During the 1920s, a feature ran in the Democrat & Chronicle called “Over the Percolator”; items of local history were discussed, with reader submissions accepted regarding events or points of historical interest. Numerous letters were sent by Rochesterians sharing their memories and personal research regarding Rochester’s past. One discussion in particular caught my eye:

“F. W. M” wrote “Over the Percolator” in regards to Frederick Douglass’ home, which the undersigned identifies as having been “in Pinnacle avenue [now South Clinton] between Comfort Street and the bend towards South avenue”. However, a reply the following Monday sought to correct the record:

The writer, “J. C. McN”, contends that the homestead at South Clinton and Comfort was, in fact the home of a man named Bloxson, who the undersigned identifies as “a giant colored man”. J. C. McN makes a mistake in this missive as well–that is, another mistake besides”Frederick Doublass”.

F. W. M. writes “Percolator” a couple of weeks later to thank J. C. McN for their gentle correction, and responds with their own: the name of the man was Josiah H. Bloxom, a hairdresser.

Armed with this knowledge, I set about finding as much about Josiah H. Bloxom as I could. One thing I quickly ascertained was that the surname had a surfeit of spellings, from which it was difficult to choose an “official” one–if an official one in fact existed. The most commonly used spelling was “Bloxsom” and it is that which I chose for the rest of this entry.

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Josiah H. Bloxsom

Records indicate that Josiah H. Bloxsom moved to Rochester, NY from Virginia around 1840. He began work in the city as a waiter. According to a table of African-American Heads of Household in Early Rochester, NY [http://mcnygenealogy.com/vr/afr-am.htm], he worked as a waiter, and boarded in the household of “Mrs. M. Jeffrey” in 1843. Josiah Bloxsom would have been only thirteen years old at the time, if his birth records are accurate.

“Mrs. M. Jeffrey” is most likely Mercy Anne Merritt Jeffrey; her home was along Goodman Street between East Main Street and Monroe Avenue. She was wife of the prestigious Roswell Jeffrey, Reverend of the A. M. E. Zion Church of which Josiah and Augustus C. Bloxsom were recorded members. Jeffrey owned many properties along South Goodman and Meigs, known for a time as “Jeffreyville.”

Between 1845 and 1846 Josiah Bloxsom was a waiter at the Blossom Hotel:

Josiah Bloxsom listed as Blossom, Josiah in the 1851 directory.  Prior to 1852, the Black population of Rochester was listed separately from the general population.  The change to a combined listing is said to have been at the insistence of Frederick Douglass.

As far as I know, a “packet” is a type of canal boat common at this time on the Erie Canal and Genesee River. Josiah would have been a waiter on a boat, I guess? 

By the time of the 1855 Census, Josiah H. Bloxsom has work as a barber. He has married a woman identified as “Joannah” from Connecticut, although other records identify her as “Johanna” or “Joanner”.

By 1860, Josiah and his son Albert were working as barbers, or hairdressers as they were commonly termed at the time. 

“J. Bloxson” and “A. C. Bloxson” in the below article are Josiah H. Bloxsom and Augustus C. Bloxsom. They were on the committee of arrangements for Emancipation Day celebrations.

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William & Josiah

Josiah and Joanner’s first and third sons William and Josiah both died tragically young on the same year, 1850. William, born 1845, was five while Josiah was one year old.

I visited the Bloxsom plot at Mount Hope Cemetery, Section O, Plot 98. [43°07’45.1″N 77°37’05.2″W] While records indicated all members of the Bloxsom family were buried here, only the markers for William and Josiah junior were present.

The quality of these headstones for their children combined with the Bloxsom’s own absence from the plot raises questions. Their financial situation in 1850 scarcely seemed sufficient to provide for the burial of not one, but two of their children in the same year, complete with carved stone marker; Josiah was on a waiter’s salary, and the couple was boarding. Provisions apparently weren’t made for the marking of the other Bloxsoms’ graves decades later, which suggests their finances possibly never reached that level of security. Could young William and Josiah Bloxsom’s gravestones have been the gift of a benefactor, perhaps the Jeffreys? Alternatively, the other members of the family could be buried elsewhere, and I have yet to come upon records attesting to that fact.

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Barbershop at Center Avenue

The focal point of the Bloxsom family hairdressing business was a shop, No. 9 Central Street, on the north side of the Waverly House hotel on the corner of State Street and Central Avenue, by the train tracks.

The above map shows the Waverly house, a hotel and arcade, in 1875.  It is at the corner of State Street and Centre Street, later Central Avenue. Josiah H. , Albert H. and Augustus C. Bloxsom operated their hairdresser’s shop within one of the ground-level shops along Center Street.

Despite having a Black barber as a tenant, the posh Waverly hotel infamously turned away Frederick Douglass one rainy night in 1872 after he returned to Rochester upon learning of his South Avenue home being burned to the ground. 

In 1894, the Waverly would be renamed the Savoy, before eventually being razed in 1952 to make way for the Inner Loop.

There was no longer a Bloxsom-owned barbershop by the time of the Savoy Hotel, but it would have been on the side facing the streetcar in the photo above, most likely under the 6th and 7th columns of windows from the leftmost side.

Above is an advertisement to purchase a barbershop in Waverly Block.  Based on the timing and the address, it’s likely the old Bloxsom hairdresser’s shop.

Marking the location of the Bloxsom’s hairdresser’s shop at No. 9 Central Avenue on a present-day map, the dot ends up in the middle of the Inner Loop, near the intersection of Allen and State Streets.

