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High Falls, Genesee River, Rochester, NY

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Availability:	Open to the Public
Filed Under:	Historical Locations Historical Locations > Disasters Infamous Crimes Movie Locations
Added By:	Tom G
Added On:	September 06, 2008 - 07:11 AM UTC
Last Modified:	October 13, 2009 - 09:52 PM UTC
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Address
Commercial St, Rochester, NY 14614, USA (Rochester, New York)

Information
The High Falls The High Falls is a waterfall along the Genesee River in Rochester, New York (see Rochester, New York). Standing at 96 feet in height, the falls is a popular attraction in the city. The city of Rochester owes much of its history as the first boomtown in America to the presence of High Falls, as well as another waterfall downstream known as the Lower Falls. The falls were utilized to power mills which produced flour, which was then conveniently shipped via the Erie Canal. This gave rise to one of Rochester's nicknames "The Flour City." Over time, the nickname has changed to "The Flower City" as the flour trade faded away. In recent decades the High Falls Heritage Area and Browns Race Historic District was part of an attempt to create an entertainment sector. Most of the businesses associated with that trend have closed since though. A bridge spans the gorge, allowing visitors to view the spectacle of the falls and enjoy the scenery of the gorge. Orchestras have performed free concerts in the gorge and there have also been laser light shows held there as well. The High Falls is a nice setting for warm weather sightseeing. It has also been the setting for some macabre tales from Rochester's past. Sam Patch Perhaps the most infamous of the stories involving the High Falls is the demise of daredevil Sam Patch. Sam was a originally a native of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Since a young boy, he had been known for entertaining others with dangerous feats. He started off with jumping off of a mill dam at the textile mill where he worked. By the age of 20 he was performing grander stunts, such as jumping off the Passaic Falls in Paterson, New Jersey. After a number of jumps from higher and higher locations, Sam was alternately dubbed the "New Jersey Jumper" and the "Yankee Jumper" by the press. On October 7, 1829, Sam became the first person to jump off of Niagara Falls and live. He did it a second time on October 17th, after being disappointed by the small crowd at the first attempt. During the first attempt, he took a while to resurface, leading to tension and finally cheers from the crowd as he reappeared. On November 6, 1829, Sam Patch performed a stunt at the High Falls. First, he threw his pet bear cub over the side. When the bear was witnessed climbing to shore, Sam then jumped as well. He lived once again, but again was also disappointed with the crowd he'd drawn with the jump. Just like with Niagara Falls, Patch scheduled a second jump to take place days later. He had a platform made to raise him even higher up. On November 13, 1829 (Friday the 13th), Sam attempted the jump again. This time he did not have his bear cub in tow and jumped from a height of 121 feet (amplified by his man-made platform). Rather than doing his usual feet-first entry, Sam seemed to go limp partway through the jump and landed in the water awkwardly with great noise. Legend has it that an audience member who had his thumb in his mouth, accidentally bit it off in the excitement. Patch failed to resurface. The crowd hung in there, in anticipation of a dramatic resurfacing (like the one in Niagara Falls) that never came. Even months later there was speculation that Sam had hid in a cave beneath the falls and then ran off. Some believed that he'd pop up later and it would all turn out to be a publicity stunt. There were reports of Sam Patch sightings all over the county. Will the Real Sam Patch Please Stand Up? A frozen corpse was discovered months later on March 17, 1830 (St. Patrick's Day) downstream in Charlotte, New York, not far from where the river empties into Lake Ontario. The body was discovered by farmer Silas Hudson. According to accounts, the corpse had a deep cut over one its eyes. The face was said to be grotesquely battered and most of its hair had fallen out. There were no broken bones. The body is commonly believed to be that of Sam Patch and was buried there in Charlotte Cemetery. There were those that believed that the body wasn't Sam's and that the daredevil lived on in a secret retirement. In the books It Happened in Jersey by Fran Capo and Weird N.J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, it is said that Sam Patch's remains were found only two days after his jump. This account apparently stems from one of two false news stories printed declaring Patch's remains found when they weren't. The story dealing with a discovery only two days later states that the body was discovered near the base of the falls and goes on to say that an autopsy revealed that Patch's shoulders were dislocated and that he'd apparently burst a blood vessel during his impact with the cold water. The other false news story was published on February 16, 1830. A body is buried in Charlotte Cemetery with Sam Patch on the gravestone. His original grave marker was simply a wooden plank bearing his name and the inscription "SUCH IS FAME." The plank was apparently featured in local parades and then returned to his grave after each occasion. Eventually, the plank was stolen and Patch would later receive a proper stone grave marker thanks to the efforts of the students of Charlotte High School. The Aftermath of Sam Patch's Death Sam Patch's life and death inspired authors and created a national catch phrase. His motto, "Some things can be done as well as others" spread across the country. He also appears as a character in the works of authors Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Samuel Hopkins Adams. He also is featured in a number of poems, including one by William Carlos Williams. A poem by Seba Smith about Sam Patch inspired a line in Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Another poem