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GRO\  ER  CLEVELAND. 

President    oi  ates;    born    Caldwell.    New 

Jersey,  March  T3,  1837:  received  academic  education.  Re- 
moved to  Buffalo,  TS55  :  admitted  to  bar,  1859;  assistant 
district  attorney  Erie  County,  1863-60;  sheriff  Erie  County, 
1 870-73  !  elected  mayor  of  Buffalo,  1881  ;  elected  governor 
of  New  York,  1882;  elected  President  of  the  United  States, 
1884  and  1892.  Was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Equitable 
Life  Assurance  Society  after  control  was  surrendered  by 
James  H.  Hyde.  Resided  in  later  life  at  Princeton,  New 
Jersey;  died  at   Princeton,  June  24.   1908. 


THE     P  ; 


THK   PROGRESS  OF  THK 
EMPIRE  STATE 

\    WORK    D  ST    U<  '.:  .       A  Wv 

INDUSTRIAL,    AND    U  I  -  NT 

V  «    YORK 


CHARLES  A.  CONANT 

.  •  ...  -  .--.. 

I-. 


VOLUME   II. 

THE    HISTORY    OF    BUFFALO 

BY   J.    N.   LARNED 


.SHED    BY 

-      SS  THE    EMPIRE    STATE    COMPANY 

\  I  ■■:     YORK 


191-3 


PREFACE 


The  charm  of  the  cities  of  the  old  world  to  the  artist 
and  scholar  is  the  body  of  historical  and  romantic  associa- 
tions which  cluster  about  their  history  and  monuments.  A 
certain  amount  of  age  is  usually  required  to  throw  over 
such  memories  the  halo  of  romance.  In  this  respect 
America  has  been  until  recent  times  more  or  less  deficient. 
It  is  beginning  to  be  recognized,  however,  that  there  is 
much  in  the  history  of  American  communities  as  heroic, 
as  picturesque  and  as  romantic  as  in  the  history  of  the  cities 
of  the  older  world  and  that  already  in  many  cases  these 
memories  are  being  sanctified  by  the  halo  of  time.  In  this 
field  many  of  the  best  American  scholars  have  been  dili- 
gently pursuing  their  researches  among  old  archives,  docu- 
ments and  monuments. 

Mr.  Larned,  who  has  written  the  history  of  Buffalo  in 
the  series  of  volumes  on  "The  Progress  of  the  Empire 
State,"  has  been  able  to  cast  more  or  less  of  this  flavor  of 
romance  into  the  background  of  his  account  of  the  modern 
efficiency  of  organization  which  has  advanced  Buffalo, 
Rochester  and  other  cities  of  the  Empire  State  to  leading 
places  in  the  industrial  and  social  development  of  America. 
His  work  combines  the  story  of  the  evolution  of  Buffalo 
from  a  little  hamlet,  on  the  frontier  of  a  century  ago,  down 
to  the  magnificent  city  of  to-day,  with  its  great  factories, 
railroad  terminals,  many-sided  institutions  of  culture,  and 
beautiful  homes.     In  this  field  of  practical  development 


42X1 2  7  3 


American  literature  is  perhaps  even  more  deficient  than  in 
the  history  of  the  beginnings  of  the  rule  of  white  men  on 
this  continent.  So  much  a  thing  of  only  yesterday  and 
to-day  has  been  this  evolution  that  it  has  hardly  been  over- 
taken by  the  average  scholar,  plodding  among  written  docu- 
ments instead  of  seeking  the  photograph  of  what  is  in  its 
throbbing  and  living  actuality.  This  photograph  of  the 
Buffalo  living,  militant  and  creative  it  is  the  merit  of  the 
author  of  this  work  to  have  thrown  upon  the  canvas  for 
the  benefit  of  those  who  are  active  sharers  in  it. 

On  a  smaller  scale  a  like  work  has  been  done  for 
Rochester  by  the  eminent  scholar,  the  Hon.  Charles  E. 
Fitch,  and  for  Utica  by  that  many-sided  man  of  achieve- 
ment, letters,  and  public  service, — the  former  historian  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  Member  of  Congress  and  Treasurer 
of  the  United  States,  Ellis  H.  Roberts. 

For  the  portraits  which  illustrate  the  life  of  the  three 
cities  and  for  the  sketches  printed  in  connection  with  them 
for  identification,  the  publishers  of  this  work  are  respon- 
sible, the  authors  of  the  articles  having  been  consulted  only 
in  certain  cases. 

The  Editor. 

34  Nassau  Street, 

New  York,  August  IS,   1911. 


CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME   I 


Chapter  GENERAL   HlSTORY   OF   BUFFALO 

I.  Beginnings     .... 

II.  In  the  Era  of  the  Waterways :  1825-1850 

III.  In  the  Era  of  the  Railways :  1851-1908 

The  Evolution  of  the  City 

constructive  evolution 
I.     The  Making  of  a  Harbor 
II.     Outer  Communications    . 

III.  Inner  Communications 

IV.  Electric  Power  from  Niagara  Falls 
V.     Water  Supply,  Fire-fighting,  Lighting 

VI.     Sewerage  and  Sanitation 
VII.     Parks  and  Public  Grounds    . 

GOVERNMENTAL   EVOLUTION 
I.     Municipal  Constitution  and  Police  Adminis 

tration       .... 
II.     Courts. — Bench  and  Bar 

CON4MERCIAL   EVOLUTION 
I.     Commercial  Organization. — The  Grain 

Trade,  etc. 
II.     The  Lumber  Trade 

III.  The  Coal  Trade 

IV.  Cattle  Trade  and  Meat  Packing 

FINANCIAL   EVOLUTION 
Banking  .... 

