Allen, Ebenezer ( - 1813)
AKA 'Tory Allen' and 'Indian Allen'
One of the first pioneers in the area. He was known as 'Tory Allen', for his service as a Lieutenant in the Tory Rangers in the Mohawk valley. He was also known as 'Indian Allen', for his ability to get along with, and live with the indians. he first came to the Genesee valley in 1782 as an agent of the British Indian Department. He spent the winter of 1782 with Mary Jemison at her Gardeau cabin. In 1783 he settled in Mt Morris where he became a trader and a farmer. He lived there for three years with an Indian woman named Sally and had two daughters. That same year he delivered a message to Congress at Philadelphia from the Six Nations accepting their offer of a peace council. Allen also delivered a letter of his own saying the Indians wanted peace, but were ready for war, and their actions would be determined by the actions of the government. An 'honest and wise' policy would save many lives and much money. The treaty was signed in 1784. Allen's letter is in the archives of the Library of Congress.
In 1786 he moved to Scottsville, on Allen's Creek (now Oatka Creek) with Sally, and their two children, his white wife, Lucy Chapman, her brother Christopher Dugan, and Molly Gregory, who had six children by Allen.
In 1789 Allen was offered a 100-acre tract of land by Phelps and Gorham in exchange for his building and operating a mill on the site. The next year Allen sells his Scottsville property to Peter Schaffer, and the entire Allen household moves to the High Falls of the Genesee. Allen builds his mill on the west side of the river, on a 14 foot falls, at the approximate location of the Broad Street Bridge. At that time there were several falls at that location. These were all removed when the first aqueduct for the Erie Canal was built.
Even though the mill could only grind 10 bushels per day, the 24 area families could not sustain it. Allen sold the mill in 1791. It was run for a while by his brother-in-law for Charles Williamson, but it soon fell into disuse.
Allen moved back to Mt Morris in 1792 and operated a saw mill at the Silver Lake Outlet. He was only there for a year when he took at least two of his women and moved to Delaware, Canada (just outside of London), where he died in 1813.
The saw mill was destroyed by flood in 1803, and the grist mill burnt in 1807. The mill stones were used for a while in a mill on Irondequoit Creek. In 1859 they were located in Brighton, being used as horse blocks. In 1877 they were moved City Hall where they were used as the base two street lamp posts. When the new Court House was built in 1896 they were built into the west wall of the 2nd floor as a tribute to Rochester's first settler.
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Born in Waterville a small town south of Syracuse, he moved to Rochester as a boy. His father who ran a business school, died young. George worked for Rochester Savings Bank as a clerk. In 1880 he starts a photographic dry plate company and a year later quits his job at the bank. Moves the dry plate company to the 3rd floor of a State St. music store. He and his mother devised the name Kodak with an anagram set. He said that there were three principal concepts he used in creating the name: it must be short, you can not mispronounce it, and it could not resemble anything or be associated with anything but Kodak.
Eastman had talent as: an inventor, engineer, production expert, salesman, advertising genius, leader and organizer. He fused science, technology, and efficient production, and invented modern industrial research, and worker benefit programs.
He anonymously gave a new campus to MIT, and supported the Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes. He was a large contributor to the University of Rochester. He started free dental clinics around the world. He founded the Community Chest, and pushed for a non-political city government (city manager) He established the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and built the Eastman Theater. He had the city's only great collection of art, and mansion. (built 1904-05 with 42 rooms, it was designed by J. F. Foster, Warner w/ McKim, Mead and White) He was a bachelor all his live. Suffering from an incurable, degenerative disease, he shot himself . Leaving the note: "To my friends. My work is done. Why wait?"
He gave away all but $15 Million of his vast fortune.
