce, for both settled in Utica, Michigan Territory at the same time. He was here admitted to the bar of McComb county April 13, 1837 and took a prominent part in civic and political affairs. He served as Shelby’s Town Clerk and Justice of Peace; helped organize the Utica Lyceum and was president of the County Agricultural Society in 1858. He served as prosecuting attorney 1842-44 at which time he moved to Mt. Clemens in the same county. He was elected Legislative representative from McComb County in 1844, serving two terms, and was circuit court commissioner 1856 to 1860. His wife Jane Louise Scranton died in 1865.

On May 17, 1867 Harleigh Cartter was appointed by President Lincoln as Judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Arizona, organized in 1863. He was reputed to be the only democrat so appointed by Lincoln. He was appointed member of the first Bi-annual Territorial Council of Arizona which met in Tucson January 11, 1871 (11 members). Following the sudden death of the president of the council he was appointed to fill that vacancy. He represented Yavapai County and died in Arizona in 1874.

Harleigh’s family consisted of seven children: Elizabeth M., Francis B., Cass, James B., Harleigh Jr., Millicent H. and David Kellogg. Of these Elizabeth, Cass, and James died as children. Harleigh Jr. went to Arizona with his father and was admitted there to the bar, becoming a partner with his father. He was a rancher, and served as under sheriff. The ranch was located east of Prescott in Yaeger’s Canyon off Lonesome Valley. David Kellogg the youngest son moved to South Lowell, Alabama where he entered the Lumber Business. According to present information neither of these two families had sons to carry on the Cartter name.

DAVID KELLOGG(2), 1812-1887, was born in Lowville, N. Y. He was sixteen years old when his father died. He went on to finish two years of his education at the Rochester Academy.

He served as an apprentice in the printing office of Thurlow and Weed while he studied law in the offices of Ebeneza Griffin and E. Darow Smith at Rochester.

At the age of 20 he was admitted to the Bar and commenced the practice of law in Rochester, N. Y. He married Nancy H. Hanford of Monroe Co., N. Y. in 1836 and the same year moved to Akron, Ohio. Here he practiced law in company with Alvah Hand and George Bliss. Becoming interested in politics he moved to Massilon in Stark County, Ohio in partnership with H. B. Hurlburt in 1845. In 1848 he was elected as a democrat to the 31st Congress and was re-elected in 1850.

When the Republican Party was organized 1854-55 he joined its ranks. In 1856 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he opened his own law office. Being a delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago in 1860, he played an important part in the selection of Lincoln as the presidential nominee of the new party. He was successful in swinging enough Chase-committed Ohio votes over to Lincoln so that the result was his nomination and ultimate election.

In 1861 President Lincoln appointed David K. Cartter to be minister to Bolivia. He served from March 27, 1861 to March 1, 1862 when he asked to be relieved. He returned to Cleveland and his practice, but not for long. In 1863 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, a position he held until his death in Washington, D.C., April 16, 1887. During this time he became a very close friend and adviser to President Lincoln and succeeding presidents. He was one of those summoned to the President’s bedside at the time of his assassination.

The body of Justice David K. Cartter was interned in Lakeview cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio. David’s family consisted of two sons William H, Hanford and David Kellogg Jr. WILLIAM H., 1838-1904 was a physician and surgeon, trained in Heidelberg, Germany and interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He served during the Civil War as medical officer on board the ship Farragut. He inherited some 6,000 acres of land in Kansas, accumulated much more and made his home at Cottonwood Falls in that state where descendants can still be found. DAVID, JR., 1840-1863 died of typhoid fever while in camp at Fort Scott, Kansas during the Civil War. He was a lieutenant in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry.

The following is taken from a eulogy of Judge David printed in the New York World under a Washington D.C. dateline of April 17, 1887.

“Judge Cartter was not great in the technique of the law, nor was he a great student of the law. He had a mind that grasped the philosophy, the wisdom, the reason, and the common sense of the law. Never was there a more judicial mind.”

GEORGE HOLLISTER, 1827-1863, was the youngest Cartter son born in Rochester just one year before his father’s death. He grew up at a time when the family finances were being strained but there is evidence that the family were working together to help each other.

He followed the path of his three oldest brothers, studying the law. He was admitted to the Bar in Cleveland, Ohio which indicates that he very likely studied with his brother David. In 1849, Gold Rush times, he satisfied his pioneering spirit by leaving for California where he settled in Sacramento City. Here he served three successive terms as district attorney for the Sixth Congressional Dist. His salary at that time was $5,000.00 per year. There is also some indication, though uncertain, that he served in state legislative circles.

