Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • A2

DIGITAL PRESIDENT DANIEL A. NORSELLI 585.258.2226 EDITOR VICE PRESIDENT NEWS Karen M. Magnuson 585.258.2220 kmagnuson ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Tibbs R. Ahlberg 585.258.2476 VICE PRESIDENT FINANCE William J. Hart 585.258.2520 DIRECTOR CLIENT STRATEGY Dennis R.

Floss 585.258.2242 HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR Donna L. Bell 585.258.2407 GANNETT PUBLISHING SERVICES, GENERAL MANAGER OPERATIONS Travis Komidar 585.258.9900 GANNETT EAST GROUP PRESIDENT Michael G. Kane 585.258.2200 Published daily by Digital, 245 East Main Rochester, NY 14604. Periodicals postage paid at Rochester, NY (USPS 153-100). HOW TO REACH US Main Number: 585.232.7100 Customer Service: 800.790.9565 Email: FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook.com/ DemocratandChronicle Twitter CUSTOMER SERVICE For delivery issues call: 800.790.9565 Or go to: DemocratandChronicle.com/cs For Sunday delivery issues in Rochester or its adjacent suburbs, please contact customer service by 10 a.m.

to have a replacement copy delivered. For Monday thru Saturday delivery issues, credit or next-day delivery will be offered. FOR BILLING QUESTIONS Email: Chronicle.com Call: 800.790.9565* Hours: Monday Friday: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday: 7:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Sunday: 7:30 a.m. to noon. FOR VACATION STOPS RESTARTS Call: 800.790.9565* any time during the automated message you can ask to speak to a representative. DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR Distribution Director: Paul Kelly 585.258.9888 ADVERTISE WITH US Retail: 585.258.2377 or 585.258.2413 Classified: 585.454.1111 Legal Notice 888.516.9220 Obituaries: 585.258.9742 or 585.258.9759 FULL ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION RATES Aone-time setup fee of $4.99 applies to new subscriptions which include home delivery of the print edition. Including Monday-Sunday print edition delivery: $99.00 per month Including Monday-Saturday print edition delivery: $33.00 per month Including Thursday-Sunday print edition delivery: $30.00 per month Including Sunday print edition delivery: $25.00 per month Including Saturday and Sunday print edition delivery: $27.00 per month Digital Access Only (excludes home delivery of the print edition): $13 per month with EZ Pay.

Rates that include print delivery apply where carrier delivery is available. Your subscription includes the Thanksgiving Day print edition, which will be charged at the then Thanksgiving cover price, and four Premium Editions per year, charged $1 each. These additional charges will be added to your billing corresponding to the delivery date of the editions. To cancel your subscription contact customer service. Terms and conditions apply.

For complete details go to Democratandchron- icle.com/disclaimer or call 800-790-9565. Mail subscription: Rates on request, 800-790-9565. Mail subscriptions are payable in advance. No mail subscriptions will be accepted where carrier delivery is maintained. Periodicals postage paid at Rochester, N.Y.

(USPS 153-100). POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Democrat and Chronicle, 245 East Main Rochester, NY 14604. OUR MISSION The Democrat and Chronicle remains ever vigilant for the community good, dedicated to providing unsurpassed value and excellent customer service while expanding multimedia delivery of news, information, diverse opinions and interaction. Page2A DemocratandChronicle. com Volume 185, Number 116 CORRECTED The Democrat and Chronicle strives to cover the news fairly, accurately and honestly.

It is our policy to correct errors of fact or statements needing clarification. Please write to the News Editor, Democrat and Chronicle 245 East Main Rochester NY 14604 or call (585) 258-2214. N.Y. LOTTERY Winning Numbers Tuesday Midday767Lucky Sum: 20 Evening277Lucky Sum: 16 Win 4 Midday3817 Lucky Evening9580 Lucky Pick 10 7121416172226333437 49515456576264677173 Monday's Take Five 715212331 Lotto Tonight's jackpot is $5 million. For more information: www.nylottery.org or call (518) 388-3300 Gamblers Anonymous helpline: (888) 426-6678 Comics, puzzles, advice and horoscopes are located today in Sports, 6D, 7D, 11D Have a confidential news tip? Email: Secure messaging using Signal app: 585.802.3320 NEWS Xerox job numbers not so bad Xerox Corp.

changed how it reports local employment; Rochester workforce largely unaffected by loss of roughly 1,600 jobs. 4A Playground to honor memory of child Adinosaur-themed playground will be built in Rothfuss Park in memory of Jack Heiligman of Webster. 6A Test opt-out rates dip For a third straight year, the percentage of children grades 3-8 in the city who opted out of the English state test declined. 8A Numbers up Dave Andreatta says Mayor use of job numbers is a smokescreen. 10A MONEY Small-business boon Small businesses in the U.S.

are hiring and spending money, a sign that success has bolstered optimism. 4B Sometimes history catches you by surprise. Robert Gerami, one of my students at the University of Rochester who is doing a project on the daredevil Sam Patch, asked me last week if I had heard of An- loise De Lave. Who? I answered, exposing my ignorance before I slunk to my corner for some internet research. Thus I learned that, according to Rochester historian Blake McKelvey, De Lave made several death-defying strolls on a tightrope above the Genesee River gorge at the High Falls during a two- week period in the summer of 1859.

