Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper

After leaving Niagara, Patch—now struggling with severe alcohol addiction— traveled to Rochester, New York. Like Pawtucket and Paterson, Rochester was a mill town built near a waterfall. However, wealthy tourists like Colonel Stone knew Rochester as a city of progress. Before the War of 1812 and the development of the Erie Canal, the Genesee River was surrounded by wilderness. As settlers moved westward on the canal after the war, Rochester emerged seemingly overnight to become a town of 9,000 people in 1829. Tourists to Rochester at this time marveled at the number of mills and factories, the large mansions, glass storefronts, and towering church spires. The Rochester that Sam Patch saw in 1829 was a testament to progress and human-built improvements over the American wilderness.

The town’s use of the Genesee River was a clear sign of humanity’s taming of the natural world. A branch of the river south of Rochester fed into the Erie Canal, powering commercial and tourist traffic. Within the town, the river was blocked by a mill dam that diverted it into shallow rapids that powered mills and factories on both banks. In addition to a footbridge and a market bridge (a wide bridge on which business was conducted), the river was crossed by an aqueduct carrying the Erie Canal.