INDUSTRIAL    EVOLUTION 
I.     Tanning  and  the  Leather  Trade 
II.     The  Manufacture  of  Flour 
III.     Production  of  Iron  and  Steel 


Page 

3 

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112 

•    137 

152 

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168 

176 

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199 

209 

221 
233 
245 

248 

26l 
266 

272 


GENERAL     HISTORY 


CHAPTER  I 

BEGINNINGS 

IF  some  sagacious  European  of  the  16th  century  could 
have  had  the  North  American  continent  mapped  for 
him,  after  it  became  known  as  a  continent,  and  had 
been  asked  to  mark  the  points  where  cities  of  importance 
were  most  likely  to  grow  up,  when  city-building  peoples 
were  spread  over  this  New  World,  his  pencil  would  no 
doubt  have  been  prophetic  in  a  few  of  its  markings,  but  mis- 
taken in  many  more.  He  might  easily  have  missed  the 
promise  of  Boston,  Washington,  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati; 
might  have  seated  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  differently 
on  the  great  inlets  from  the  Atlantic,  or  found  reason  for 
expecting  but  one  of  the  two;  might  have  hesitated  in  loca- 
ting New  Orleans,  and  predicted  for  Alton  or  Cairo  what 
St.  Louis  has  realized;  but  his  pencil  could  not  have  passed 
over  the  site  of  New  York,  and  three  markings,  at  least, 
on  the  Great  Lakes  would  have  been  made  with  a  sure 
hand.  In  the  face  of  its  map,  nobody  could  ever  have 
doubted  that  cities  must  rise  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Erie,  at 
the  head  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  head  of  Lake  Superior, 
if  cities  in  America  were  to  be.  More  than  probably  the 
prophetic  eye  of  the  16th  century  would  have  misplaced 
Chicago  by  a  few  miles,  and  discovered  no  foretoken  of  a 
Milwaukee,  a  Cleveland  or  a  Detroit;  but  Buffalo  and  Du- 
luth  were  geographically  inevitable  from  the  day  that  a 
civilized  settlement  of  America  began. 

To  civilized  and  peacefully  commercial  mankind,  such 
seats  of  collective  habitation,  where  some  great  waterway 
opens  naturally  easy  intercourse  with  near  and  far  neigh- 


4  BEGINNINGS 

bors,  are  attractive;  but  mankind  in  the  savage  state  of 
chronic  warfare  among  neighbors  has  to  shun  them,  for 
the  same  reason,  of  their  openness  to  visitation.  Naturally, 
therefore,  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  the  immediate  shore 
of  Lake  Erie,  at  this  point  where  the  Niagara  flows  out  of 
it,  was  ever  chosen  for  an  Indian  town.  Two  successive 
aboriginal  nations  are  known  to  have  been  in  possession  of 
the  surrounding  region,  and  with  villages  in  the  vicinity, 
but  not  close  to  river  or  lake. 

Prior  to  the  17th  century  nothing  is  known  of  our  pred- 
ecessors on  or  near  these  shores.  As  early  in  that  century 
as  1615,  when  Champlain  visited  the  Hurons,  he  learned 
of  a  large  tribe,  dwelling  between  them  and  the  Five  Na- 
tions of  the  Iroquois,  who  took  no  part  in  the  implacable 
wars  which  those  two  branches  of  one  linguistic  family  per- 
sisted in  till  the  former  were  vanquished  and  dispersed. 
This  intervening  tribe,  kindred  in  language  to  both  of  the 
belligerents  and  avoiding  alliance  with  either,  was  known 
as  the  Attiouandaronk  or  Neutral  Nation.  It  was  visited  by 
some  of  the  early  French  missionaries,  and  its  occupation 
of  a  wide  domain  on  both  sides  of  the  Niagara  River, 
reaching  eastward  to  the  Genesee  and  westward,  along  the 
northern  border  of  Lake  Erie,  nearly  to  Lake  Huron,  is  a 
practically  settled  fact.  The  ground  we  now  inhabit  in 
Buffalo  must  have  been  in  that  domain.  So  far,  the  aborigi- 
nal history  of  this  bit  of  American  territory  is  tolerably 
clear. 

But  now  slight  confusions  appear  in  the  record,  and  they 
arise  from  confusions  of  name.  According  to  Iroquois  tra- 
dition and  French  missionary  reports,  the  all-conquering 
Iroquois  turned  their  arms  against  the  Neutrals,  soon  after 
the  Flurons  had  been  overcome,  and  brought  their  tribal  ex- 
istence to  an  end ;  but  early  references  to  this  are  mixed  with 
allusions  to  further  wars  and  conquests  of  the  Iroquois  in 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  THE  KAH-KWAHS  5 

this  vicinity,  following  closely  thereupon.  The  annihila- 
tion of  a  people  called  the  Kah-Kwahs  comes  into  the  story, 
and  the  scene  of  it  appears  to  be  laid  on  this  ground.  Then, 
in  dim  confusions  with  that,  there  are  Iroquois  memories 
of  a  victorious  end  to  long  struggles  with  the  powerful  na- 
tion of  the  Eries,  who  held  the  southern  border  of  the  lake 
which  took  their  name,  and  whose  hunting  grounds  seem 
to  have  stretched  eastward  to  the  Genesee,  even  as  those  of 
the  Neutrals  had  done.  Who  were  the  Kah-Kwahs?  is  the 
question.  Mr.  Schoolcraft  decided  them  to  be  a  remnant 
of  the  Eries;  but  Father  Charlevoix,  who  wrote  his  "His- 
tory of  New  France"  from  information  gathered  in  Amer- 
ica between  1720  and  1722,  says  that  the  Iroquois  finished 
their  destruction  of  the  Eries,  about  1655,  "so  completely 
that,  but  for  the  great  lake  which  still  bears  the  name  of 
that  nation,  we  should  not  have  known  that  it  existed."  This 
argues  against  the  Schoolcraft  opinion,  which  has  little 
weight.  Mr.  Parkman  thought  Kah-Kwahs  and  Neutrals 
to  be  only  two  names  for  the  same  people.  Our  own  best 
student  of  local  Indian  history,  Mr.  O.  H.  Marshall,  held 
the  same  view.  Mr.  Ketchum,  who  devoted  the  greater 
part  of  his  "History  of  Buffalo"  to  Iroquois  history,  thought 
it  not  improbable  that  the  Kah-Kwahs  were  a  remnant  of 
the  Neutrals.  By  one  conclusion  or  the  other  it  seems  safe 
to  identify  the  Kah-Kwahs  with  the  Neutrals,  and  to  re- 
gard them  as  the  only  Indian  occupants  of  this  soil  before 
the  Senecas,  of  the  Iroquois  confederacy,  became  its  lords. 
This  enables  us  to  believe,  with  the  late  David  Gray,  that 
the  tragic  end  of  these  people  is  recounted  in  a  famous  war 
legend  of  the  Iroquois,  which  Mr.  Gray  once  recited  to 
our  Buffalo  Historical  Society  in  exquisite  verse.  So  much 
of  that  notable  poem,  "The  Last  of  the  Kah-Kwahs,"  as 
sings  the  requiem  of  the  vanished  tribe,  has  a  claim  to  quota- 
tion here: 


