Life
He was the first child of Col. Nathaniel Rochester (1752–1831), founder of the City of Rochester, New York, and Sophia (Beatty) Rochester (1768–1845). He attended the public schools and graduated from Charlotte Hall Military Academy. In 1812, he married his first wife Harriet Irwin (d. 1815), and their son was Nathaniel Montgomery Rochester (1813–1823).
During the War of 1812, Rochester was an aide-de-camp to Gen. George McClure. After the war, he studied law with his uncle Judge Adam Beatty and with Henry Clay, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Bath, New York. Later, he removed to Angelica, New York. On January 31, 1816, he married his second wife Amanda Hopkins (d. 1831), and their children were James Hervey Rochester (1819–1860), Harriet Louisa (Rochester) Bull (1821–1854), Sophia Elizabeth Rochester (1823–1824), William Beatty Rochester (1826–1909) and Nathaniel Elie Rochester (1829–1833).
Rochester was a member of the New York State Assembly (Allegany and Steuben Co.) in 1816-17 and 1818. Rochester was a presidential elector in 1820, voting for James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins.
Rochester was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the 17th, and re-elected as a Crawford Democratic-Republican to the 18th United States Congress, holding office from December 3, 1821, to April 21, 1823 when he resigned upon his appointment as Judge of the Eight Circuit Court. He resigned from the bench to run on the Bucktails ticket for Governor of New York in 1826, but was narrowly defeated by DeWitt Clinton.
He was Secretary to the Special Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia in 1826, and Chargé d'affaires to Central America in 1827-28. In 1828, he was appointed by Nicholas Biddle as President of the branch of the Second Bank of the United States at Buffalo, New York, remaining there until 1836. On April 9, 1832, he married his third wife Eliza (Hatch) Powers (1800–1885, widow of Gershom Powers), and their children were Eliza Hatch Rochester (1833–1868) and George William Rochester (1835–1837).
He later served as President of the Bank of Pensacola, Florida and a director of the Alabama and Florida Railroad. Rochester died in the wreck of the steamer Pulaski off the coast of North Carolina on June 14, 1838.
Mayor Thomas H. Rochester was his brother.
Read more about this topic: William B. Rochester
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what’s going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.”
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One cog in a golden singing hive:”
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“There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man’s life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)