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Patrick Barry (1816-1890)
George Ellwanger (1816- )
George Ellwanger was born in Gross-Heppach in Wurtemberg Germany on December 1816. His father owned a vineyard, but the Napoleonic wars, and severe weather forced the abandonment of their small family farm. By 1830 he was in Stuttgart, where he apprenticed four years to a leading nurseryman. In 1835 he left Germany to seek out relatives in America. As he traveled to Ohio, he crossed New York State by canal. When his barge made a stop in Rochester he was very impressed by the young city and "its luxuriant vegetation and its favorable location for a horticultural establishment." He was also shrewd to realize the benefits that the Erie Canal would offer for east-west transportation, along with the easy access that the Genesee River provided steamboats to Lake Ontario, and from there the ports of Canada. He continued on to Ohio, but before the year was over he had returned to Rochester, and before the year after that was over he was in charge of the Rochester Seed Store and Horticultural Repository on Sophia Street. Moving quickly he soon acquired a joint lease on the nursery, and then in joint proprietorship with Patrick Barry, of a new nursery on the southern edge of the city.
Patrick Barry was born in Ireland in 1818, a few months older than George Ellwanger. He attended school until eighteen, then was a teacher in a national public school for two years. In May of 1836, he left for New York to seek his fortune. He was soon employed by William Prince and Sons, proprietors of the famous Linnaean Nursery at Flushing, New York, the oldest and most elaborately developed nursery in the States. By 1840 he was in Rochester in partnership with George Ellwanger
From the companies earliest days, they constantly enlarged their nurseries. Fourteen hundred dollars purchased the first seven acre lot from Harvey Gilman in 1839. In 1840, a portion of Aaron Erickson’s farm was added before the formal opening of the Ellwanger and Barry Mount Hope Garden and Nurseries in October.
August, 1841 had a quick visit by bad luck, a freak hail storm killed many young plants, and the next day a fire broke out in the greenhouse where the two young men were living. While the damage was only a few hundred dollars, it was a big emotional setback. But even in these early years the two men knew what they wanted to accomplish; develop a reliable stock of fruits already acclimated to Western New York. To do this they acquired stock from Boston and New York, obtaining plants brought in by the first settlers. They would offer either young trees or graftings of accepted and popular varieties. Their objective was to create a stable, reliable source for older established varieties, not only to start new orchards, but to replace diseased plants.
For Christmas of 1841 Ellwanger joined with friends from the Old Country, and erected the first Christmas tree in Rochester. The tree decorated with small, brightly burning candles brought many visitors to the German Lutheran Church on Grove Street, and helped make a Rochester tradition, and Christmas more than just a religious holiday.
The first Ellwanger and Barry catalogue of 1843 listed several advantages that their nursery offered over their competitors:
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- Their location gave them an eight day advantage over Albany and New York competitors in supplying the rapidly expanding western market.
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- Their northern location insured heartier plants, which would thrive in less rigorous climates and be more likely to survive after transplantation.
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- Lake Ontario offered a moderating influence on winter temperatures, which safeguarded their nurseries from the severe cold.
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- The slow sailing vessels on the Atlantic protected the American market from easy exploitation by European horticulturists.
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- Their fresh plantings offered an alternative to stock from some older nurseries which were infected with diseases.
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When the nursery started in 1841 they had seven acres, this grew to one hundred acres after ten years. Rochester's first biographer, Henry O’Reilly, wrote in the late 1850's of the Ellwanger and Barry Nurseries (by this period, the largest in the world) that they "totaled 650 acres, divided as follows: Fruit trees, 450 acres; ornamental trees, shrubs, plants, 120 acres; vineyard for testing grapes, and bearing small fruit plantation, thirty acres; specimen trees, fruit and ornamental, twenty-five acres; lawn and ornamental grounds around office, and Plant-Houses, twenty-five acres. The specimen fruit tree ground contains nearly 2,000 varieties, exclusive of grapes and small fruits. The specimen ornamental ground is proportionately extensive, and contains the most complete collection in this country. Every new tree or plant that promises to be of value for this country is promptly added. The plant houses are sixteen in number, and cover fully 30,000 square feet of ground.
