Building date: 1831 - in ruins by the 1930's.
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Map views courtesy Google Maps. Approximate location is Google Earth confirmed; 43°00'14.88"N 77°35'54.45"W.
Town of Mendon and Monroe County Maps
Jeremiah Gates Palmer house built in 1831 at what is now the intersection of Sheldon and Lyons Roads in the town of Mendon, Monroe county. The photo was taken about 1883. From left are Palmer's daughter, Fannie; sons, Charles and Frank, his wife, Nellie, dog, Bess, son George, and Jeremiah himself holding his horses, Ned and Doll, who lived to be 32 and 33 years old respectively. It was demolished in the 1940s. Richard Palmer blog.
"The Cobblestone Houses of Upstate New York", compiled by Dorothy Wells Pease. Research done in collaboration with Hazed B. Jeffery, supplemented with material furnished by Carl F. Schmidt, 1941. Reference the tenth paragraph on page 16.
"Cobblestone Architecture in the Rochester Area", by Gerda Peterich, 1953. Reference Sheldon Road House and figures 6 and 7. Editor's Note: This digitized version of the original typescript manuscript is reformatted for digital display, edited for errors, and includes blue tinted highlighted links to improve access within the document, to the appropriate structure pages in the Cobblestone Info Base, or to external resources on the internet. This document is one of two known typescript drafts, likely a thesis or essay bound as a book and apparently never published. One is available in the Cobblestone Museum Resource Center, the other in the University of Rochester Art and Music Library. A companion or precursor typed paper of the same title exists, perhaps used for a talk and/or photographic display of cobblestone structures.
"Subject #21, pages 11-12, Survey of Cobblestone Masonry in the Rush - Mendon Area", by Richard Burton Wood (1934-1992), May 18, 1955. Essay submitted to Dr. Hersey, Art 146, Class of 1956 University of Rochester.
Jeremiah Gates Palmer House, History Pages 1 - 3, General Information. Karen Crandall email 3/22/2021.
Mendon - The Early Years, Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, December 18, 2003
The Cobblestone House of Jeremiah Gates Palmer
The exact year that Jeremiah Gates Palmer arrived in the Town of Mendon is not known. His name appeared in the 1820 Federal Census as a resident and in the 1825 Tax Assessment Roll as an owner of property in the Town.
However, it had to be subsequent to 1817 as his son, also named Jeremiah Gates Palmer, born on June 17 of that year, accompanied his parents on the trip. When the family arrived in Mendon, formed as a township May 26, 1812, it was still part of Ontario County, joining Monroe County when the county was established February 23, 1821.
The Palmer family traveled from the Village of Hunter, Greene County, located in the Catskill Mountains of eastern New York State. Their covered wagon was drawn by two red oxen, Star named for the white star on its forehead and Line, named for a white line down its back. A pair of ox shoes, belonging to one of these animals, has been donated to the Honeoye Falls/Mendon Historical Society by Lucille Palmer Pattison, great-great-great-granddaughter of Jeremiah Gates Palmer. The trip to Mendon was most likely made during the winter months when the frozen ground and creeks provided a firm surface for sleighs and wagons.
The first challenge facing settlers in Mendon, as elsewhere, was to provide shelter for their families. In many cases the husband would travel by himself to the land he purchased, build a log cabin, and then return home for his family to take them to their new home. The 1855 New York State Census lists over fifty families living in log cabins in the Town of Mendon.
There is no information on how the Palmer family survived in its early years in Mendon. We do know that in 1831 a house was built for them on the 140 acres of land that Jeremiah purchased in Lot 30 of the Catlin and Ferris Tract in the northwestern part of the Town. (Note: Lot 30 is located on the present Sheldon Road at the intersection of Lyons Road). The Greek Revival style house was constructed of cobblestones from the nearby fields. The only known original photograph is published above and was donated to the historical society by Mrs. Pettison.
On a cold Sunday afternoon in March, 1996 Byron Palmer, brother of Lucille, invited me to his farm on the Mendon Ionia Road to view the keystone that had originally been placed over the front door of the cobblestone house. (Note: a keystone is a semi-circular piece of limestone that forms the upper part of an arch over a door opening). The initials "JGP" can be seen at the top of the keystone, a Masonic symbol in the center, and the year 1831 at the bottom.
Byron also showed me several quoins from one of the corners of the house. It is possible that they are from the corner that appears in the photo of one remaining corner. (Note: Quoins are rectangular pieces of limestone, stacked in a criss-cross fashion at the four corners of cobblestone house to contain rows of stones about them). Byron Palmer passed away at his home on September 17, 2003.
Believing that the Honeoye Falls-Mendon Historical Society would be the appropriate repository for the artifacts from her ancestors' cobblestone house. Lucille has generously donated the keystone and three of the quoins to that organization's museum. She also donated other articles with a Palmer family provenance that will be included in an exhibit in the Museum.
Upon the death of Jeremiah Gated Palmer on June 16, 1863, the cobblestone house and the 140-acre farm passed to his son, Hiram Fellows Palmer, who was born in Mendon March 24, 1829. Jeremiah's first-born son, Jeremiah Jr., was already living on a 90-acre farm he had purchased on Boughton Hill Road just east of Quaker Meetinghouse Road. He died June 6, 1905 passing ownership to his son, Louis Palmer. In 1920 this farm became part of the extensive land holdings acquired by the Chase Brothers Nursery Company.