6  BEGINNINGS 

It  came,  at  last  —  the  nation's  evil  day, 

Whose  rayless  night  should  never  pass  away. 

A  calm  foreran  the  tempest,  and,  a  space, 

Fate  wore  the  mask  of  joy  upon  his  face. 

It  was  a  day  of  revel,  feast,  and  game, 

When,  from  the  far-off  Iroquois,  there  came 

A  hundred  plumed  and  painted  warriors,  sent 

To  meet  the  Kah-Kwah  youth  in  tournament. 

And  legend  tells  how  sped  the  mimic  fight; 

And  how  the  festal  fire  blazed  high  at  night, 

And  laugh  and  shout  through  all  the  greenwood  rang; 

Till,  at  the  last,  a  deadly  quarrel  sprang. 

Whose  shadow,  as  the  frowning  guests  withdrew, 

Deepened,  and  to  a  boding  war-cloud  grew. 

And  not  for  long  the  sudden  storm  was  stayed; 

It  burst  in  battle,  and  in  many  a  glade 

Were  leaves  of  green  with  fearful  crimson  crossed, 

As  if  by  finger  of  untimely  frost. 

Fighting,  they  held  the  stubborn  pathway  back, 

The  foe  relentless  on  their  homeward  track, 

Till  the  thinned  remnant  of  the  Kah-Kwah  braves 

Chose,  where  their  homes  had  been,  to  make  their  graves; 

And  rallied  for  the  last  and  hopeless  fight. 

With  the  blue  ripples  of  the  lake  in  sight. 

Could  wand  of  magic  bring  that  scene,  again, 
Back,  with  its  terrors,  to  the  battle-plain, 
Into  these  silent  streets  the  wind  would  bear 
Its  mingled  cry  of  triumph  and  despair; 
And  all  the  nameless  horror  of  the  strife, 
That  only  ended  with  a  nation's  life, 
Would  pass  before  our  startled  eyes,  and  seem 
The  feverish  fancy  of  an  evil  dream. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SENECAS  7 

For,  in  the  tumult  of  that  fearful  rout, 
The  watch-light  of  the  Kah-Kwah  camp  went  out; 
And,  thenceforth,  in  the  pleasant  linden  shade, 
Seneca  children,  only,  laughed  and  played. 
And  still  the  river  rolled,  in  changeless  state, 
Eternal,  solemn,  deep  and  strong  as  fate. 

The  Iroquois  had  no  disposition  to  occupy  the  territory 
they  had  depopulated  by  the  destruction  of  the  Kah-Kwahs, 
or  to  put  their  mastery  of  the  great  lake  of  the  Eries  to  any 
use.  For  more  than  a  century  their  westernmost  nation,  the 
Senecas,  stayed  at  the  east  of  the  Genesee,  and  the  whole  re- 
gion from  that  river  to  the  lake  was  an  uninhabited  wild. 
The  Senecas  made  no  homes  in  this  region  till  they  were 
driven  to  do  so,  during  the  War  of  American  Independence, 
by  the  Sullivan  expedition,  which  devastated  their  beautiful 
valley,  and  compelled  them  to  fly  for  shelter  and  subsistence 
to  their  British  allies,  on  the  Niagara,  in  1779.  One  band 
of  them,  with  a  few  fugitive  Cayugas  and  Onondagas,  made 
a  settlement  on  Buffalo  Creek,  about  four  miles  above  its 
mouth,  the  next  spring.  These  Senecas  brought  with  them 
several  white  captives,  of  the  Gilbert  family,  taken  from 
their  homes  on  the  Pennsylvania  border  not  long  before,  and 
they  were  probably  the  first  of  white  people  to  be  resident 
on  this  soil.  French  missionaries,  traders  and  soldiers,  and 
British  soldiers  after  the  conquest  of  Canada,  may  have 
sometimes  trodden  it,  but  only  in  a  passing  way.  It  was 
not  till  about  ten  years  later  that  a  Dutch  trader,  Cornelius 
Winne,  opened  a  log-built  store,  for  traffic  with  the  neigh- 
boring red-men,  at  the  foot  of  a  low  hill  which  gave  its 
name  to  the  strip  of  public  ground  that  we  call  "The 
Terrace,"  though  it  was  levelled  long  ago.  He  was  the 
pioneer  Buffalonian,  so  far  as  is  known. 