The Fruit Department occupies 350 acres, in about the following proportion of the different kinds: Standard pears, 69 acres; dwarf do., 57 acres; standard apples, 72 acres; dwarf do., 31 acres; standard and dwarf cherries, 25 acres; standard and dwarf plums, 20 acres; and 82 acres of other fruit trees, seedling stocks, &c.
In the above named department, the following items are particularly worthy of notice: A fine eight acre block of dwarf and standard cherries, containing 120,000 trees, two years from the bud; 12 acres of dwarf and standard pears, in about equal quantities, two years from the bud, containing 130,000 trees of beautiful growth; another block of 20,000 plum trees from last spring's grafts, on three acres; 6 acres of currants, chiefly White Grape, Cherry, and Victoria, 200,000 plants; 4 acres of Houghton's Gooseberry, 70,000; 3 acres of New Rochelle and Dorchester blackberries, 100,000 plants; and 1,000,000 hardy grapes on 3 acres.
The Ornamental Department occupies 90 acres, about as follows: 24 acres of evergreen trees; 50 acres hardy deciduous trees and shrubs; 8 acres dahlias, bulbs and herbaceous plants; 5 acres specimen trees, &c.
The most remarkable items in this department are: The evergreens, which exceed half a million in number, besides this year's seedlings; the 8 acres of roses; the weeping trees, covering alone over 2 acres; the magnolias, of which there are more than an acre in one plot; the 5,000 trees of the great Sequoia, or giant tree of California; and the great number of cuttings of roses and other shrubs in cold frames, exceeding 100,000, more than half of which were well rooted by mid-summer.
The glass structures for plants and propagation cover 15,500 square feet.
The packing houses and sheds consist of one packing house 75 by 80 feet, two stories high, with cellars beneath."
Expansion of their nurseries was one of the secrets of their success. They allowed their orchards to mature. This offered many benefits to the two nurserymen; they could gain accurate knowledge of the trees and fruit, a reliable stock from which to take their cuttings for propagation, and a convenient, controlled orchard to show their stock to visiting customers. The partners also extended their property holdings outside of Rochester, when they briefly operated nurseries in Cleveland, Columbus and Toronto.
The vast Mt. Hope Nurseries employed 80 men in the winter season, with an average of about 250 during the growing season, but swelling to 500 during their peak periods. The foresight of Ellwanger and Barry's choice of Rochester for their nursery can be seen in these statistics. By 1856 it was estimated that there were at least 3,000 acres devoted to nurseries within a radius of six miles of the center of Rochester, with more than 1,000 persons employed, and a with more than half a million dollars in sales. Monroe County nurseries earned more than all the other nurseries in the state combined, and New York was far ahead of any other state in revenues from nurseries. It was claimed that there were more fruit trees raised in Monroe County, than in all the rest of the United States. While exact records were kept secret, there were rumors that during the 1860's single orders of stock being shipped west with a total value of twenty to forty thousand dollars. It was also noted that there had been several orders, each of 100,000 apple trees. Some distributors sent out three to four hundred tons of graftings and plantings a year. Millions of trees are annually sent abroad to other states and foreign lands. The annual product of these nurseries has been estimated at $2,000,000.
Ellwanger and Barry earned Rochester it's title as the Flower City.
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Margaret Fox (1833-1893)
Kate Fox ( - )
In 1848 John Fox, a Rochester blacksmith moves to Hydesville, NY. The house is rumored to be haunted by a murdered peddler, and noises and rapping became so common that Fox's two children, Margaretta 12, and Catherine 9, make a game of communicating back to the spirit with knocks of their own. Neighbors are confused and bewildered, and the family is persuaded to move back to Rochester. The ghostly knocking continues in Rochester. Local Doctors and ministers are convinced that the communication is real, and sponsor a public demonstration at the Corinthian Hall. The messages amaze many, but local rowdies cause a disturbance, and the police stop the meeting. Many Rochesterians convert to the new religion built around communication with the dead, Spiritualism. Believers say that March 31, 1848 is the date communication was established between this world and the next.
