06 Lewis Swift Marker

Lewis Swift

8265 Ridge Road (Route 104), south side, viewer facing west

Originally placed: 1959

By: Monroe County

According to local historian Helen Hastings, “this house on the east side of the Lake Road, about a mile north of Clarkson corners, doesn’t look over a hundred years old but nevertheless the oldest part of it is, for it was the birthplace of the famous astronomer, Lewis Swift. He was born in 1820 and named after his father who was a justice of the peace in the year this son was born. Lewis Swift senior was one of the pioneers of Clarkson, coming here in 1812.

The son early became remarkable for his love of natural science. He attended Clarkson Academy, an excellent school, and finished his course there in 1838. Then he applied himself to farm work, though being “passionately fond of books and reading critically”, he continued to educate himself.

He was twenty-two when he invented a horse hay rake. When he was twenty-six his father died, and thrown upon his own resources, he studied magnetism and electricity and for four years lectured on these subjects in Canada and the western states. He returned to farming in 1850 but soon began again to give lectures, this time on the wonders of the microscopic world, which he illustrated by means of a calcium light.

All of his apparatus was constructed by himself and parts of it were of his own invention. In 1854 he established a hardware store in Cortland County. But he had become interested in astronomy, and building his own telescope, he began to make observations.

In 1862 the great comet of that year was discovered by him. For years he eagerly scanned the heavens and became famous as the discovered of comets. In 1872 he moved his hardware business to Rochester where he mounted his telescope on the roof of Duffy’s cider mill on State Street. Then one of the wealthy men of the city, H.H. Warner, offered to build for his use an observatory. It stood until recent years, a gray stone building next to the Warner residence on East Avenue.

Lewis Swift received many honors. He wrote on astronomical and other subjects and was a member of various scientific associations. He died in California in 1913.

What changes he must have witnessed during his long and remarkable life!

Present owner, Mrs. Franklin Cotter”

Helen Hastings, et.al., Old Houses of Monroe County (Brockport: Privately Printed, 1946), 31. https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/65098bb8-ca65-4ded-80af-eb3290bb5096/content