Below, a vantage point standing roughly in front of the old shop, looking southeast towards where it would have been:

For over seventy-five years now, the view has been one of a concrete wall on the northwest side of the Inner Loop.

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Albert H. Bloxsom

https://ancestorville.com/products/albert-bloxson-african-american-genealogy

I was actually pretty shocked to find a photograph of any of the Bloxsoms, considering the early date.  Above is a daguerrotype of Albert H. Bloxsom, son of Josiah H. Bloxsom, by photographer Noel Byron Baker.

Apparently N. B. Baker was known for photographing a carte de visite portrait of Sojourner Truth during one of her visits to Rochester. N. B. Baker operated out of 18-19 Buffalo Street during the years 1859-1869, the latter year during which Albert H. Bloxsom would have been 15 years old. Baker later removed to Brockport.

Unfortunately, one of Albert Bloxsom’s more prominent early appearances in the newspaper is one of violence:

As we can see above, Albert fell prey to the vice of alcohol, as many men did–and still do.

Another altercation between Albert and police, resulting in a charge of intoxication.

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Augustus C. Bloxsom

This excerpt from a description of artifacts in the RMSC Howard W. Coles Collection mentions a blank business letterhead from Augustus C. Bloxsom; it is claimed that the Bloxsom family maintained close personal relations with Frederick Douglass. Given Augustus’ place within the Zion church and part in planning celebratory events for Rochester’s Black community–many of which featured Douglass as keynote speaker–it seems likely that Douglass and Bloxsom had more than a passing familiarity.

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A Decade of Loss

The violent encounter between Albert Bloxsom and his wife marked the end of a difficult year for the Bloxsom family; on January 3rd 1886, Josiah H. Bloxsom died, leaving his sons and wife. It also marked a turning point in the family fortune; it was the beginning of a decade of loss for the Bloxsoms.

Two years after Josiah’s death, his son Augustus followed him into the hereafter.

And, at last, Josiah’s widow, Albert’s mother, passed into eternity in 1894.  Unfortunately her obituary presents her name as Johannah, which was not uncommon, but also presents her widow’s name as Jonah instead of Josiah.  Her cause of death is registered as “typhoid”.

With his mother’s death, Albert H. Bloxsom is left as the only Bloxsom in Rochester, New York.

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State Street

Augustus C. Bloxsom’s 1888 death took place in his apartment adjoining his family’s State Street barbershop location, No. 526 State Street.

Although the above photograph is a decade or two after the time of the Bloxsoms operating here, the block of buildings to the right-rear of the image would likely have been where their shop was located. Comparing to the Sanborn map, it would probably have been the building with a projecting cornice, above the parked cars.

These buildings were razed and replaced with parking for 510 State.

Augustus C. Bloxsom lived at this address, and died there in 1888, age 41. After his death, his wife Rebecca would carry on the barbering business at the location for one year:

After that, she moved, and I can’t be certain where.

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The Bloxsom Home

In an effort to trace the history of the Bloxsom homestead, we return to the 1851 Directory:

No addresses are available on the 1851 map but if I may make a conjecture off of future maps, No. 43 Cayuga would have been right around here:

Note the “J. Sheik” property south of Holley St.; this is present also in the 1875 atlas, strengthening my conjecture.  Sometime after 1877 Cayuga Street would eventually become Pinnacle Avenue, which would in turn become South Clinton Street in 1892.

Above, the home of Josiah H. Bloxsom at No. 38 Pinnacle Avenue, 1875–somehow rendered here as J. Bloum.  I guess that’s sort of like Bloom, which is sort of like Blossom, which is sort of like Bloxsom–to be frank, this sort of thing is why I just picked the most commonly-used spelling (Bloxsom) and stuck with it.  That seems to be the spelling that ended up on their children’s graves, so it is somewhat “set in stone” I suppose.

By 1888, No. 38 Pinnacle Avenue became No. 47 Pinnacle Avenue.

No really, it’s fun tracking all these address changes, I don’t mind!

By 1900, Joanner Bloxsom had died and the sole inheritor of the Bloxsom home–now addressed as No. 475 South Clinton–was Albert. He rented out part of the house.

Between 1900 and 1910, new properties were squeezed into the gaps to either side of the Bloxsom homestead, and the homes were slightly renumbered. Yes, again. Until its destruction sometime before 1938, No. 475 South Clinton would be numbered No. 473 South Clinton.  

Albert Bloxsom’s name appears for the last time in the 1914 directory. By the next year, 473 South Clinton was sold to a realty agent at No. 703 Powers Block.

Albert H. Bloxsom died 1927.

No. 473 South Clinton is gone in the above 1938 map, along with its two newer neighbors.  The lot would lie empty until eventually becoming parking for Goodwill:

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The Bloxsom Legacy

Though I would love to have chased down the ensuing history of the Bloxsom descendents, I found myself a bit stumped. Ancestry.com provides many tempting possibilities, but I have to cross-reference and fact-check every datum so that I don’t lead myself astray. This is a process that is ongoing; until such time I can only speculate.

Of Josiah H. Bloxsom’s two surviving sons, Albert apparently remained childless and Augustus had either one or two daughters with his wife Rebecca, Emma and–possibly–Rebecca. After Augustus’ death, Rebecca and her daughter[s] moved out of Rochester, NY. Regardless, the Bloxsom name in this lineage would have disappeared.

With Albert’s death, the Bloxsom name vanished from Rochester, NY forever.

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