of the North Carolina militia, and Commissioner in charge of building and managing an arms factory in Hillsborough as well as receiving commission to supervisor the building of a new courthouse and to assist in establishing an academy in the Hillsborough area. In 1778, Rochester resigned his positions and entered into a mercantile venture in partnership with Colonel Thomas Hart, a notable and wealthy merchant and land speculator, and James Brown. The business was successful and Rochester began to invest his earnings in real estate, a practice he continued throughout his life. With the British Army's occupation of Hillsborough imminent, Rochester moved to Philadelphia where he was almost immediately stricken with smallpox. After a lengthy convalescence he joined Hart in Hagerstown, Maryland where the two became partners in a flour mill, a nail and rope factory, a bank, and a farm. Rochester remained in Maryland for thirty years, where he served one term in the Maryland General Assembly, and two years as postmaster. He was elected as a judge in 1797, but recognizing that he did not have the proper legal training, resigned the post. Rochester served as Washington County's Sheriff from 1804 to 1806, a presidential elector, and vestryman of Saint John's Church. In 1807, Rochester helped found the Hagerstown Bank, serving as its first president. Land speculation Two of the directors of the Hagerstown Bank, Colonel William Fitzhugh and Major Charles Carroll were, like Rochester, wealthy landowners interested in acquiring land in the new "frontier" of the U.S. In 1800, Fitzhugh and Carroll convinced Rochester to travel with them on a prospecting visit to the frontier lands of New York , and specifically to the lands along the Genesee River. Their first trip took them to Dansville, where Rochester purchased a combined 520 acres while Fitzhugh and Carroll purchased another 12,000 at $2 per acre. In November, 1803, the three men returned to Western New York, this time to Geneva to make payments. Here, they were convinced by the land agent to visit the Genesee falls further north, where they found an abandoned grist and saw mill—opened in 1789—once owned by Ebenezer “Indian” Allen. The men saw a business opportunity here as any products travelling up river toward Lake Ontario would need to be unloaded here and portage fees could be charged. On November 8, 1803, the three men signed a purchase agreement for a 100-acre (0.40 km2)