In the early 1880s, Hiram Palmer sold his farm to his neighbor, Isaac C. Sheldon, for whom the road was named many years ago. This purchased added the Sheldon farm to the one he had inherited from his grandfather, Isaac Colvin. Hiram then moved his family to another farm located in the Sodus area of Wayne County. He died in Sodus July 26, 1892.
Isaac C. Sheldon continued to live in the family homestead and did not require the cobblestone house as his primary residence. A lithograph of his large early 1800s farmhouse appears in the 1877 History of Monroe County. He also owned a tenant house on his original property and did not require the stone house for that purpose.
An article in the March 31, 1892 issue of the Honeoye Falls Times mentions that the cobblestone house was occupied by a Henry Hill who earned a living as a hunter and trapper of small animals whose furs he sold to a local fur buyer. Whenever a horse or cow died on a local farm, the owner would have him skin the animal for its hide and dig a hole in which to bury the remains. His "job description" also included removing boulders from farmers' fields by the use of dynamite, which might be a possible explanation for his wooden leg.
Hank Hill came to the attention of the Honeoye Falls Times again when an article in the January 17, 1918 issue reported that he had been kicked in the head by a horse. Henry was described in the article as a well-known sportsman and dynamiter and as a one-legged single man who for many years has lived in the "Bleak House" in the western part of town.
On January 25, 1906 Isaac C. Sheldon advertised his farm for sale and that it could be subdivided into 30, 60, 90, and 110-acre parcels. The 110-acre parcel, which included the cobblestone house, was purchased by Alfred Treat who built a new house and barn on the property. Apparently, the stone house, proudly built by Jeremiah Gates Palmer in 1831, was already in a deteriorated state when Alfred Treat acquired it as part of his farm purchase.
Alfred Euler grew up on a nearby farm on Sheldon Road, remembers that, in the early 1920s, he used to play with Alfred Treat's son, Carl, at the Treat farm. The cobblestone house was in poor condition at that time and the children were not allowed to go near it. He also recalls that Hank Hill lived in the house and still practiced his trade of dynamiting boulders in farm fields.
Alfred related to me one experience, still fresh in his mind, is the day he watched Hank Hill place the dynamite to remove a boulder from a field on his father's farm. Hank, after igniting a long fuse attached to to the dynamite, ran so fast from the scene that, even with his wooden leg, Alfred could not keep up with him. Hank Hill was eventually placed in a rest home in Rochester and the cobblestone house was taken down in the early 1930s.
Byron Palmer and Lucille Palmer Pattison grew up on the 74-acre farm on Mendon-Ionia Road that their father, Elliot Whiting Palmer, purchased in 1932. The farm, abandoned at the time, probably due to the bad economic times of the Great Depression, was then in the hands of a bank in Holcomb, N.Y. The farm had been located by Elliott's father, Charles Hiram Palmer, who determined that the soil on the farm was suitable for fruit trees.
Orchards were planted on 30 acres of the farm, 20 acres in peaches; the remainder in apples, cherries, pears, apricots, plums, prunes, and one quince. The fruit from these trees was sold by the family at a roadside stand in front of the house until about about 1960 when the trees became unproductive.
The farmhouse, located on a steep hillside in the Hopper Hills area of Mendon at the highest point in Monroe County, is now offered for sale.
Editor's Note: The house was located about 400 feet north of the intersection of Lyons Rd. on the east side of Sheldon Rd. See the 1852 Monroe County map excerpt below in the "Photographs" section.
Sources
Alfred Euler
Lucille Palmer Pettison
Palmer Family Records
Graves Family Records
Honeoye Falls Times
Mew York State and U.S. Census Reports
1877 History of Monroe County
Monroe County Director, 1869-1870
1825 Mendon Tax Assessment Roll Richard Palmer blog.
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, Sheldon House
- Page 58
- "Cobblestone Landmarks of New York State", 1978, by Olaf William Shelgren, Jr., Cary Lattin, and Robert W. Frasch, Photographs by Gerda Peterich: Name reference, House Fragment
- Pages 162 - 163 Available on Goodreads
 1852 Monroe County Map Men-12 Excerpt.jpg ¹ |  Men-12 Gates-Palmer House 1.jpg ² Pease Collection 1940-41 |  GP Monroe Mendon Men-12 1_1 N.jpg ³ 1971 |  GP Monroe Mendon Men-12 2_1 N.jpg ³ 1971 |
 GP Monroe Mendon Men-12 3_1 N.jpg ³ 1971 |  GP Monroe Mendon Men-12 4_1 N.jpg ³ 1971 |  GP Monroe Mendon Men-12 5_1 N.jpg ³ 1971 |  GP Monroe Mendon Men-12 6_1 N.jpg ³ 1971 |
 mendon+obelisk+2.jpg ² |  Image 74.jpg 4 "The keystone is from above the front entrance of the cobblestone house that used to stand at the intersection of Sheldon and Lyons Roads in Mendon. Built for Jeremiah Gates Palmer in 1831. Keystone inscribed "JGP" with masonic symbol below and date "" below symbol. Stone owned by Byron Palmer on Mendon-Ionia Rd. He died in 2003 and it is not known what happened to the keystone." Diane Ham, Town of Mendon Historian, email 04/05/2025. Editor's Note: The chiseled letters, symbol, and numbers are faint in this photograph. Someone has taken a felt tip pin and carelessly traced over them. |
¹ 1852 Monroe County NY map excerpt courtesy Library of Congress.
² Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
³ Photography courtesy Gerda Peterich Collection, Cobblestone Museum
4 Image courtesy Diane Ham, Mendon Town and Interim Honeoye Falls Village Historian (dianeham@rochester.rr.com / 585-624-4709).