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As a youth he studied the habits of fish in the Genesee River. In 1837 he has the idea to propagate fish artificially, and opens the world's first fish hatchery in Caledonia, NY. In 1871 he sends 12,000 young Shad to Sacramento CA, to restock barren rivers. Within years, millions of fish are caught and sold in the Northwest. His restocking of 'fished out' waters earns him medals from the United States, France, and Germany. Some biographers say that he invented the fishing reel.
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Peter Gruber, AKA Rattlesnake Pete
Owned a combination bar and museum at 8-10 Mill St., behind the Reynolds Arcade. He milked rattlesnakes, and sold the poison for medical use. An outlandish character, he attracted attention where ever he went.
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In 1911, the 13 year old made his debut on violin in Vienna. In 1917 he volunteers for the Infantry and is sent to Europe, where he is killed in France the following year. He is considered one the finest musicians to come from this area. Donations are used to convert his family home on Joseph Ave. into a music school. The Hochstein Music School is located today at 50 N. Plymouth Ave., that instructs 700 students per year.
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She was born at sea as her family moved from Ireland. The Shawnee Indians captured the 'White Woman of the Genesee' at the age of 15 when they killed her family. Adopted by two Seneca squaws she was renamed Deh-ge-wa-nus. She was married twice, both times to Indians. In 1779, she and her second husband Hiokatoo, moved to the Genesee valley in what is now Letchworth State Park. Several years later when given the opportunity to return to white society, she refused because of her many children. The Big Tree Treaty of 1797 set aside for her a reservation of 18,000 acres in the Genesee Valley, but the land was later swindled away from her. One of her sons killed two of his brothers. Originally buried at the Buffalo Reservation she was reburied in 1874 on the Council Grounds in Letchworth State Park.
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Miller
Determines from mathematical calculations based on Bible dates that the world will end on Oct. 24, 1844. As early as 1831 he was gathering believers. As the 'last day' approaches the faithful start to gather in Rochester. Local 'Millerites' give shelter to others who had given away all there possessions. The crowd of faithful gathered on Pinnacle Hill, it was the the highest ground in the city, and closest to heaven. All night long hymns, prayers, and religious hysteria sweep through the crowd. The next morning disillusioned Millerites went home to the jeers of their neighbors. Many did stay loyal to Miller, and have evolved into the Adventist Church.
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Dr. Edwin Mott Moore (1814-1902)
Came to area in 1830, where he studied medicine and surgery. He was the first president of the State Board of Health. He urged the City Council to buy 541 acres of land for the city's first parks. Today he is known as the father of the city's park system, one of the finest in the country.
