Town Historian
M. Joette Knapp
(585) 659-2762
Kendall Historian is looking for photos of happenings in Kendall for 1964-1999. These can be donated or Historian Knapp can copy them and return them. Also old Family photos and houses etc.
Notify Joette Knapp if you can help her in her search.
Kendall Town Census - 2000:
2838
Kendall Central School Census - 2001: 1132
Kendall Town Effective Tax Rate - 2001: $34./$1000.
First's in the town of Kendall
Settler: 1812 - Samuel
Bates
Child: 1816 - Bartlett Morse
Death: 1816 - George Balcomb
Marriage: 1817 - Esther Bates to James Aikon
School: 1819 - lot 123, south of 4 corners East
Kendall
Teacher: Gurdon Balcomb
Sawmill: 1819 - Ammon Auger - Ebenezer Boyden
Library: 1822 - Amos Randall - books purchased by
selling shares ($2.00) and by contributions
Building: 1821 - double log cabin on southwest
corner of village square - built by Reuben Roblee - Lyman Spicer
School in Kendall: 1823 - in 1/2 of double log
cabin
Teacher (in above school): Anna Auger
Grist mill: 1824 - Ose Webster
Frame school: 1824 - on northwest corner of village
Tavern: 1824-1825 - the double log cabin plus an
addition
Norwegian: 1825 - Cleng Peerson
Norwegian settlement: property on the end of Norway
Rd. - west side
Blacksmith: 1825-1826 - William Bassett
Canal system: 1825 - completion date - Erie Canal
Store: 1832 - Lewis Peet
Mail Route: 1835 - Sandy Creek to North Murray
Post Office: Kendall in honor of Amos Kendall -
post master general of U.S.
Postmaster: S. Kinney - William Bassett carried the
mail once a week by horse or on foot
Formation of the Town: 1837 - Merchants Webster and
Peasley secured passage of an act in State Legislature - providing for the
formation of the town - separating from Murray - 19,994 acres.
Officers: 1837 - Supervisor - Alanson Whitney
Town Clerk - Theron Soule
Doctor: 1836 - Dr. Walter Sanford and Theophilus
Randall
Church: 1834 - Baptists/Congregationalists located
northwest corner - school removed
Lodge: 1848 - Sons of Temperance
Sidewalks/Streetlights: by Village Improvement
Society
Railroad: 1875 - Rome-Watertown-Ogdensburg
100th Anniversary: 1912 - Village Improvement
Society - parade, ball game, drama, dance, 8,000-10,000 people attended,
receipts $1,045, expenses $645
Town fire: 1901 - leaving only Merrill-Kidder Store
on East Avenue - 2nd fire: 1913, 3rd fire: 1914
Cold Storage: 1914 - fires in 1924 and 1926
destroyed railroad section destroying most of businesses: cooper shop, dry
houses, vinegar and cider mill
Town Park: 1954 - 3.6 acres on Lakeshore from G.
Forbes - $4,500 - end of Center Road
Dump: 1954 - 5.05 acres on Backus Road
Fire Company: 1912
Fire Chief: Frank Whitehouse
Fire Truck: 1913 - price $1,035
Fireman's Ladies Auxiliary: 1949
Masonic Lodge: 1871 - "Stone (building)
Jug" - only lodge to hold meetings on ground floor
Eastern Star: 1904
Town Historian: Mrs. Howard (Anna) Burt
WEST KENDALL
Store: Major William Allis
Church: 1833 - (Hamlin side) Methodist/Episcopal
KENDALL MILLS
Grist mill: 1823 - Ose Webster
Saw mill: Ose Webster
Store: 1842 - Benjamin Copeland
Hotel: 1862 - Isaac Amsden
Church: 1869 - Methodist/Protestant
TROUTBERG
Hotel(?): 1860 - Ontario House and Aarge bowling
alley and dance pavilion added.
Kendall side 1880 -Bush House
(Cady house) - Morton side.
PLACES, ROADS, FORMER NAMES
1816 - Clark's Settlement - on County Line Rd. - approximately 2 miles from lake (also noted as Morton)
1824 - Webster's Mills - now
Kendall Mills
East
Kendall - now Morton
1819 - 1837 - North Murray -
Kendall
Porter's
Corner's - intersection Sand and Center Roads
Cherry
Avenue - East Avenue, Kenmor Road
Sand
Road - Roosevelt Hwy/Route 18
Auger
Road - Kendall Road
Backus
Road - Woodchuck Alley
Kendall
- West Kendall Road - Carr Road
Kendall
- Morton Road - East/West Avenue, now Kenmor Road
History: Holders of the Office of Supervisor
History: Holders of the Office of Town Clerk
Yearbooks Needed:
Historian needs the following
years for her
Kendall Central School Yearbook Collection:
1936
Historian is also looking for any photos taken around the Town of Kendall from 1964 to today.