In 1854 he came back to Rochester to visit his mother and to see his brothers enroute. He returned to California in December of the same year, as indicated in a letter sent to his brother James Bruce on Dec. 18th. He wrote “after a short but very pleasant voyage I arrived again to my adopted home. – – – I have some thought of removing to San Francisco. I think that there is a wider field and I can do better in it.”

He must have changed his mind for 1858 finds him in Portland City, Oregon. The U.S. Senate approved that same year the naming of Oregon Territory as a state and the House passed the Approval bill in February of 1859.

Little record seems to be available concerning George’s activities at Portland other than the announcement of his marriage, the official record of his death, and the filing of his will. The following marriage announcement appeared in a San Francisco paper: “Married, in San Francisco, May 14, George H. Cartter of Sacramento to Rosetha F. Silver.” (No year was given in the announcement) George died of typhoid fever Feb. 24, 1862 in Portland at the age of 36. No children were mentioned in the will which was drawn up nine hours before death occurred. His widow Rosetha F. Cartter signed the will Sept. 1, 1862.

It is regrettable that such a promising young life ended just at the time when its contributions to this new section of the U. S. might have been of great value.

In the Portland Journal of March 24, 1863 there appeared the following as part of their announcement of his death.

“It is our melancholy duty to record the death of one, who by his many virtues as a citizen, by his professional abilities and by his love of what was true and good, endeared himself to the affections of those who knew him while living and mourn for him now, that he is dead.”

ELIZABETH MILLICENT (CARTTER) MC CARTHY, 1817-1887, was born August 1, 1817 in the City of Rochester, N. Y. the one girl in a family with five brothers. At the age of 20 she married Dennis Mc Carthy of Salino, Onondago Co., N. Y. Dennis was at that time in partnership with his father in the mercantile business. His father had come from Cork Ireland.

In 1846 the young couple moved to Syracuse, N. Y. where Dennis continued in the same line of business, taking his sons into partnership with him as soon as they were old enough. In 1844-5 Mr. McCarthy represented Onondago Co. in the State Legislature; in 1853 he was elected mayor of Syracuse; and in 1868-71 he was representative in the U.S. Congress and from 1876-1885 inclusive he was a state senator. He died Feb. 14, 1886.

In a biographical sketch found in a Memorium to Elizabeth Millicent McCarthy we find the following excerpt.

“Elizabeth was well educated, – – – a woman familiar with general history, well versed in the modern and advanced literature of Europe and this country. She also ranked high as an able and cultured linguist, spending much time in Europe perfecting her early study and knowledge of Italian, Spanish and German. In French she was exceedingly proficient.” She was recognized for her charitable activities and especially with those children of the community.

Her death occurred December 2nd, 1887, less than two years after her husband’s demise and eight months following the death of her older brother, Justice David Kellogg Cartter of Washington D.C. She was buried in St. Agnes Cemetery in Syracuse, being survived by the following five children: David K., Thomas, Percy (Mrs. Thomas Emory), Kate (unmarried) and Dennis Jr. Four Other children died at an early age.

JAMES BRUCE, 1815-1897, fourth oldest son and first of the Wisconsin Cartter was only thirteen years old when his father died and because of the hardship which the father’s loss meant to the family James went shortly to live with his Uncle James Bruce Cartter (1), the pioneer blacksmith after whom he was named. His future will be the subject of the next chapter and the balance of our story as he moves through Michigan into southern Wisconsin and finally settles, after much searching, on a home site, near Black River Falls in Jackson County, Wisconsin.

We have now taken a look at the children of David K. Cartter (1) as they grew up and moved out into work responsibility, family life, and reclining years. We must not leave this family, however, without final reference to the pioneer woman whose fortitude, faith, and example must have been a determining factor in the lives of these six children.

Elizabeth Hollister Cartter had faced the frontier with courage and assumed responsibility for the family of six children, when there was little to live on and educational opportunities were very limited.

Perhaps the most pointed tribute to Mrs. Cartter and to other pioneer women like her is found in John Kelsey’s booklet entitled Lives and Reminiscences of Pioneers of Rochester written in 1854 and stemming from personal acquaintance and conferences with his subjects.