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Col. Patrick Henry O'Rorke (1836-1863)
Born in Ireland, he came to America as an infant. His family moved to Rochester in 1842. The house, at 19 Emmitt St. was located just east of the Lower Falls in an Irish section of the city called 'Dublin'. He graduated from Rochester Free Academy in 1856, first in his class. He was offered a scholarship to the University of Rochester, but declined. He was a strict catholic, and the school was Baptist. He becomes apprenticed as a mason at the Hibbard Marble Works, and becomes the best mason in city. Based on his record at the Rochester Free Academy, his congressman gets him an appointment to West Point at the age of 20. He graduates first in the second class of 1861 (A special second graduating class, created to supply officers for the inescapable war. George Armstrong Custer was a classmate, graduating last.) Assigned to the elite Corps of Engineers, he is seen as destined for command. He is a staff officer at the first battle of the war, Bull Run, where the horse he was riding was killed. After several assignments designing and building the defenses for several cities, he is recognized for his contribution, and is selected to accept the Confederate surrender at fort Polaskki, South Carolina in April 1862. He takes leave and returns to Rochester to marry his childhood sweetheart on July 9th. While home he is promoted to Colonel and given command of the newly formed 140th NY Infantry, all Monroe County men. The 140th sees battle at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. On the second day of this battle the regiment is sent to reinforce Gen. Weed at the left of the Union line. On their way to that position he is met by Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren who has just left Little Round Top and is desperately looking for troops to man that vital, exposed position. He tells O'Rorke to forget his previous orders and defend the hill from Hood's brigade he has just seen heading toward the hill. Warren had been one of his instructors at West Point, and O'Rorke greatly respected him. Seeing the need for immediate action, he totally ignores the chain of command, and agrees to go. Legend says his reply was "For you, Gen. Warren, and only for you." Sword in hand O'Rorke is leading the charge over the crest of the hill when he is shot in the neck and dies instantly. The 140th had arrived just in time to support the collapsing troops of Strong Vincent, who had also just been shot, and mortally wounded. Had the 140th not been there to stop the attack, the rebels would have overwhelmed Vincent's troops and had an unobstructed path to the rear of the Union lines, and from there totally destroy Gen. Mead's army. Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and the 40th Maine Volunteers arrived later, and stop several more determined charges up Little Round Top by the Confederates that afternoon. Eventually, with his troops out of ammunition, Chamberlain orders a bayonet charge down the hill that earns him the Congressional Medal of Honor. The United Stated Military War Collage has rated that day's action on Little Round Top as the single most significant small unit action of the entire Civil War.
O'Rorke's wife Clara was devastated by his death and became a nun. Colonel O'Rorke was given a full military funeral and buried in the Catholic cemetery on Pinnacle Hill. When that cemetery closed, he was moved to Holy Sepulcher Cemetery.
In 1866 when a Civil War veterans organization to be called the Grand Army of the Republic is proposed, Rochester is the first to join, and GAR Post No. 1, is named for him. The last surviving member of the 140th was Carlin Hudson who died June 19, 1933
Order of Battle at Gettysburg
FIFTH ARMY CORPS (Maj. Gen. George Sykes)
Second Division (Brig. Gen. Romeyn B. Ayres)
Third Brigade (Brig. Gen. Stephen H. Weed)
140th New York Infantry (Col. Patrick H. O'Rorke)
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Graduate of the University of Rochester and Harvard University. Accepted Sitting Bull's surrender in 1876. In 1898 he was posted to the Philippines, but he arrived two weeks after the end of the Spanish American War. He served as Governor General there, and his policies earned much goodwill towards the United States. When he retired to his home in Rochester, he was given a hero's welcome, that featured a parade down Main Street on 'Otis Day', June 15, 1900 that passed through a giant triumphant arch designed by Claude Bragdon.
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Sam Patch from Pawtucket RI, makes his first jump over the Passaic Falls in Patterson NJ. on Sept. 30, 1827, a leap of 80 ft into a turbulent river before a crowd gathered to watch a bridge moved. He becomes a local celebrity from this stunt, and begins his travels in search of locations to perform. He jumps from bridges, factory walls, and ship's masts. In Patterson NJ where he jumped 50', it was a national event. He was the first of Niagara Fall's famous daredevils. He was the star attraction at an event designed to draw visitors to the falls. The schooner Superior was sent into the river to go over the falls, but it hung up on rocks near Goat Island. Several black powder charges were set off blasting sections of the cliff face into the george. The largest explosion was canceled, designed to blast away a quarter of Table Rock, local authorities feared it would change the course of the river and drain the Welland Canal! For Sam's jump a 125 foot ladder was rigged out over the gorge below Goat Island opposite the Cave of the Winds. Less than an hour before the scheduled noon jump, a chain securing the ladder to the cliff wall snapped, breaking 15 feet from the ladder. Rescheduled for 4 PM, Sam jumped promptly on time. A boat circled near the entry point, but Sam did not appear. When he was finally spotted at the point where he had swum to shore a great roar went up from the crowd. Sam Patch was the first to jump over Niagara Falls and live! Bad weather and a day's delay in his arrival drew a disappointingly small crowd for this jump, so he announced he would jump again! A few days later 10,000 gathered to watch him keep his word. His phrase "Some things can be done as well as others." became a popular slang expression across the nation.
The ex-sailor, ex-factory worker, daredevil from New Jersey, then came to Rochester to challenge the 99' Upper Falls. 
He jumps the falls privately, for practice, witnessed by his companion Joe Cochrane. He was disappointed again by the size of the crowd that saw the first public jump on Nov. 6 1829, so he picked Friday the 13th to do it again. After a pre jump celebration in several local taverns, he threw his pet bear cub off the 25' tower he had built at the brink. Accounts from the 8,000 present differ on whether he actually jumped or fell, but he did not achieve his normal feet first vertical entry. A loud impact was heard, and he never surfaced. Rumors were wild that he had hidden in a cave at the base of the falls, and was enjoying all the excitement he had created. But his frozen body was found in the ice in Charlotte early the next spring by Silas Hudson. Both of his shoulders had dislocated on impact, and unable to swim, he drowned. Local ministers were quick to blame the crowd for urging him to jump, and put the guilt of his death on them.
A wooden board was placed over his grave "Sam Patch -- Such is Fame"
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Powers moved to Rochester from Batavia in 1840 and got a job at the Eagle Hotel, and married the bosses' daughter. On his father-in-law's death Powers inherited the building. He commissions A. J. Warner to design a stone facade around the building. When a fire destroy the Eagle Hotel in 1869, he buys the entire block and continues construction around the corner onto Main St. Fearing another fire will destroy the building he builds with a structural steel frame and a cast iron exterior designed to resemble his earlier sandstone and granite construction. Both construction methods are new, and very unusual. It is also the first building in the nation with a hydraulic elevator. Construction ends in 1870 with a five story building, featuring an art gallery on the 6th floor. When neighboring buildings match this height, he adds two additional Mansard roofs. When the taller Wilder Building is built on the diagonal corner he adds a tower to stay the city's tallest building. His 'tax league' is influential enough to block a tax increase for a new city water system. Hearing news that several iron buildings burnt in he 1871 Chicago fire, his belief that his building is fireproof collapse. He demands that the city get the new water system. They get two, including a steam powered system for increased water pressure.
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In 1823 Joseph Smith is told the location of gold plates buried in Palmyra by the Angel Moroni, who also aids in the translation of the inscriptions on them. These texts form the basis for the Mormon religion. In 1837 Smith and his followers start a migration westward. They attempt to settle in Illinois, but this fails in 1844 when Smith is murdered, and angry townspeople drive the others away. Brigham Young, who operated a factory in Mendon, took over leadership, and led his people to Salt Lake City in 1847.
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Dr. Francis Tumblety (1830-1903)
AKA Jack the Ripper?
Francis was born to James and Margaret Tumblety in Ireland sometime between July of 1830 and June of 1831. He was the youngest of eleven children: Patrick, Lawrence, Jane and Bridget (twins), Alice, Margaret, Ann, Julia, Elizabeth, and Mary. The date is uncertain but the family moved to Rochester, New York where they are first listed in the 1844 city directory. As was common at this period, the Tumblety name has several spellings: Tumblety, Tumuelty, Tumility, Twomblety with Lawrence Tumuelty, listed as a gardener, living at the corner of Sophia and Clarissa streets.
By 1848, Francis is known to neighbors and acquaintances as 'a dirty, awkward, ignorant, uncared-for, good for nothing boy... utterly devoid of education.' He was also known to peddle pornographic literature on the Erie Canal boats that passed through the city. At this time he also began working at a small drug store run by a Dr. Lispenard, said to have 'carried on a medical business of a disreputable kind' at the rear of the Reynolds Arcade. He lived for a short time at 6 Andrews St. with his brother Patrick, who was a fireman at Rapids.
It was during this period that Francis married. There is little known, other than he soon noticed that she was constantly flirting with other men. His worst suspicions were confirmed when he saw her enter a disreputable lodging house with a strange man. Enraged, he developed a hatred of all women.
Around 1850 Francis left Rochester for Detroit, where he starts a practice as an Indian herb doctor. The following year his father dies. 1854 must be a good year for the herb business, because after this date he always appears very wealthy.
He moves to Montreal in the fall of 1857, as a prominent physician, where he is asked to run in the provincial elections of 1857-8. With a grandiose and overbearing explanation in the local papers, he declines. He has his first problems with the law on September 23, he is arrested for attempting to abort the pregnancy of a local prostitute named Philomene Dumas. It was alleged that he sold her a bottle of pills and a liquid for the purpose. On October 1st he was released, and on the 25th, a verdict of ‘no true bill’ was reached. There was no trial.
In early 1858 or July 1860 (depending on sources) he moves to Saint Johns, Nova Scotia.
September of 1860 sees him in trouble with the authorities again when a patient named James Portmore died while taking medicine prescribed by Tumblety. After a bizarre coroner's inquest where Tumblety questioned Portmore’s widow as to the cause of death, a verdict of 'manslaughter' is returned. He flees, crossing the border, to the town of Calais, Maine, and from there on to Boston.
At this point his method changes, he now wears a gaudy military style outfit (which he designed himself) and rides a white horse, leading two greyhounds, with a mounted valet. He is constantly moving, working for short periods of time in New York, Jersey City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and a variety of other cities.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Tumblety moves to Washington DC and claims to be an army surgeon on General McClellan's staff, and friends with President Lincoln, General Grant, and every other well known political figures. While in Washington, he gives an all male dinner party (he calls it a symposium), lecturing his guests on the evils of women, and proudly displays his extensive collection of preserved female body parts.
Dr. Tumblety's next move is to St. Louis, where he is arrested for wearing a military uniform with medals he did not deserve. Tumblety claims that this is harassment, persecution from his medical competitors. He moves to Carondelet, Missouri and is briefly jailed on the same charge.
He moves back to St. Louis and is arrested again, this time in connection with the Lincoln assassination. He was traveling using the name J. H. Blackburn. This was a bad choice for an alias, Dr. L.P. Blackburn was wanted for an alleged plot to infect the North with blankets carrying yellow fever. Another rumor soon followed that he had employed one of the assassination conspirators. He was cleared in both cases. Tumblety writes and publishes The Kidnapping of Dr. Tumblety, a pamphlet intended to clear his name. The book is a series of paranoid ramblings and fraudulent testimonials.
During the late 1860's he travels to London, Berlin, and then on to Liverpool in 1874. It is here he meets Sir Henry Hall Caine, who was bisexual and it is strongly believed they had an affair that lasted until 1876 when Dr. Tumblety returns to New York City. He is noted to hang around the Post Office and have a 'seeming mania for the company of young men and grown-up youths.'
The next decade is a calm period consisting of extensive travel across both America and Europe accompanied by various young, male traveling companions. In 1880 he files a suit against the mother of one of these youths, Mrs. Lyons claiming she stole $7000 in bonds from him. The Dr. had given the boy Power of Attorney to $100,000 in bonds and when Tumblety returned from a trip, the boy and $7,000 in bonds were missing.
In June of 1888 he returns to Liverpool, and takes lodging at 22 Batty Street. He is thought to have had strong Irish sympathies, and may have been involved in their political activities at this time. He was arrested on November 7, on charges of gross indecency and indecent assault with force and arms against four men between July 27 and November 2. The eight charges were euphemisms for homosexual activities.
He was charged on suspicion of the Whitechapel murders on the 12th, and was bailed on November 16. A hearing was held on November 20 at the Old Bailey, and the trial postponed until December 10. On November 24, using the alias ‘Frank Townsend’ he escaped to France, and from there took the steamer La Bretagne to New York City.
