Terms Served
Listed by term start date:
- 1819 – 1820 (1st term) (Gates)
- 1820 – 1821 (2nd term) (Gates)
- 1821 (3rd term) (Gates)
Biography
Biography
From Find A Grave website:
Monroe County (NY) founder. Along with his brothers Francis and David, he was among the founders of the town of Rome, NY in 1794. In 1810 they purchased holdings just north of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester's village west of the Genesee River which he had named Rochesterville after himself, and founded a small settlement which they named Frankfort. In 1817 Colonel Rochester and Matthew Brown traveled to Albany for the first of several appeals to lobby the state legislature into creating a new county with their new town at its center. Despite opposition from surrounding communities, on Febnruary 23rd 1823 their efforts paid off as state lawmakers officially created Monroe County from parts of neighboring Genesee and Ontario Counties, bisected by the Genesee River and with Rochesterville as its county seat. In 1818 Matthew and Francis became the first people to harness the power of the Genesee River and falls by channeling a quarter mile ditch into the bedrock at the 96' High Falls. This provided a clean water supply to the town and enabled a booming mill industry to grow up around the falls, attracting workers and businessmen alike to the burgeoning new town.Frankfort is now the city of Rochester's High Falls historic preservation district; some of the original mill structures can still be seen and the Brown brothers' name lives on today in Brown Street and Brown Square, adjacent to the current site of Kodak World Headquarters on State Street. Matthew Brown was also variously a brickmaker, a miller and a respected physician, as well as being actively involved in local and state politics. He died of kidney disease aged 85 at his residence on Brown Street. He was interred at Mount Hope on January 2 1852. 
Term Highlights
Term Highlights
Ran Brown's Mill in high falls near the other mills at high falls along the Genesee River. The other Mills were:- WHITNEY MILLS - built of stone with five run of stones and capable of producing 300 barrels a day.
- FRANKFORT MILLS - adjoining the Whitney Mills, turning out 150 barrels a day on three run of stones.
- BOSTON MILL - with four run of stones producing 250 barrels a day.
- SHAWMUT MILLS - with seven run of stones producing 400 barrels a day.
- WASHINGTON MILL - with four run of stones producing 250 barrels a day.
- CLINTON MILLS - with four run of stones producing 275 barrels daily.
- NEW YORK MILLS - with six run of stones producing 360 barrels a day.
- PHOENIX MILLS - four run of stones producing 275 barrels daily.
- GRANITE MILLS - ten run of stones producing 600 barrels a day
- CATARACT MILL - unknown run of stones producing unknown amount of barrels.