If you do not wish to donate, could the town borrow to copy.
Any donations or loans can be dropped off with the Kendall Town Clerk or with Historian Knapp.
E-Mail the Kendall Town Clerk if you can complete her collection:
May 18,
2001 -
Fire Destroys Kendall Cold Storage - Erected
1914
Better Known as the
"Kendall Mushroom Factory"
Built in 1914 by Local stock holders. For 30 to 40 years was functioning "Cold Storage" for railroads and shipping. Trucking took over and railroads closed down. Mainly apple storage - 50,000 barrel capacity - 150,000 bushel. Prior to 1936 - high school graduation was held here.
Crandall Avenue Looking West at Burning Storage Building
Inside View of Burning Cold Storage
View from Ladder Truck looking in from roof-top
Kendall still remains rural - with agriculture being its major industry. There is no longer a "business" district - there are two convenient stores, a pizzeria, and the old Kendall Inn is being renovated. Kendall is also the home of Eagle Creek Marina. There are 20 businesses in the town, mostly located in private homes.
Kendall is now called a "bedroom community" due to the construction of the Lake Ontario Parkway and Route 104, making easy access to Rochester and its many fields of employment.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF KENDALL
The Town of Kendall was named in honor of Amos Kendall, the United States Postmaster General at the time the Township was formed. On April 7, 1837, about half of the Town of Murray became the new Town of Kendall. Settlements were not built as early as in other towns on the Holland Purchase because it was off the line of travel and had not been surveyed into lots and formally put on the market. The State of Connecticut and the Pultney Estate had owned these lands, under a joint title, and for a considerable time they remained undivided.
In July 1812, Dr. Levi Ward became an agent for the State of Connecticut, to sell their land on the 100,000-acre tract - of which Kendall forms a part. In 1811 a formal partition of land between the State of Connecticut and the Pultney Estate was made and Joseph Fellows was appointed agent of the Pultney Estate.
Samuel Bates from Vermont is said to have been the first white man to settle in this town, locating on lot 111 in East Kendall (now Morton) in 1812. He cleared some land and sowed wheat but did not move his family in until 1814.
David Jones, Adin Manley, Amos Randall, John Farnsworth, Zebulon Rice, Benjamin Morse and Nathaniel Brown settled in 1815. Felix Augur, Rev. Stephen Randall, Ansel Balcom, George Balcom, Stephen Bliss and James Weed arrived in 1816. And Eathan Graham, William and his son, Robert Clark, came in 1817.
The first marriage in the town was James Aiken to Esther A. Bates, March 2, 1817. The first birth was Bartlett B. Morse, in November 1815, and the first death was the son of George Balcom in 1816.
Hiram Thompson opened the first store in 1823. Augur and Boyden built the first sawmill in 1819, and Gurdon Balcom taught the first school in 1819. Ose Webster built the first gristmill in what is now Kendall Mills.
Elder Stephen Randall, a Methodist preacher, conducted the first religious service. The first physician in town was Dr. Theophilus Randall.
Early settlers had to travel from Ridge Road in Clarkson north, to what is now Hamlin, then west - until a road was built from Kendall Mills following the west side of Sandy Creek to the Ridge Road.
The first settlers experienced hardships that we can only imagine. Most of them came from the mountains of Vermont and the change of climate, air, water, food and occupation in this comparatively level country had consequences. Before the clearing of land, there was dense forest in the area. Many suffered from a malaria-type disease called Ague, propagated by the moist forest floor.
The Erie Canal opened in 1825 making a ready market for wheat and lumber. It also made the way easier for more settlement. A group of 52 Norwegians came from Stavanger Norway and made the first Norwegian settlement in the New World. They settled in a body along the lakeshore in the northeast part of town. Eventually, the majority of them followed their leader, Cleng Peerson, to Illinois and what they perceived at the time as "greener pastures". A few families remained here and there are reminders of their presence here in Kendall to this day.
The above is a compilation of historical information from Judge Arad Thomas’ book, "The Pioneer History of Orleans County", as quoted in the Holley Standard on May 31, 1962 and from the 1962 Kendall Sesquicentennial Booklet.
Kendall Cemetery Records available at the Kendall Town Hall include: Kendall Cemeteries and Murray Cemeteries.