about the incident by Thomas Ward, would be criticized by Edgar Allan Poe as being "twaddle." There was also a play written about Sam's life, titled Sam Patch: The Yankee Jumper. President Andrew Jackson was said to have named one of his horses after Sam Patch in the years after the fatal jump. Ultimately, the horse named after Sam received a more grandiose funeral than its namesake. Sam had been buried quietly and received a wooden plank as a marker. The horse was buried with full military honors. The horse can be seen in two portraits showing Jackson on its back. The white horse is said to have been Jackson's favorite. It was given to him as a gift by the city of Philadelphia in 1833. Stories that Sam Patch had been drunk prior to the jump were used to further the agenda of the temperance movement in the Rochester area. There are stories of Patch imbibing liquor regularly before jumps, so it is quite possible that he did drink alcohol on his Friday the 13th jump. It may indeed have factored into his going limp during the jump, if he'd been drunk enough to lose consciousness or his body's motor control was off. He had even been known to liquor up his pet bear cub prior to jumps. It is also posited as a theory that Patch's death led to immense guilt among the citizens of the area. Some accounts have more than half of the city's population present for the jump. There are claims that this mass guilt over being perceived as encouraging Patch's fatal stunt, helped further the religious and spiritual transformation of the area around Rochester. It became part of what was known as the "Burned Over District." So called, because so many people had been evangelized to the point that there was nobody left to convert. Immediately following Sam's final leap there were stories of a phantom figure seen leaping from the edge of the falls on some nights. The stories of Sam's ghost have faded over time. These days, a visitor to the falls can get a view similar to Sam Patch's last by visiting "The Leap", a balcony built over the gorge at Terrace Park that was named in memory of Sam Patch (see The High Falls Building and Terrace Park). Marion Ira Stout The High Falls was also the setting of an incredibly bungled murder that resulted in ludicrously dramatic trial coverage and public reaction. Raised by parents who were known criminals, Marion Ira Stout, who commonly went by his middle name, seemed destined for a life of crime himself. He served a nearly 5 year prison sentence in Pennsylvania for assisting his father in committing robbery and arson. After serving his time, Ira joined his family in Rochester, New York. He attended college and pursued a career in the mercantile trade. While he had been in prison, Ira's younger sister Sarah had married a man named Charles Littles. Charles was a lawyer, but had a poor reputation with the locals. There are tales of his cheating on his wife, yet showing great jealousy to the point of threatening men with his knife if he thought they might be flirting with Sarah. Sarah was rumored to be unfaithful herself. Possibly fearing that his brother-in-law's tumultuous relationship with his sister might cause Charles to reveal Ira's criminal past to the community he sought to blend into...Ira decided to murder him. His sister joined him in the plan. Inspired by the death of a man who accidentally fell off of a bridge and went over the High Falls, Ira decided a similar fate might disguise Charles's murder. On December 19, 1857, Ira and Sarah used Charles's jealous streak to lure him to his death. Sarah went out and Ira told Charles he suspected she might go to meet a lover. The two of them followed her at a distance. Ira struck his victim with an iron mallet, killing him instantly. The plan did not go as well as planned for the disposal of the body. Ira's attempt at rolling the body into the Genesee River was initially unsuccessful. It only fell 30 feet before landing on a ledge and coming to a rest. Hearing a thud rather than a splash, Ira attempted to get a better view, but was unable to see in the darkness. He slipped and fell, landing on the same ledge, breaking his left arm and losing his spectacles. After shoving the body off the ledge, Ira fainted from shock. Upon awakening he called to his sister for help. Sarah grabbed a bush and tried reaching out to her brother. The branches of the shrub broke free, sending Sarah plummeting down to land beside her brother, snapping her left wrist. They were able to find the murder weapon in the dark, but could not find Ira's eye glasses. The brother and sister were finally able to climb back up and return to their home at 75 Monroe Street (Monroe Avenue these days). They washed the blood stains off of themselves and hid the murder weapon. The very next day, the body of Sarah's husband was discovered by young boys. It had struck a flat rock and then fallen further to land on the water's edge, not in far enough for the current to take it. The police discovered a fragment of skull on the ledge along with Ira's spectacles, Sarah's scarf and the arm of a wooden chair. The chair arm had been carried by Charles as an intended weapon for beating Sarah's imagined suitor. The authorities also found footprints and what they assumed to be signs of a struggle (most likely caused by three falling bodies and the shoving of the corpse). Ira Stout confessed to his family what he and Sarah had done. They still remained silent when the entire family was brought in for questioning in regards to the murder. A newspaper relates that Sarah's questioning was performed with her husband's corpse only a matter of feet away from her chair. The interview was punctuated with the sounds of the medical saw dissecting her husband's skull as the autopsy was conducted simultaneous. The paper notes how Sarah showed extreme composure under the circumstance. Less than a month later in January, Ira was charged with the murder of Charles Little. Sarah, their mother and younger brother were all charged as accessories to the crime. The trial was set for April and the news media kept running stories about the Stouts throughout, turning them into local celebrities of a sort. During the trial, stories came out about a