New York officials knew he was on his way to the city and had the port of entry watched for him, but he entered the country undetected. Several American newspapers reported that Scotland Yard Inspector Andrews did follow a suspect to New York City, though Tumblety was not named specifically.
New York City's Chief Inspector Byrnes discovered Tumblety had rooms at 79 East Tenth Street at the home of Mrs. McNamara, and had him under surveillance for several days. Byrnes could not arrest him because, 'there is no proof of his complicity in the Whitechapel murders, and the crime for which he was under bond in London is not extraditable.'
New York City papers carried daily stories of Tumblety’s surveillance by Byrnes’s, until December 5th, when he disappears again. It is interesting to note that while there was extensive coverage in several American newspapers about Tumblety, not a word was written about him in the British press. It has been suggested that Scotland Yard wanted to avoid the embarrassment of losing their top suspect.
Tumblety disappears until 1893 when he reappears in Rochester, living with his sister.
On May 28, 1903 Dr. Francis Tumblety dies at St. John's Hospital in St. Louis, a man of considerable wealth. (The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported his death under the name "Dr Francis Tumbleton") An inventory of his personal belongings at the time of his death included some extremely expensive jewelry, $1000 in bonds, over $430 in cash, and two cheap brass rings, valued at $2 to $3. These rings match the description of those taken from the body of Annie Chapman, the Ripper's second victim. (Are these the trophies of a serial killer?) His will requests that he be buried in the family plot in Rochester.
In 1913 John J. Littlechild, Chief of CID Special Branch Scotland Yard writes to journalist G. R. Sims stating that ‘a very likely suspect,’ in the Ripper killings was Dr. Tumblety.
There are several points of circumstantial evidence that point to Dr. Tumblety as today's most likely suspect in the Ripper killings.
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- Fits ‘serial killer profile.’
- Known for his hatred of women
- Wife had worked as a prostitute while married to him
- Anatomical knowledge
- Murders ceased when he fled
- Demonstrated ability to avoid police capture.
- Uses of aliases
- Known to police at time as a bad character
- Scotland Yard contacted New York Police for a copy of his handwriting just after the Eddowes death.
- Pursued to New York by one of the three detective inspectors assigned to the Ripper case after jumping bail following a misdemeanor
- Unusually high bail for a misdemeanor
- Rich enough to finance his time in the East End
- Prior behavior in the USA/Canada (performing an illegal abortion, manslaughter of a patient)
- The rings in his possession at time of death
- Collected female body parts in jars
- Peddled porn as a teen
- Acquaintances in America believed he was the Ripper
- Matches most descriptions of eye witnesses
- Gross indecency charge shows his deviancy
- Letters to Henry Hall Caine shows his changeable temper
- Littlechild letter shows that police thought him a prime suspect
- Released from police custody at time of Mary Kelley's death
- Had lodgings in Liverpool, and he knew the East End
- His Liverpool lodgings was on a courtyard, offering several paths to escape on different streets.
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Strong evidence that he was the Batty Street Lodger
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In 1870 Warner sold safes, but illness ended that career. He started a patent medicine business and claimed that a 'special elixir' cured him. He originated direct mail advertising, and flooded the market with his advertising. Business boomed, and Warner became Rochester's Patent Medicine King, building his seven story headquarters, the Case Building on St. Paul St. His mansion at East & Goodman looked like a castle.
He used his money to build an elaborate observatory at East Avenue and Arnold Park. He hired Professor Lewis Swift, who had already discovered a comet, to his staff in 1882. Warner used the observatory in the advertising for his Patent Medicines to make them appear 'scientific'.
He sold out of the Patent Medicine business in 1890, but lost all his money in a Mexican gold mine deal. Keeping his losses a secret, he gave his daughter a lavish wedding reception, then declared bankruptcy the next day, and moved to the Midwest.
Warner established the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and was its first president.