De Lave, most often referred to as a was a brief sensation here. No surprise. He was very good at what he did. He had daring. He had flair.

He drew huge crowds. He survived. Alas, his name did not live on in Rochester, where failing big would seem to be the secret to lasting fame in the daredevil biz. Sam Patch set that morbidly high bar in 1829 by first successfully leaping 96 feet into the Genesee River at the High (or Upper) Falls and then unsuccessfully, indeed fatally, attempting a second somewhat higher leap. His dramatic demise captured the imagination of poets, songwriters and other daredevils.

His name lives on in Rochester, most prominently on an Erie Canal packet boat. Not so De Lave. He walked to work. Did his job. Risked his life.

Left Rochester under his own power, and strolled into obscurity. Life fair. De Lave had been hired to draw people to Falls Fields, an entertainment beer garden on the east side of the river at High Falls. And boy, did he draw. According to the Democrat and Chronicle his first walk across the river gorge on Aug.

16, 1859, drew 18,000 to 20,000 spectators. Railroads coming into the city were crowded; hotels were full. The tightrope passed over the crest of the falls at an oblique angle, that section of the walk perhaps the most dangerous because of the mist and wind from the cascading river. At its highest point the rope was 110 feet above the gorge. (A stereoscopic image from the time shows the rope passing over the falls to the roof of a building on the west side.

The feat looks foolhardy, if not deadly.) De Lave walked on the rope from east to west, stopping once or twice, but never faltering, even though the loosely anchored rope swayed. He waited five minutes on the other side and then headed back. About halfway across he dropped to a sitting position, then lay on his back before rising to his feet and standing on one leg. He finished to great applause. According to McKelvey, De Lave continued to perform for two weeks.

Other accounts indicate that he varied his performances, at least twice standing on his head. The exhibitions were marred by one death not De but that of a spectator who fell into the gorge and died instantly. On his last walk in 1859, De Lave attempted to carry a local man, Robert Smith, on his back across the span. Smith had volunteered because he had a case of according to one account. In the middle of the journey, to the horror of spectators, De Lave slipped.

Both men grasped the tightrope and somehow made it safely back, moving in different directions. De Lave then left Rochester, though records indicate he returned for an encore on July 4, 1861. He performed in other places, as well, including Mexico and South America. During his career, De Lave walked in the shadow of Charles Blondin, the acrobat who crossed the Niagara River gorge several times, at least once blindfolded, once in a bag, once on stilts. And in Rochester, of course, De Lave would seem to have resided in the shadow of Sam Patch, the daredevil whose name lives on, despite, or perhaps because of, his last leap.

One more ring Iwrote two weeks ago about Edward Curtis, who died on April 7, and his penchant for ringing the bell at Old City Hall in downtown Rochester, not always with authorization. On April 14, a day before funeral, members of his family went to the top floor of the building, which is now Irving Place, and watched as grandson, John Curtis Goodman, climbed a ladder and did the ringing. The ceremony was on the up-and-up, as the family was there by invitation of Susie Woods and Don Riley of Mark IV Enterprises, the owner. Daredevil walked over High Falls without falling Sometimes the history can catch anybody by surprise JIM MEMMOTT REMARKABLE ROCHESTER PROVIDED PHOTO Astereoscopic image of the rope over the High Falls that Anloise De Lave used to tightrope walk across in 1859. Image looks west and you can see beginning of the rope in the lower left.

On Remarkable Rochester Retired Senior Editor Jim Memmott reflects on what makes Rochester distinctively Rochester, its history, its habits, its people. Contact him at: (585) 278-8012 or andChronicle.com or Remarkable Rochester, Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454. Remarkable Rochesterians add the name of this advocate for rights to the list of Remarkable Rochesterians that can be found at to be found at RocRoots.com: Abigail Norton Bush (1810-1899): On Aug. 2, 1848, 12 days after the Seneca Falls Convention for rights, she presided over the Rochester Rights Convention, thus becoming the first woman in the U.S. to preside as president of a public meeting composed of men and women.

The convention approved of the Declaration of Sentiments introduced in Seneca Falls, including its call to give women the right to vote. A native of Cambridge, Washington County, Bush came to Rochester when she was young. She was a member of the Rochester Female Charitable Society, and she and her husband were ardent abolitionists, their house serving as a stop on the Underground Railroad. She was active in the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society until she moved to California in the mid-1850s. PROVIDED PHOTO Abigail Norton Bush was the first woman to preside over a U.S.

convention of men and women, the Rochester Rights Convention, in 1848..