possible incestuous relationship between Ira and his sister Sarah. Witnesses, including family members, attested to witnessing the two of them sharing a bed...sometimes unclothed. This possible incestuous relationship may well have been another factor in the slaying of Charles Little. On April 24, 1858, Ira was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang in June. His lawyer managed to get a stay of execution due to claims that members of the jury had made up their minds about Ira's guilt before the trial began. He sought a new trial. In the meantime, Ira enjoyed his new found celebrity status. He entertained a number of female visitors and developed a following of supporters who were taken in by his intelligence and looks. Even Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony (both future residents of the cemetery Ira would be buried in) wrote to the Governor, asking that the young man's death sentence be turned into a life sentence. Ira, with the assistance of two of his visitors, attempted to take his own life. The first attempt was made when a young lady attempted to smuggle poison to him. She inadvertently consumed the poison herself in the process and was deathly ill for days. She eventually recovered. A second attempt at suicide was made when Ira sliced his wrists open with a lancet (double-edged scalpel) that had been smuggled in by another admirer. This was foiled when a guard noticed Ira's wrists dripping blood. His wounds were dressed and Ira lived on to await his sentence. Despite all of the attention the case was getting, there was no retrial. On October 22, 1858, Marion Ira Stout was executed by hanging. Once again, Luck was not on Ira's side. Despite a plunge of 8 feet from the scaffold door, Ira's neck did not break. He struggled greatly at the end of the rope for roughly 10 minutes. Many witnesses to the execution had to look away as he danced a macabre jig and slowly strangled in the hangman's noose. After a half hour had passed, and they were finally positive that he was dead, Ira was cut down. The macabre tale was still not at an end. The following day a local paper stated a rumor that Ira had not actually died. It went on to claim that there were stories of galvanic batteries being used to bring him back to life, like Frankenstein's monster. However, there was to be no resurrection of Ira through any sort of mad science. His mother purchased a plot in Mount Hope Cemetery (see Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY), near the plots of the wealthy and influential. Years later, Ira's mother would again appear in a local paper that made a plea to the public on her behalf. She had become so shunned by the public, that she had to hide her identity to get meager odd jobs and, according to the paper, was in danger of starvation. The Naphtha Explosions of 1887 On the afternoon of December 21, 1887, the High Falls area became the scene of massive underground explosions (see The Rochester Naphtha Explosions of 1887). Flammable gas from a broken pipe filled the sewers below the streets running along the falls. The resulting explosions completely destroyed three of the mills operating there. It also caused many injuries, though a remarkably low number of deaths, considering the scope and nature of the disaster. The explosions stretched for two miles and lasted two hours, creating a scene of absolute chaos and panic. The Steam Gauge & Lantern Company Fire Nearly a year after the naphtha explosion, another disaster would befall the mills and area surrounding the High Falls. On November 9, 1888, there was a fire at the Steam Gauge & Lantern Company building overlooking the falls. The fire remains the worst in Rochester's history. 35 men and young boys died in the fire and leaping from the building to escape the flames. A memorial to the victims of Rochester's most fatal fire sits in Mount Hope Cemetery. Part of the building's remains were used to construct what is now the High Falls Building and Terrace Park. After Image The 2001 suspense film, After Image, was shot in Rochester, New York and the High Falls area in particular is key in the film. The movie deals with a serial killer. A psychic and a crime photographer (played by musician John "Cougar" Mellencamp) team up to track down the killer. The Genesee River Killer In the late 1980s, serial killer Arthur Shawcross prowled Rochester's streets, searching for female victims. Dubbed both "The Rochester Strangler" and "The Genesee River Killer", Shawcross had served time for raping and killing a child in Watertown, New York in the early 1970s (He'd also killed a second child, but the charges were dropped in plea bargaining). After moving to Rochester, Shawcross turned his sights on grown women. He preyed on prostitutes mainly, but also beat and strangled other women as opportunity presented itself. Often, Shawcross would dump his victims' bodies along or in the Genesee River. This led to the moniker that stuck, "The Genesee River Killer." Shawcross was finally apprehended in fall of 1989 and is serving multiple life sentences with parole only becoming an option if he somehow manages to live to be roughly 300 years old. The High Falls Historical District Today, there are tours available of the High Falls area. The area has been developed for tourism, with sites allowing visitors to see the unearthed remnants of the old mills that operated in the area. The basement of the former Triphammer Forge (built in 1816) was uncovered after a fire destroyed the building above it in 1977. The old water wheel and the lower levels of the mill are accessible to the public. The Cornelius Parsons Saw Mill still stands alongside the falls and allows visitors to view down into its dark debris-filled depths. Rochester High Falls International Film Festival The Rochester High Falls International Film Festival is a festival that is spread through many venues throughout the city of Rochester. It stems from two separate festivals, the High Falls Film Festival and the Rochester International Film Festival, being combined together in 2007. The event takes place annually in the spring. The week-long event features a large variety of movies, from feature length to short films.