Here is a quote from his 58th Subject, Mrs. David K. Cartter.

“If we are prepared to write the history of the children, when we are made acquainted with the parentage, by parity of reasoning Mrs. Cartter’s worth should not be mistaken, when that of her children is written. Indeed if such have been all the pioneer matrons of Rochester, its moral preeminence among the cities of the Union, its rapid growth and improvements, social and intellectual advantages, and its future glorious prospects need occasion little surprise to those who are accustomed to connect causes and effects in their relations to the history of any people or community.”

Appearing in this same Kelsey reference we find still another tribute to the pioneer men and women. Reproduced in this reference is a map of Rochester as it would have appeared in 1814, a year which happens to coincide with the arrival of the Cartter family in what was then called Rochesterville. This map was drafted at the request of Mr. Kelsey by two residents of Rochester who were boys living there in 1814, and whose parents were both mentioned in Mr. Kelsey’s Reminiscences. One of these boys was Phederus Cartter, the oldest son of David and Elizabeth Cartter.

Excerpts from a letter which they sent to Mr. Kelsey with the map follow.

“Rochester, Aug. 2, 1854

To Messrs. Kelsey and others:

Dear Sirs: Agreeable to your request we have prepared a profile or map of Rochesterville (the now city of Rochester) as it was in March 1814 – – – More than 40 years having now elapsed since this vision was presented to our boyish eyes; and while we are tracing out the lines marked by our memory in years when we could hardly picture to ourselves a hope that we should this day walk among the living in a populous city, the one-twentieth of whose faces we hardly recognize; all this passed before us now like a dream of nite or like a tale that is told. We believe that we have placed upon the map all the dwellings, business houses, mills etc., that were erected, – – – together with the names and business of each occupant.

– – – we as the sons of two of the persons named (In Kelsey’s book) would be happy to bear testimony and record the following: – – – we have been acquainted with them and their children to the third and even fourth generation, and yet we have never known an instance in which they of their posterity were ever convicted of even accused of crime; if we could give any higher testimony of their moral worth, and their fitness to found a great and mighty city, we would do so. We have long desired that in some way a record might be made of those who first gave life and animation to our city. – – –

Very respectfully your obedient servants,
EDWIN SCRANTOM
PHEDERUS CARTTER”

Elizabeth Hollister Cartter died in Rochester September 23, 1876 and is buried in the Cartter lot No. 140G in Mt. Hope Cemetery at Rochester, N. Y.

I’m going to leave this one up top for a bit:

I am hereby inviting you to visit Harvest Christian Fellowship, the church I belong to. It is located at 2232 West Campbell, in Phoenix, in the Middle East Baptist Church building. Harvest Christian Fellowship is a Church of the Word. We meet Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. Come on by and see if what I look like is the same as what you think I do.

ROCHESTER, N. Y. HAS GROWING PAINS

The year is again 1814. It is March 28th, and we are back in the new settlement of Rochester, N. Y. In fact the settlement hasn’t yet been named. Father, mother, and three boys, Phederus, Harleigh and David are making themselves comfortable in the one and a half story house built by their Uncle James Bruce, the village blacksmith. But they find a tense and uneasy feeling among the settlers.

The War of 1812 is still on and the British have a fleet on Lake Erie. Many men have gone to the Niagra frontier and those remaining fear invasion by the fleet. Sept. 10, 1813 had of course seen Admiral Perry defeat the fleet of six British ships at the western end of Lake Erie followed by his famous report, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” But fighting was not over, for on July 25, 1814 the Battle of Lundy’s Lane was fought about a mile from Niagara Falls on Canadian soil. The result was indecisive. British ships single or in numbers cruised Lake Ontario, and the mouth of the Genessee River near Rochesterville provided a good target for invasion. Fortunately no serious encounters developed. The war wound down and Hanford’s Landing at the mouth of the river went on to become an important shipping point.

Going back to 1789 when Indian Allan built the historic first mill on the Genessee River, the early settlement above the Main Falls was called Genessee Mills or Genessee Falls and later Fall Town. A half mile below the Lower Falls at the head of navigation was Hanford’s Landing – – variously known as Genessee Landing or King’s Landing.

It had early been anticipated that the center of settlement might be either of these areas, but about 1812 – 1815 the trend of growth turned upstream settling beside the upper falls on the west.

Education was receiving its due share of attention. With a rapidly increasing school age population the school room, supplied by Jehiel Barnard over his tailor shop, soon became too small. The first school building in Rochester, a one-story wooden structure, was built in the winter of 1813-14, just in time for the Cartter boys to use it. Following is Mr. S. A. Ellis’ description of this building, found in records of the Rochester Historical Society, – – quite different from today’s schools.

“The 1st school built in the fall and inter of 1813-14 was a plain, one-story wooden structure 18 x 24 feet – – interior exceedingly simple – – an inclined desk attached to the wall extending around three sides of the room, the pupils being seted on long benches without backs and facing the wall, the feet of the small ones dangling in mid-air. The room was heated by a fireplace, which served also for ventilation. The seats for the primary pupils occupied a portion of the small space in the middle of the room, and for the most part were constructed of slabs just as they left the saw mill, with the flat surface uppermost and supported by legs set into the opposite sides. Some time prior to 1820 it was enlarged and about 182 still more enlarged and improved.”

Mr. Riley in Peck’s History of Rochester says: “Aaron Skinner is said to have been the first teacher in the new school-house and the first male teacher in Rochester.” This school was known as the Free Academy.

Rochester’s first high school was built in 1827. With changing patterns of public education being tried several attempts were made by individuals to start private schools. None of these seemed to be very satisfactory. In 1832 the high school was reorganized as “The Rochester Seminary of General Education” and from 1839 to 1851 it was known as the Rochester Collegiate Institute.

Records show that attendance at this institution in 1833 reached 325. The State Regents accredited 135 of these as Academy scholars.

From The Towns of Monroe County we learn that on March 15, 1814 the old town of Smallwood was divided and out of it’s territory two other towns were erected, named respectively Brighton and Pittsford. The former, as originally constituted, contained about 66 sq. miles of land or an equivalent of about 42,240 acres. At that time this town included the village settlement of Rochester, and with it its other settled communities and varied interests it was numbered among the most important civil division of the region.

John Kelsey in his Pioneers of Rochester 1854 reproduced a map of Rochester as it looked in the spring of 1814 when the Cartters arrived. This map shows property identified in the name of owners, such as “Lot 18 – – The house occupied by the David Cartter family. Lot 19 – – James B. Cartter’s blacksmith shop, on the bank of the Genessee river.

This memory map was prepared in 1854 for the above publication by two sons of original settlers. These sons were Edwin Scrantom and Phederus Cartter.

The year 1815 was especially important to the Cartters for two family reasons.

First, James Bruce (2) was born on January 13, 1815. He was the fourth son of David K. and Elizabeth Cartter, the author’s grandfather, and the central figure in this Cartter story.

Second, was the marriage on July 4, 1815 of James Bruce (1), brother of David K., to Mahala Doty of Saratoga, N. Y., the daughter of Capt. Isaac and Ann Parks Doty. The newlyweds continued to live in Rochester until 1818 when they moved to Rega, a small settlement nearby.

In an obituary prepared at the death of Elizabeth Hollister Cartter the following mention is made of the homes in which the Cartter family had lived.

“In 1817 the Cartter family moved to a thirty-two acre lot, then on the road t Henrietta, now on Mount Hope Avenue a little north of Clarissa Street Bridge. They occupied a log house with a frame addition put to it by Mr. Cartter. Years later the family built a larger an more commodious house nearby and lived in it nine or ten years.”

Yes, Rochester was beginning to change with its expanding population. It was becoming “a water-power city” and developing fast. Mr. McKelley in his book, with just that title, writes about this period 1815 to 1820 as follows under this sub-title, Peaceful Growth on the Lower Genessee.

“The Ely brothers painted their newly completed gristmill a dull red, and as soon as the spring thaw cleared the raceway their four pairs of millstones began to turn out an improved grade of flour. – – – The rumble of the millstones mingles with the clang of Cartter’s anvil across the street and with the sound of the hammers of Abelard Reynold’s workmen busy enlarging his house into the first tavern on the west bank provided a cheerful welcome to Erasties Cook, the first silversmith; to Horace and George Sill, the first book sellers and to a half dozen other merchants laden with fresh supplies from Albany to Montreal.”

