Life on the Homefront
Business booms, prices surge during Civil War
Rochesterians crowded Reynolds' Arcade in the spring of 1861, waiting for news over the telegraph, Rebel troops had fired on Fort Sumter; tense negotiations continued in Washington to avoid war.
Observed the Democrat and Chronicle: "On no occasion since the days of the revolution have our citizens undergone the same degree of anxious exciting suspense that characterizes every hour of the day."
However, most Rochesterians had been conditioned to expect war by the years of anti-slavery debate and talk of secession.
As the first Rochester regiments marched off to the fighting, women organized volunteer groups to sew uniforms and flags and to roll bandages. The Ladies Hospital Relief Association raised funds and collected supplies. The Female Ladies Charitable Society equipped the City Hospital (now Rochester General) to accept injured soldiers. The city's other hospital, St. Mary's, expanded to care for additional soldiers. By the spring of 1864, about 400 soldiers were recovering in Rochester's hospitals.
Some local industries worked at capacity to fill wartime orders. The three daily newspapers were perhaps the first to experience increased production. Combined circulation for all three jumped from 9,000 to 20,000 in a single day during the McClellan campaign along the Potomac during the summer of 1862. And, of course, the Pacific Telegraph Co., organized in 1862 by Hiram Sibley, was flooded with messages about what was happening at the battlefront.
Orders streamed in for flags, tents, army belts, shoes, uniforms, beer, flour, port, wool and even horses. Traffic on the canal and at the port greatly increased; railroads experienced the greatest increase in freight.
But life at home was increasingly difficult as the war made some goods scarce or expensive.
Between 1860 and 1864, the price of eggs increased from 16 cents to 25 cents a dozen. Barrels of flour went up from $7.25 to $13; gallons of molasses from 20 cents to $1.25. Sheeting increased 700 percent. Most prices at least doubled.
Increase in coal prices, and the coal "famine" of 1863 brought critical shortages to people dependent on it for winter heat. Coal prices soared from $6.40 to $12 a ton between June 1863 and spring 1864.
Wage earners did not receive equivalent raises in pay. Those on fixed incomes found it difficult to make ends meet. Many "made do or did without."
Workers began to strike for a 10-hour work day and higher wages. They protested due bills and shin plasters (money printed by the city) issued in lieu of regular currency.
Stores could not make change and sometimes gave credit instead. Because of the shortage of money, Rochester banks issued their own. Barter also returned.
The war dragged on for four years. About 10 p.m. April 9, 1865, word of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender reached Rochester. Though it was Sunday night, and most people were asleep, Mayor Daniel D. T. Moore sent word to the firehouses to ring their bells at 11 p.m. to summon people from their beds.
The City Hall bell rang unceasingly for three hours. Other bells began to ring. Thousands of people went downtown. People cheered, bonfires burned in the streets, rockets and pistols were fired. The mayor tried to give a speech from the steps of the Powers Bank at the Four Corners, but could not be heard above the noise. Even when rain began to fall, it did not dampen the celebration, which lasted until nearly daybreak.
Slavery was ended; so was the great sacrifice of men and materials. Americans North and South looked anxiously toward an uncertain social and economic future.
Rochester was undergoing change, industry was shifting from wartime to peacetime production. The economy was unsettled, and there were continuing shortages.
Women had taken the place of men who had left the factories for the battlefield. Though most women left their jobs as veterans returned, they had found a place in industry. Indeed, in the decades that followed the war, hundreds of women worked in local factories.
Women who had worked toward ending slavery were optimistic that they would be granted the right to vote along with blacks. They were bitterly disappointed when black males alone were granted the vote in 1870.
A local person taking the state census in the city's Third Ward noted in 1865: "The people had been more industrious than before and a deep and settle. purpose seems to possess all minds--all branches of legitimate business have been on a steady increase and a necessary sacrifice of a people for the purposes of the war has greatly elevated the average moral tone of the inhabitants."
by Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck
Rochesterians crowded Reynolds' Arcade in the spring of 1861, waiting for news over the telegraph, Rebel troops had fired on Fort Sumter; tense negotiations continued in Washington to avoid war.