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Related Sites
Epitaph: The Heinous High Falls Murder Article about Marion Ira Stout from The Friends of Mount Hope's newsletter.
Wikipedia: Sam Patch Wikipedia entry for doomed daredevil Sam Patch.
RocWiki: High Falls The Rochester Wiki's entry for the High Falls in Rochester, New York.

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See Also on TheCabinet.com
Blog: The Botched Execution of Ira Stout (10/22/08)
Blog: The Fatal Jump of Sam Patch (11/06/08)

Available from Amazon.com
Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper
SAM PATCH THE HIGH & WIDE HANDSOME JUMPER
Sam Patch Champion Jumper
Sam Patch: Daredevil Jumper
Grandfather Stories (New York Classics)
After Image
Biography - Arthur Shawcross
Arthur Shawcross: The Genesee River Killer : The Grisly True Crime Account of the Rochester Prostitute Murders!
The Misbegotten Son
THE MISBEGOTTEN SON: A SERIAL KILLER AND HIS VICTIMS: THE TRUE STORY OF ARTHUR J. SHAWCROSS.

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Images

Faux grindstones decorate the median near the welcome sign for the High Falls district in Rochester.
From: Tom G

The High Falls as seen from the Pont de Rennes Pedestrian Bridge.
From: Tom G

Courtesy of New York State Historical Association Research Library, Cooperstown, NY.
From: aaronlovecraft

A poster of unlucky dare devil Sam Patch.
From: Tom G

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The above content is for informational purposes only. Before making any travel arrangements, it is highly recommended that you contact those in charge of the property to check for updated availability and hours of operation. While we do our best to keep this information updated, we cannot guarantee that it is completely valid and up to date. Any destination marked "Closed to the Public" is marked that for a reason and we discourage any visits or attempts to gain access to that facility. Similarly, take note of any "Travel Advisory" that may be associated with a destination. Finally, treat any location and its local residents with respect. Any vandalism and/or unruly behavior is completely despicable and only ruins the experience for future visitors.

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