At  this  time  the  famous  Indian  orator  known  as  Red 


8  BEGINNINGS 

Jacket  had  risen  to  a  leading  rank  among  the  Senecas, 
though  not  distinguished  as  a  warrior  and  not  originally  a 
chief.  He  owed  his  influence  to  a  natural  gift  of  eloquence, 
which  he  is  said  to  have  cultivated  artistically,  by  study 
as  careful  as  that  of  Demosthenes.  He  had  opposed  sub- 
mission to  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  (to  be  explained  pres- 
ently) ,  without  avail,  and  he  continued  through  life  to  be  an 
inflexible  champion  of  radical  claims  for  his  people  as  pri- 
mary possessors  of  the  land;  but  his  disposition  was  pacific, 
and  he  was  generally  in  friendly  relations  with  the  whites. 
Those  who  knew  him  best  seem  to  have  respected  and  ad- 
mired him  much.  He  rejected  Christian  teaching,  but  ac- 
cepted the  accursed  gift  of  intoxicating  drink  which  the 
white  man  tempted  and  betrayed  his  red-skinned  brother 
with,  and  it  brought  him  sometimes  to  shame  in  his  later 
years.  His  own  people,  in  fine  compliment  to  his  oratory, 
called  him  Sagoyewatha,  meaning  that  "he  keeps  them 
awake,"  but  his  white  neighbors,  with  less  sentiment  and  less 
respect,  named  him  from  the  scarlet  jacket  which  a  British 
officer  had  given  him  and  which  it  pleased  him  to  wear. 

The  principal  war  chief  of  the  Senecas  was  Honayewus, 
called  Farmer's  Brother,  because  President  Washington, 
whom  he  had  visited,  described  himself,  in  the  course  of  an 
interview,  as  a  farmer,  and  spoke  of  the  chief  as  his  brother. 
Farmer's  Brother  is  said  to  have  realized,  in  person,  in  bear- 
ing and  in  character,  the  ideal  war  hero  of  the  Iroquois.  In 
the  wars  of  the  past  he  had  been  a  savage;  in  peace  he  was 
faithfully  peaceful,  and  exercised  an  influence  among  his 
people  that  was  strong  and  wise  and  good. 

Both  Farmer's  Brother  and  Red  Jacket  lived  on  the  Buf- 
falo Creek  Reservation.  Cornplanter,  another  prominent 
Seneca  chief  of  the  time — a  half-breed,  sometimes  called 
John  O'Bail  or  Abeel — had  his  home  on  the  Alleganv. 

The  British  were  still  holding  Fort  Niagara  (and  other 


THE  BUYING  OF  INDIAN  LANDS  9 

garrisoned  places  on  American  soil,  which  they  did  not 
surrender  till  1796),  with  posts  at  Lewiston  and  Schlosser, 
as  well  as  at  Fort  Erie,  on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  river, 
and  the  Indians  of  this  region  were  entirely  under  their  con- 
trol. By  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  in  1784,  between  the 
United  States  and  the  Six  Nations  of  the  Iroquois,  the  west- 
ern line  of  lands  to  be  held  by  those  tribes  in  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  was  defined  as  running  parallel  with  the  Nia- 
gara River,  at  four  miles  distance,  eastward,  throughout  the 
length  of  the  river,  from  Lake  Ontario  to  Lake  Erie,  and 
thence  south  from  the  mouth  of  Buffalo  Creek.  This  put  a 
large  part  of  what  is  now  Buffalo  outside  of  the  Indian 
lands.  But,  subject  to  Indian  rights,  the  title  to  lands  in 
Western  New  York  (excepting  a  strip  of  one  mile  width 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  Niagara  River,  which  New  York 
reserved,  and  which  was  long  known  as  the  State  Mile 
Strip),  had  become  vested  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  by 
an  agreement  between  that  State  and  New  York  in  1786. 
Under  the  royal  charters  which  created  them  as  English 
colonies,  both  States  could  claim  unlimited  westward  exten- 
sions of  boundary,  the  Massachusetts  belt  cutting  through 
that  of  New  York.  In  compromising  their  claims,  Massa- 
chusetts obtained  such  proprietary  rights  over  Western  New- 
York  scil  as  were  deducible  from  her  colonial  charter,  while 
New  York  kept  sovereignty  over  that  and  the  rest.  What 
Massachusetts  obtained,  in  fact,  was  the  sole  right  to  buy  the 
Indian  rights  of  property  in  that  soil,  the  native  owners  be- 
ing forbidden  to  deal  with  any  other  buyer. 

In  1788  this  Massachusetts  right  of  purchase  was  sold  to 
Oliver  Phelps  and  Nathaniel  Gorham,  who  succeeded  the 
same  year,  at  a  notable  council  with  the  Indians  on  Buffalo 
Creek,  in  buying  so  much  of  the  tract  as  lay  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Genesee,  together  with  an  important  strip  on  the  west 
side  of  the  river,  taking  in  its  Rochester  falls.    This  ended 


IO  BEGINNINGS 

the  dealings  of  Phelps  and  Gorham  with  the  Indians.  Be- 
ing unable  to  complete  the  payments  due  to  Massachusetts 
they  were  released  from  their  contract,  and  the  State  made 
a  new  engagement  with  Robert  Morris,  the  Philadelphia 
financier.  Morris  took  the  Massachusetts  rights  in  all  the 
remaining  territory,  and,  stipulating  to  extinguish  the  In- 
dian title,  he  sold  most  of  the  tract  to  a  group  of  capitalists 
in  Holland  (it  was  never  a  company,  though  called  "the 
Holland  Company") ,  in  1792-3.  It  was  not  until  1797,  how- 
ever, that  he  could  make  his  conveyance  good.  Then,  at  a 
council  at  Geneseo,  the  Senecas  sold  to  him  the  residue  of 
their  lands  in  Western  New  York,  excepting  eleven  reserva- 
tions for  their  own  settlements,  the  largest  of  which  was  that 
assigned  to  the  Senecas  of  Buffalo  Creek.  This  reservation 
was  to  extend  eastward  from  Lake  Erie,  along  both  sides  of 
the  creek,  having  a  width  of  about  seven  miles,  and  to  con- 
tain 130  square  miles.  It  took  in  the  future  harbor  and  origi- 
nal nucleus  of  Buffalo,  and  there  could  have  been  no  city 
on  this  precise  ground  if  the  Indians  had  held  fast  to  their 
rights.  Fortunately  they  did  not,  as  will  be  told.  The  town, 
however,  was  hampered  by  a  large  neighborhood  of  unde- 
veloped country  for  many  years. 

