When first visited by Europeans the region about Rochester was the home of the Seneca Indians. The Jesuit missionaries Chau monot and Fremin worked among them in the 17th century. In 1687 the Marquis de Denonville fought a battle with the Iroquois near the falls, and there was a French post on Irondequoit bay in 1710. The district was included in the Phelps-Gorham purchase in 1788. In 1789 Ebenezer ("Indian") Allan built a saw-mill and a grist-mill at the falls; in 1802 the site of the present city passed into the hands of three men from Maryland, among them Nathan iel Rochester (1752-1831), who established a settlement, largely of New Englanders, at the falls in and in 1817 the village of Rochesterville was incorporated. During the early years it grew slowly, as it was not on the direct route from Albany to Buffalo and the region was malarial. There were only 1,502 in habitants in 1820. Monroe county was erected in 1821, with Rochester as its judicial seat ; the Rochester and Lockport section of the Erie Canal was opened in 1823 ; in the next two years the population doubled; and in 1834, with a population of 12,252, the village was chartered as a city. Rochester was the centre (1828-30) of the anti-Masonic political movement, and here Thurlow Weed published his Enquirer. Later it be
came an active abolitionist centre, and for many years before the 'Civil War was a busy station on the "underground railroad." Myron Holley began the publication of the Freeman here in 1839, and in 1847 Frederick Douglass established the North Star. It was the home of Susan B. Anthony after 1846, and a gathering place for the advocates of women's rights. About 185o it was the scene of the spiritualistic demonstrations (the "Rochester Rap pings") of Margaret and Katharine Fox. Rochester has had a series of sobriquets. For many years, while the Genesee valley was the principal wheat field of the country, it was the leading flour-milling centre of the United States, and was known as "the Flour City." When the milling industry declined and the horti cultural interests (introduced in 1840) assumed greater impor tance, "Flower" was substituted for "Flour"; later, with the devel opment of the Eastman Kodak Company, it was called also "the Kodak City." The population of the city was 36,403 in 1850; 89,366 in 188o; 162,608 in 1900. In the first quarter of the loth century the area of the city was doubled, registration in the public schools increased about threefold, the assessed valuation of prop erty was multiplied by four, and postal receipts by five.