Observed the Democrat and Chronicle: "On no occasion since the days of the revolution have our citizens undergone the same degree of anxious exciting suspense that characterizes every hour of the day."
However, most Rochesterians had been conditioned to expect war by the years of anti-slavery debate and talk of secession.
As the first Rochester regiments marched off to the fighting, women organized volunteer groups to sew uniforms and flags and to roll bandages. The Ladies Hospital Relief Association raised funds and collected supplies. The Female Ladies Charitable Society equipped the City Hospital (now Rochester General) to accept injured soldiers. The city's other hospital, St. Mary's, expanded to care for additional soldiers. By the spring of 1864, about 400 soldiers were recovering in Rochester's hospitals.
Some local industries worked at capacity to fill wartime orders. The three daily newspapers were perhaps the first to experience increased production. Combined circulation for all three jumped from 9,000 to 20,000 in a single day during the McClellan campaign along the Potomac during the summer of 1862. And, of course, the Pacific Telegraph Co., organized in 1862 by Hiram Sibley, was flooded with messages about what was happening at the battlefront.
Orders streamed in for flags, tents, army belts, shoes, uniforms, beer, flour, port, wool and even horses. Traffic on the canal and at the port greatly increased; railroads experienced the greatest increase in freight.
But life at home was increasingly difficult as the war made some goods scarce or expensive.
Between 1860 and 1864, the price of eggs increased from 16 cents to 25 cents a dozen. Barrels of flour went up from $7.25 to $13; gallons of molasses from 20 cents to $1.25. Sheeting increased 700 percent. Most prices at least doubled.
Increase in coal prices, and the coal "famine" of 1863 brought critical shortages to people dependent on it for winter heat. Coal prices soared from $6.40 to $12 a ton between June 1863 and spring 1864.
Wage earners did not receive equivalent raises in pay. Those on fixed incomes found it difficult to make ends meet. Many "made do or did without."
Workers began to strike for a 10-hour work day and higher wages. They protested due bills and shin plasters (money printed by the city) issued in lieu of regular currency.
Stores could not make change and sometimes gave credit instead. Because of the shortage of money, Rochester banks issued their own. Barter also returned.
The war dragged on for four years. About 10 p.m. April 9, 1865, word of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender reached Rochester. Though it was Sunday night, and most people were asleep, Mayor Daniel D. T. Moore sent word to the firehouses to ring their bells at 11 p.m. to summon people from their beds.
The City Hall bell rang unceasingly for three hours. Other bells began to ring. Thousands of people went downtown. People cheered, bonfires burned in the streets, rockets and pistols were fired. The mayor tried to give a speech from the steps of the Powers Bank at the Four Corners, but could not be heard above the noise. Even when rain began to fall, it did not dampen the celebration, which lasted until nearly daybreak.
Slavery was ended; so was the great sacrifice of men and materials. Americans North and South looked anxiously toward an uncertain social and economic future.
Rochester was undergoing change, industry was shifting from wartime to peacetime production. The economy was unsettled, and there were continuing shortages.
Women had taken the place of men who had left the factories for the battlefield. Though most women left their jobs as veterans returned, they had found a place in industry. Indeed, in the decades that followed the war, hundreds of women worked in local factories.
Women who had worked toward ending slavery were optimistic that they would be granted the right to vote along with blacks. They were bitterly disappointed when black males alone were granted the vote in 1870.
A local person taking the state census in the city's Third Ward noted in 1865: "The people had been more industrious than before and a deep and settle. purpose seems to possess all minds--all branches of legitimate business have been on a steady increase and a necessary sacrifice of a people for the purposes of the war has greatly elevated the average moral tone of the inhabitants."
by Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck