Thomas Hart Rochester was the 6th son of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester

Nathaniel Rochester

Nathaniel Rochester was an American Revolutionary War soldier and land speculator, most noted for founding the settlement which would become Rochester, New York.-Early years:...

 and the 6th mayor of Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

.

Rochester was born in Hagerstown, Maryland

Hagerstown, Maryland

Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the...

 and moved with his family to Dansville, New York

Dansville, Livingston County, New York

Dansville is a village in the town of North Dansville in the eastern part of Livingston County, New York, United States. As of the census, the village population was 4,832. The village is named after Daniel Faulkner, an early settler. Interstate 390 passes next to the west side of the village.-...

 in 1810. Rochester was the first of his family to move to the land his father, Charles Carroll, and William Fitzhugh purchased next to the High Falls of the Genesee River

Genesee River

The Genesee River is a North American river flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides hydroelectric power for downtown Rochester....

. When his family followed him to the city two years later he decided to move briefly to Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 before returning and marrying Phebe E. Cuming, the daughter of the Village of Rochester's first clergyman.

Rochester was selected by the council as a Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 to be Mayor during the depression year of 1838. After his term he became a banker and real estate developer before his death in 1874. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery

Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester

Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York, founded in 1838, is the United States' first municipal rural cemetery. Situated on 196 acres of land adjacent to the University of Rochester on Mount Hope Avenue, the cemetery is the permanent resting place of over 350,000 people...

.

His Spring Street house is now the home of the Rochester Locust Club.

External links

• Known descendants of Nathaniel Rochester at Ancestry.com
• Mayors of Rochester at WorldStatesmen.org