By  this  time  Winne,  the  trader,  had  acquired  two  or  three 
neighbors,  one  of  whom,  Asa  Ransom,  brought  a  wife  and 
daughter  from  Geneva,  in  1796,  and  introduced  in  the  little 
settlement  its  first  example  of  civilized  family  life.  Mr. 
Ransom  was  a  jeweller,  who  found  employment  in  making 
silver  trinkets  for  the  Indians.  A  second  daughter,  added 
to  the  family  the  next  year,  was  the  first  white  child  born 
in  this  part  of  the  State. 

By  this  time,  too,  the  small  cluster  of  log  houses  had  had 
a  distinguished  visitor,  whose  pen  was  preparing  to  intro- 
duce it  into  literature  and  history,  as  a  very  little  village 
with  a  very  big  name.     In  the  summer  of  1791;,  the  first  vear 


THE  VILLAGE  OF  LAKE   ERIE  I  I 

of  his  "Travels  through  the  United  States  of  North  Amer- 
ica," the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault  Liancourt,  on  his  way 
to  Canada,  came  to  see  the  Senecas  in  their  "Buffalo  Town," 
which  he  found  to  contain  about  forty  houses,  with  as  many 
more  scattered  along  the  banks  of  the  creek  for  several 
miles.  From  the  Seneca  "Buffalo"  he  came  down  to  the 
lake,  and  what  he  saw  and  experienced  here  is  described  and 
related  as  follows  in  his  book: 

"At  length  we  reached  Lake  Erie;  that  is  to  say,  a  small 
settlement  of  four  or  five  houses,  standing  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  lake.  A  small  creek  separated  them  from 
our  road.  The  creek  is  so  muddy  that  nobody  ventures  to 
ford  it  on  horseback.  The  saddles  are  therefore  taken  off; 
the  horsemen  pass  the  creek,  which  is  about  twenty  feet 
wide,  in  boats,  and  make  the  horses  swim  across.  *  * 
We  had  intended  *  *  *  [to  cross  to  the  other  side  of 
the  Niagara  River],  but  it  was  too  late.  We  were,  there- 
fore, necessitated  to  content  ourselves  with  a  very  poor  sup- 
per and  to  lie  down  on  the  floor,  wrapped  up  in  our  cloaks. 
Not  the  least  furniture  was  to  be  seen  in  the  houses ;  nor  was 
there  any  milk,  rum  or  candles.  With  considerable  trouble 
we  got  some  milk  from  the  neighbors,  but  they  were  not 
equally  obliging  in  regard  to  rum  and  candles.  At  length 
we  obtained  these  articles  from  the  other  side  of  the  river; 
our  appetite  was  keen;  we  spent  a  pleasant  evening,  and 
slept  as  well  as  in  the  woods. 

"At  Lake  Erie  (this  is  the  name  of  this  cluster  of  houses) 
everything  is  much  dearer  than  in  any  other  place  through 
which  we  have  hitherto  passed  in  our  journey,  from  want  of 
any  direct  communication  with  other  countries,  to  facilitate 
the  intercourse  of  trade  and  commerce.  There  is  scarcely 
one  house  in  this  little  hamlet  without  a  person  indisposed 
with  the  ague.  We  found  ourselves  here  surrounded  by 
Indians;  some  of  them  had  caught,  with  harpoons,  several 


12  BEGINNINGS 

large  sturgeons  on  the  border  of  the  lake,  which  they  of- 
fered us  for  two  shillings  apiece.  The  banks  are  crowded, 
nay  rendered  noisome,  with  places  where  the  Indians  dry 
the  fish." 

One  of  the  residents  in  this  village  of  "Lake  Erie"  was  a 
Captain  William  Johnston,  supposed  to  have  belonged  for- 
merly to  the  notorious  Butler's  Rangers,  who  had  taken  a 
wife  from  the  Senecas,  and  was  so  much  in  their  favor  that 
they  had  given  him  about  two  square  miles  of  land  in  the 
heart  of  our  present  city.  Between  this  grant  to  Captain 
Johnston  (which  antedated  the  Seneca  sale  of  lands  to 
Robert  Morris),  the  Buffalo  Creek  Reservation,  and  the 
"Mile  Strip"  along  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Niagara,  re- 
served by  the  State  of  New  York  in  its  arrangement  with 
Massachusetts,  the  Holland  Purchase  (as  the  tract  sold  by 
Morris  has  always  been  known),  was  likely  to  come  to  no 
contact  with  lake,  river  or  creek,  at  this  point,  and  include- 
no  ground  on  which  a  commercial  city  in  this  region  could 
grow  up. 

But  Joseph  Ellicott,  appointed  by  the  American  agent  of 
the  Dutch  proprietors  to  survey  their  tract,  and  afterwards 
made  local  agent  and  manager  of  this  part  of  the  property, 
had  no  sooner  looked  it  over,  and  acquired  an  understand- 
ing of  the  situation,  than  he  saw  the  necessity  for  establish- 
ing his  main  settlement  here,  at  the  head  of  the  river  and 
the  outlet  of  the  lake.  He  was  able  to  acquire  the  needed 
site  by  a  bargain  with  Captain  Johnston,  which  exchanged 
other  lands  for  his  grant  from  the  Senecas,  and  engaged  him 
to  persuade  the  Senecas  to  leave  a  considerable  stretch  of  the 
lower  part  of  Buffalo  Creek  out  of  their  reservation,  which 
he  did.  Thus  Joseph  Ellicott  won  a  place  among  the 
founders  of  cities,  by  a  sagacious  stroke  of  business,  con- 
ceived and  executed  with  distinct  foresight  of  its  results. 