From a different slant Jenny Marsh Parker writes in her book Rochester A Story Historical. She calls attention to the fact that Elisha Johnson had built a dam across the river by 1818 and the population had increased to 1,049 people. She describes the changes taking place as follows:

“Ely’s ‘old red mill’ – – 4 run of stone were grinding day and nite – – Rochester making flour for Eastern markets as well as her own and what with a cotton mill – – a paper mill and saw mills. Gibeon Cobb’s semi-weekly ox team trip to the landings and back – – a weekly newspaper, Jacks of all trades within call of the 4 corners, every religious denomination pushing its mission in the union meeting house, or working for a separate chapel, an occasional spelling school, and a constant arrival of immigrants converting every cabin into a boarding house; really Rochester was not the dullest place to live in after all. – – – Hanford’s Landing has becomethe great shipping point for Rochester’s flour.

“The population of this stirring clearing in the forest was mixed rather than rough, idel drunken Indians, as well as a considerable sprinkling of Quakers contributing to its unique variety. The Quakers were a strong factor in our poneer days and a valuable one. That was the day of the town pump, and the drying-house for lumber – – a day when the whole town turned out to a funeral and the provident man occasionally ‘dug his own grave’ in the burying ground.

“The price of wheat during the early part of 1817 was from $1.75 to $2.25 per bushel. Exports from the Genessee river down the lake to Canadian market during the season of navigation were 26,000 bbls flour; 3,653 bbls pot. And pearls ash; 1.173 bbl pork; 190 bbls whisky; 214,000 double butt staves etc.

“Not alone on land but on water did the new village make its influence felt, for the steamboat Ontario now began to make regular trips from Sackett’s Harbor to Lewiston stopping at the Port of Genessee. To make connections with the vessel several crafts were kept busy transporting produce and manufactured articles down the river.

1819 – – exports to Canada from this port were $400,000 worth.

1821 – – The County of Monroe was formed.”

The importance of the Erie Canal was just beginning to be realized when in 1819 the middle section was completed and the contract for the stretch from Rochester to Palmyra was awarded. The original construction of the canal followed these dimensions: 42’ wide at top, 28’ wide at bottom; 4’ deep; 363 miles long; the cost to New York State $7,143,789.00 The entire length was completed in 1825. IT carried primarily passengers going west and produce for market going east. It was slow traveling, prompting Horace Greeley to comment in his recollections, “Passengers traveled 1-1/2 miles per hour and paid 1-1/2 cents per mile.”

By 1862 the canal was enlarged to 70 ft. wide at top; 7 ft. depth and the distance shortened by 12-1/2 miles. There were 72 locks in all.

According to one historian (name unknown) the population of Rochester in 1820 was 1,792 and of the inhabitants 355 were farmers. 115 were mechanics, 46 were foreigners not naturalized. There were no slaves in the town but among the people were eight free blacks. Electors numbered 547. There were at the time 3 grist mills, 12 saw mills, 2 oil mills, four carding machines, two fulling mills, one cotton and woolen factory, and five asheries.

Rochester was recognized as a strong anti-slavery center. For a great many years the work of Frederick Douglas centered here. Annually from 100 to 200 fugitives passed through her gates. While there were a half dozen houses, not many more, ready to shelter them temporarily, they most frequently found their way to the residence of Mrs. Amy Post on Sophia St. There they would lie hidden, sometimes one at a time, once in a while as many as 15 in a party. – – – They were helped aboard a steamer and across the lake to freedom in Canada.

The rapid increase in number of mills of all kinds kept David very busy at this branch of his trade. However in 1820, with the help of Abner Hollister, his father-in-law, he found time to build the first 3-story building erected in Rochester. The “Mansion House”, as it was called, was primarily a stagecoach inn and tavern. It was quite impressive with columns all across the front supporting the porch roof.

It is said, “The Mansion House didn’t do so well at first After June 7, 1825 when General La Fayette visited the city and was feted at a special dinner in the Mansion House with 200 people attending, its popularity began to increase. LaFayette had come to the city on a canal boat from the west though the canal was not completed for regular travel until four years later.

It was in the Mansion House that Rochester’s first Masonic Lodge was instituted, to be known as Wells Lodge No. 282.” The above is quoted from Centennial History of Rochester, N. Y. The first court house and office building was built in 1821-22.

We have little record of the life of the David K. Cartter family other than that related sketchily in connection with the children as they grew up. In total eight (8) children were born to David and Elizabeth. Following James Bruce’s birth the only daughter, Elizabeth Hollister, was born in 1817. Two sons followed both names John H. and born in 1820 and 1822. John H. (1) was born July, 1820 and died when 2 yrs. old. John H. (2) born Dec., 1822 died in May, 1826.

