On top of Cobb’s Hill (10/18/15) [photo: Eric Kemperman. Eric was the first Talker of the Town SUBSCRIBER. Please consider subscribing. It just means you get posts sent to your email.]
Cobb’s Hill is a place of mystery and lore. Perhaps no better seen in the graffiti art draped abandoned water tanks in Washington Grove. Eerie at night, they evoke a post-industrial, post-armageddon future. (see also The Cobbs Hill tragedy of an “invisible man” ten years later)
It was near the site of these tanks, on October 22nd, 1844, that another strange scene was etched into the history of Cobb’s Hill.
That daybreak hundreds, if not thousands, of “Millerites” gathered atop Cobb’s Hill. Followers of the charismatic preacher Joseph Miller who had at least 100,000 converts in western New York, the congregation believed “the Day of Wrath” had come and the literal Second Coming of Christ was at hand. The righteous would rise to heaven–some already wearing specially designed Ascension robes–and the wicked would descend to hell.
The failure of the messiah to appear became known among Millerites as the “Great Disappointment.”
In the weeks following, Miller admitted he was wrong. The Great Disappointment led to internal schism, and eventually the Millerites dispersed and disbanded. (For more on a Rochester woman, Jane Marsh Parker, who in 1844 was the 9 year old daughter of a disappointed Millerite leader, see at end.)
To learn more about the event, I turned to one of Rochester’s theological treasures, Dr. Richard Henshaw.

From a (successful) match.com date in the Washington Grove section of Cobb’s Hill. Martha and I discovered an open window to the old water tower. Inside (not pictured) were skateboarders and some musicians taking advantage of the unusual acoustics, 2008 see On Match.com and niche dating sites
At 94, Richard has been a fixture in Rochester since moving here in 1968. He has a Ph.D, from Hebrew Union College and taught for many decades at the Colgate Divinity School, specializing in the Old Testament. He still teaches 55+ courses at Oasis on Monroe Avenue. Until recently, he taught yearly at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Many know him as long time volunteer at the now defunct Houghton Book Store and as a long standing member of the Rochester Bibliophile Society.
After doing some research from his voluminous library of at least 10,000 books (he is even considering donating some to the University of Baghdad), Richard gave me a little overview on the field of eschatology: a part of theology concerned with the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity.
First, Richard explained how the Millerites must have calculated the date. The key texts to be traced were Old Testament references to the Jewish Day of Atonement and the old Karaite Jewish calendar which emphasized the tenth day of the seventh month (Tishri).
Richard says the Millerites first thought the date would be March 21st, 1844 but then changed it to October. I also found that in 1992, Purdue University Professor Susan Prohofsky researched the Day of Atonement in 1844 on a computer program called “Inter Luach” (Hebrew for Lunar Calendar). Her findings were that the September 23, 1844 was the Day of Atonement. Prohofsky also stated that, “The Day of Atonement never came as late as the month of October.”
In a broader context, Richard explained that notions of life after death go back to the Neolithic age and then Babylonian times, as well as from Zoroaster (later adapted by Nietzsche into Zarathusra). References to the “End of Time” and the millennial can be found in the First Book of Enoch. Chapter 20 of Revelations is equally vital to understanding biblical prophesy.
I didn’t realize how much millennialism focused on End of Time prophesy was and is a particularly American movement within the evangelical tradition. As Richard says, ideas of a possibly imminent Second Coming proliferate in more sects than he can count. The 7th Day Adventists have much in common with the Millerites, as do, to some degree, the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Church of God. As Richard says, October 22nd, 1844 was hardly the beginning or the end. (He also said he could imagine how “down in the dumps” the Millerites must have felt trudging down Cobb’s Hill on the 23rd.)
I had some hopefully not too irreverent fun in my mock Ascension robe and old clock in the picture. Still, while I do not believe in the End of the World on some October 22nd, far be it from me to know the future.
see “A Notable Woman,” Messenger Post Newspapers
UPDATE: SEE