It  was  in  Ellicott's  plan  that  his  future  city  should  be 


THE   NAMING   OF    BUFFALO  13 

called  New  Amsterdam;  but  the  name  Buffalo  (derived 
from  the  creek),  slipped  away  from  the  Seneca  village,  be- 
came attached  to  the  "Lake  Erie"  settlement  as  soon  as  that 
began  to  grow,  and  could  not  be  shaken  off.  When  and  why 
Buffalo  Creek  received  its  bovine  name  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  research  and  much  dispute.  The  substantial  out- 
come is  a  general  conclusion  that  the  name,  in  English 
speech,  was  taken  from  its  Indian  equivalent  (tick-e-ack- 
gou)  ;  that  it  was  given  at  some  quite  early  time,  and  given 
probably  because  there  were  herds  of  the  American  bison 
roaming  at  that  time  as  far  eastward  and  northward  as  this; 
that  they  found  salt-licks  which  drew  them  to  the  borders 
of  this  creek  and  made  it  an  important  hunting  ground. 
Mr.  Marshall  found  Buffalo  Creek  so  named  on  a  manu- 
script map  in  the  British  Museum,  dated  in  1764,  and  that  is 
the  oldest  known  use  of  the  name.  It  was  used  in  the  nar- 
rative of  the  captivity  of  the  Gilbert  family,  published  in 
1784,  and  officially  in  the  Fort  Stanwix  treaty  of  the  same 
year. 

The  survey  of  the  Holland  Purchase,  laying  out  town- 
ships and  sub-dividing  them  into  lots,  and  the  opening  of  a 
passable  road  from  the  East,  through  Batavia  to  this  western 
extremity  of  the  Purchase,  occupied  Ellicott's  attention  for 
several  years,  and  it  was  not  until  late  in  1803  or  early  in 
1804  that  the  village  of  New  Amsterdam  was  mapped  and 
lots  in  it  were  ready  for  sale.  During  these  years  a  fair 
number  of  settlers  had  been  deposited  in  neighboring  town- 
ships, and  a  considerable  stream  of  migration  from  eastern 
parts  of  the  country  to  the  Connecticut  "Western  Reserve," 
in  Ohio,  and  to  western  Canada,  had  been  passing  through. 
New  Amsterdam  lost  some  possible  pioneers  by  the  tardi- 
ness of  this  part  of  the  survey.  One  gentleman,  Dr.  Cyre- 
nius  Chapin,  who  became  a  citizen  of  great  importance,  had 
planned,  in  1801,  to  be  one  of  forty  substantial  men  from 


14  BEGINNINGS 

Oneida  County  who  would  buy  largely  on  the  Buffalo 
Creek  site;  but  his  proposals  were  declined.  He  came  per- 
sonally, however,  in  1803,  with  his  family,  and  finding  no 
shelter  for  them,  sought  a  temporary  residence  at  Fort  Erie, 
from  which  he  practiced  his  profession  on  both  sides  of  the 
river  during  the  next  two  years.  Fort  Erie,  and  the  Cana- 
dian side  of  the  Niagara  in  general,  were  far  in  advance  of 
the  American  side  in  settlement  and  cultivation  at  this  time. 
In  his  plan  of  New  Amsterdam,  Mr.  Ellicott  established 
street  lines  which  gave  form  and  direction  to  the  whole 
after-growth  of  the  town.  The  hub  or  nave,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  plan  was  a  specially  large  lot — "outer  lot  104" — con- 
taining one  hundred  acres  of  ground,  fronting  on  the  road 
which  came  in  from  Batavia,  but  which  entered  the  village 
on  a  nearly  north  and  south  line.  On  the  eastern  side  of 
this,  the  present  Main  Street  of  Buffalo,  the  lot  in  question 
filled  the  space  between  what  are  now  Swan  and  Eagle 
Streets,  extending  eastward  for  a  mile.  It  was  reserved  by 
Mr.  Ellicott  for  himself,  with  the  intention  of  building  a 
residence  upon  it,  at  the  center  of  the  city  which  his  imagi- 
nation foresaw.  To  make  it  conspicuously  the  center,  he 
gave  a  sweeping  curve  to  the  street  in  front  of  it,  and  radi- 
ated thence,  southwestwardly  to  the  lake,  the  street  we  know 
as  Erie,  but  which  he  named  Vollenhoven  Avenue,  and 
northwestwardly,  to  the  Niagara,  a  street  which  has  sur- 
rendered to  our  Niagara  Street  its  formidable  name  of 
Schimmelpennick  Avenue.  At  right  angles  with  the  front- 
age of  his  lot,  from  the  middle  point  in  its  curve,  he  ran  an- 
other street  westward  to  the  lake  and  called  it  Stadnitzki 
Avenue.  Tt  is  the  Church  Street  of  to-day.  For  the  main 
thoroughfare  from  which  these  centralizing  street-lines  were 
drawn  he  intended  two  names:  Willink  Avenue  in  the  part 
south  of  the  interrupting  curve,  and  Vanstophorst  Avenue 
in  the  northward  part.     This,  subsequently  straightened  into 


ELLICOTT'S  CITY  PLAN  15 

our  Main  Street,  determined  the  course  of  one  system  of 
streets,  which  paralleled  it  or  crossed  it  at  a  right  angle, 
while  Niagara  Street  determined  in  the  same  way  the  course 
of  another  system  on  its  side  of  the  town;  the  two  systems 
connecting  at  angles  which  give  a  singular  irregularity  to 
our  "west-side."  Mr.  Ellicott  began  the  plotting  of  the 
Niagara  Street  system  by  laying  out  a  Busti  Avenue  (our 
Genesee  Street)  at  right  angles  with  Niagara,  then  a  Caze- 
nove  Avenue  (Court  Street)  at  right  angles  with  Main,  and 
a  Delaware  Street  parallel  with  Main,  the  three  to  cross 
Niagara  at  the  same  point,  thus  creating  the  somewhat  be- 
wildering maze  of  Niagara  Square. 