The youngest child George H. was born in 1827 just one year before the death of his father.

The untimely death of David Kellogg, 8-27-1828 at the age of 52 years, left Elizabeth with a family of 5 boys and 1 girl, ages 21 – 17 – 16 – 13 – 11 and 1. Her task was a difficult one in a new settlement with limited finances. She however helped to see that each child received training and education for his or her chosen life work. Four of the boys became lawyers, the other, James Bruce, chose iron working and agriculture as his field. The daughter, Elizabeth, became very fluent in several languages. She married Dennis McCarthy a prominent merchant and political figure in locals, state, and national politics. They resided at Syracuse, N. Y.

The first cemetery in Rochester was on a one-half acre lot on the corner of Plymouth Ave. and Spring St. It was deeded as a free gift to the village in 1821. Three months later this lot was exchanged for one 3-1/2 acres in size located on west Main St. All bodies were removed to it. This was known as the Buffalo St. Burying Ground.

In 1836 the common council approved a selection of 53 acres (later added to) of what is now Mt. Hope Cemetery. Here the first burial was of William Carter, August 18, 1838, no relative as far as we know. This is a beautiful cemetery, and well cared for. David Kellogg Cartter’s body was removed to this cemetery in the 53 acre addition.

It was the author’s privilege to visit this cemetery and to locate lot 140G where the following members of the family are buried. The lot is located in a beautifully wooded, bowl-shaped depression near the top of a hilly area. Inscriptions on the family stone include the following names:
DAVID K. CARTTER d. Aug. 27, 1828
ELIZABETH (His wife) d. Sept. 23, 1876
JOHN H. 1st (Their son) d. July 10, 1822, 2 yrs.
JOHN H. 2nd (Their son) d. May 16, 1826, 3-1/2 yrs
ALMIRA COOK (Wife of Rev. Chauncey Cook and sister of Elizabeth Hollister Cartter) d – 12-21-1842
PHEDERUS CARTTER d. June 22, 1865, 58 yrs (Son of David and Elizabeth)
LYDIA ANN WRIGHT (His wife)d. Nov. 18, 1898, 86 yrs.
EDWIN P. CARTTER (Son) d. June 14, 1913
MARTHA FRANCES (Daughter) d. Dec. 1, 1917
CHARLES FINNEY (Son) d. Nov. 4, 1876, 37 yrs.
LUCINDA WRIGHT d. April 2, 1848 (Widow of Samuel Wright and mother of Lydia above)

I thought that would get your attention. Yes, it is true, the church and the state are working together. Actually, the state begged the church to help. The state didn’t have to beg too hard, because most churches, when informed of the need, rushed forward with loaded arms to help those in need that the state couldn’t seem to help.

Not that the state wasn’t helping, but there were a lot of refugees that the state couldn’t seem to get to soon enough, and every hand added to the relief line meant more people getting helped sooner.

So, the churches stepped in, opened their doors, opened their pantries, and opened their wallets. Groups moved in to help in the cleanup, others staffed refugee centers, still others gathered, catalogued, and distributed donations.

But wait – isn’t this against the Liberal’s view of the constitution? Where they insist that the First Amendment guarantees that the church and the state shall be forever separate, never to be joined, and the two shall not even look at each other across the room? Why, then, are the Liberals and the ACLU the first to fall silent when so many churches rush in to aid those in need?

Because, the Liberals and the ACLU do not have the abilities and the resources to get it done. And, as anyone with a reading comprehension level above that of a rock will be able to tell you, the First Amendment does not guarantee freedom FROM religion, it guarantees freedom OF religion.

The First Amendment was written to prevent what a certain colony (who shall remain nameless, because juvenile offenses should not be used to judge the current entity) did to back the Anglican church just before the Revolution – it forced all of the citizens to support it whether they were theologically in line with it or not. The First Amendment prevents the government from forcing everyone to support a single denomination.

The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the First Amendment. It appears in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 when he was giving his opinion about the matter – he was not espousing keeping religion totally out of government, he was saying that government should not be running the religions and vice versa.

This episode kind of reminds me of the Dirty Harry movies – the Liberal mayor didn’t like Clint Eastwood’s character, but the mayor called on Harry Callahan to “get the job done” – the job that the mayor does not or will not want to do himself. And, of course, Harry steps up and does the job. Not because he likes to do it, but because he has the abilities and the resources to get it done.