Mr.  Ellicott's  intention  to  build  a  stately  residence  on 
"outer  lot  104"  is  said  to  have  been  abandoned  because  of 
action  taken  in  1809  by  village  trustees  and  highway  com- 
missioners, who  forced  a  straightening  of  the  street  he  had 
curved.  Dr.  Ellicott  Evans,  a  grandnephew  of  Mr.  Elli- 
cott, states  in  a  paper  which  he  read  before  the  Buffalo  His- 
torical Society,  that  the  purpose  of  the  latter  had  been  to 
create  a  place  of  beauty  in  the  heart  of  the  future  city  and 
bequeath  it  to  the  public  at  his  death.  Had  this  fine  design 
been  fulfilled,  and  if  a  mile-long  Ellicott  Park  had  been 
preserved  with  fidelity  till  now,  from  encroachment  by  rail- 
roads and  manufacturing  plants,  what  a  different  "East 
Side"  of  our  city  we  should  have! 

If  Buffalo  can  be  said  to  have  a  definable  birth-year,  it 
was  1804,  when  definite  settlements  on  residential  property 
were  begun.  The  village  was  visited  that  year  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Timothy  Dwight,  President  of  Yale  College,  who  wrote 
in  his  "Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York"  that  it 
"is  built  half  a  mile  from  the  mouth  of  the  Creek,  and  con- 
sists of  about  twenty  indifferent  houses;"  that  "the  spot  is 
unhealthy,  though  of  sufficient  elevation,  and,  so  far  as  I 
have  been   informed,   free   from   the  vicinity  of   stagnant 


1 6  BEGINNINGS 

waters;"  that  "the  inhabitants  are  a  casual  collection  of  ad- 
venturers, and  have  the  usual  character  of  such  adventurers 
thus  collected,  when  remote  from  regular  society,  retaining 
but  little  sense  of  government  or  religion;"  and  that  "New 
Amsterdam  is  at  present  the  thoroughfare  for  all  the  com- 
merce and  travel  interchangeably  going  on  between  Eastern 
States  (including  New  York  and  New  Jersey),  and  the 
countries  bordering  on  the  great  western  lakes."  Not  a  flat- 
tering account  of  the  infant  emporium;  but  the  travelling 
scholar,  in  his  brief  stay  at  a  frontier  tavern,  was  not  likely 
to  see  the  best  of  the  few  inhabitants. 

He  cannot  have  seen  Mons.  Louis  Stephen  Le  Couteulx 
de  Caumont,  scion  of  an  excellent  family  in  Normandy,  who 
had  bought  ground  and  built  a  house  in  New  Amsterdam 
that  year  of  the  visit  of  Dr.  Dwight.  Coming  to  the  United 
States  on  a  business  mission  in  1786,  M.  Le  Couteulx  had 
stayed  in  the  country,  obtaining  citizenship  and  purchasing 
an  estate  not  far  from  Philadelphia.  He  had  spent  two 
years  in  extensive  horseback  travels,  visiting  many  Indian 
tribes  and  keeping  a  journal  of  his  observations,  which,  most 
unfortunatelv,  was  lost.  He  had  also  been  engaged  in  busi- 
ness at  Albany  for  a  time;  and,  while  going  through  Canada 
with  merchandise  to  Detroit,  in  1800,  while  England 
and  France  were  at  war,  had  been  arrested,  as  a 
suspicious  Frenchman,  and  imprisoned  for  nearly  nine 
months.  His  business  was  broken  up  and  his  fortune  im- 
paired by  this  mishap.  The  fair  prospects  of  the  little  set- 
tlement on  Buffalo  Creek  drew  him  then  to  settle  here,  and 
Mr.  Ellicott  appointed  him  local  agent  for  the  sale  of  lands. 
On  the  formation  in  1807  of  the  large  county  of  Niagara 
(out  of  which  Erie  County  was  not  taken  till  1821),  he  be- 
came its  first  clerk.  After  the  burning  of  Buffalo,  1813,  he 
removed  to  Albany,  but  returned  in  1821  and  remained  till 
his  death,  in  1839.     Mr.  Le  Couteulx  was  in  every  way  a 


EARLY  SETTLERS  1 7 

most  valuable  citizen,  and  his  example  as  a  gentleman  of 
French  culture  must  have  been  a  refining  influence  in  the 
young  community,  of  no  little  force.  He  was  the  strongest 
of  the  early  supporters  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
Buffalo,  and  gave  it  extensive  lands,  on  which  two  of  its 
church  edifices  and  several  of  its  humane  institutions  now 
stand. 

Another  important  settler  of  the  year  1804  was  Captain 
Samuel  Pratt,  who  established  one  of  the  families  of  leading 
influence  in  the  town.  Captain  Pratt,  returning  to  his  home 
in  Vermont  from  a  fur-buying  trip  to  Detroit,  had  passed 
through  Buffalo  in  the  fall  of  1803  and  noted  the  commer- 
cial advantages  of  the  place.  The  next  year  he  brought  his 
family  in  a  coach,  built  for  the  long  and  difficult  journey, 
which  was  the  first  vehicle  of  its  description  ever  seen  in 
these  parts.  Captain  Pratt  was  one  of  the  energetic  and 
enterprising  pioneers  of  Buffalo  till  1812,  when  he  died,  in 
the  prime  of  his  life. 

A  political  commission  had  brought  Mr.  Erastus  Granger 
to  the  new  settlement  in  the  previous  year.  He  was  of  the 
family  of  Gideon  Granger,  Postmaster-General  under  Pres- 
ident Jefferson,  and  he  came  to  be  both  Postmaster  and  Su- 
perintendent of  Indian  Affairs  at  this  point.  Subsequently 
he  was  appointed  Collector  of  Customs,  when  the  Collec- 
tion District  of  Buffalo  Creek  was  formed,  and  was  thus  a 
most  emphasized  representative  of  the  Federal  Government 
and  of  the  Jeffersonian  (Democratic  Republican)  party  in 
this  end  of  New  York.  A  majority  of  the  other  settlers  at 
the  time  were  of  the  Federal  or  Hamiltonian  party,  and  Mr. 
Granger's  arrival  was  a  politically  stimulating  event.  The 
establishment  of  a  post-office  was  a  notable  mark  of  advance, 
though  mails  came  and  went  but  once  a  week. 

The  slow  increase  of  population  in  the  village  and  the 
neighboring  country  is  traced,  with  much  personal  particu- 


1 8  BEGINNINGS 

larity,  in  Turner's  "History  of  the  Holland  Purchase," 
Ketchum's  "History  of  Buffalo,"  and  Crisfield  Johnson's 
"Centennial  History  of  Erie  County," — all  painstaking 
works,  full  of  information,  derived  largely  from  original 
records  and  from  the  lips  or  pens  of  surviving  pioneers. 
Not  much  repetition  of  that  detail  would  be  fitting  in  this 
sketch. 

Turner  lists  fourteen  owners  of  property  in  New  Amstcr 
dam  in  1804.  Five  only  were  added  in  1805,  one  of  whom, 
Samuel  Tupper,  afterward  Judge  Tupper,  gave  his  name  to 
a  street  at  the  corner  of  which,  on  Main  Street,  he  built  his 
house.  Six  took  up  lots  in  1806,  and  among  the  arrivals  of 
that  year  was  Ebenezer  Walden,  the  first  licensed  attorney 
who  practiced  in  this  part  of  the  State.  He  was  subse- 
quently a  judge,  and  one  of  the  early  mayors  of  the  city.  He 
bought  extensively  of  land  during  his  life,  and  sold  none; 
consequently  he  left  a  large,  well-known  estate.  A  daughter 
of  Judge  Walden  became  the  wife  <>\  Colonel  Albert  J. 
Myer,  who  organized  the  Signal  Service  ami  the  Weather 
Bureau  of  the  United  States. 

Among  eight  lot-buyers  of  1 808  were  the  fathers  of 
Charles  Ensign,  Chandler  J.  Wells  and  William  Wells,  all 
prominent  in  the  "dock  business"  of  the  Buffalo  of  the  next 
generation.  In  that  year  or  the  previous  one  came  Amos 
Callender,  whom  everybody  learned  to  call  "Deacon  t 
lender,"  and  who  exercised  for  many  years  a  notable  re- 
ligious and  moral  influence,  sometimes  as  the  teacher  of  a 
school,  and  always  as  an  active  worker  for  the  betterment 
of  character  and  life  in  the  town. 

The  most  important  new-comers  of  1809  were  Dr.  Ebe- 
nezer Johnson  and  Mr.  Oliver  Forward,  two  men  who 
made  and  left  strong  marks  of  themselves.  Dr.  Johnson 
practiced  his  profession  for  a  few  years  only,  and  then  en- 
gaged in  business,  first  mercantile  and  finally  banking,  with 


THE  FIRST  COURT  AND  ITS  JUDGES  1 9 

great  success.  His  picturesque  stone  mansion  on  Delaware 
Avenue,  known  still  as  "the  Johnson  Cottage,"  and  its  spa- 
cious grounds,  of  which  a  remnant  is  preserved  in  Johnson 
Park,  were  the  pride  of  the  community,  in  the  days  when 
Buffalo  had  become  a  chartered  city  and  Dr.  Johnson  was 
its  first  mayor,  for  two  terms.  Mr.  Forward,  brother-in- 
law  of  Mr.  Granger,  held  many  offices  of  trust  in  his  subse- 
quent life,  including  that  of  judge,  and  ranked  notably 
among  the  leading  citizens  of  the  place. 

By  act  of  the  Legislature,  in  1808,  Buffalo  was  made  the 
county  seat  of  a  large  Niagara  County,  then  set  off  from 
Genesee  County,  and  the  first  session  of  court  in  this  place 
was  in  June  of  that  year,  with  Augustus  Porter  as  First 
judge.  Two  of  his  four  associates  were  Erastus  Granger 
and  Samuel  Tupper,  of  Buffalo.  The  court  was  held  at 
Landon's  tavern;  but  the  Holland  Company  began  at  once 
the  building  of  a  court  house,  near  the  "Old  Court  House" 
site  of  a  later  day,  on  which  the  Buffalo  Public  Library 
now  stands. 

Judge  Porter,  who  held  a  high  place  in  the  early  history 
of  Western  New  York,  had  not  been  bred  to  the  law,  but 
had  the  practical  qualities  and  the  abilities  that  were  called 
upon  often,  in  the  pioneer  organization  of  American  so- 
ciety, to  serve  without  legal  training  on  the  bench.  He 
came  from  Connecticut  to  the  Genesee  country  as  a  young 
surveyor,  in  1789,  and  was  employed  in  that  profession  for 
more  than  a  dozen  years,  first  on  the  Phelps  and  Gorham 
lands,  then  on  the  Holland  Purchase,  and  finally  as  chief 
surveyor  of  the  Connecticut  Land  Company,  on  the  "West- 
ern Reserve,"  in  Ohio,  where  he  laid  out  the  city  of  Cleve- 
land and  gave  it  its  name. 

In  1805,  Mr.  Augustus  Porter  and  his  younger  brother, 
Peter  B.  Porter,  joined  two  other  gentlemen,  Benjamin 
Barton  and  Joseph  Annin,  in  purchasing  from  the  State  of 


20  BEGINNINGS 

New  York  a  tract  of  about  400  acres  of  land  within  the 
Niagara  "Mile  Strip,"  at  and  above  the  Falls.  At  the  same 
time  they  leased  the  landing  places,  at  Lewiston  and  Black 
Rock,  which  had  been  the  termini,  for  many  years,  of  the 
portage  of  goods  around  Niagara  Falls  and  of  boating  above 
them,  for  commercial  transportation  between  the  two  lower 
lakes.  This  was  preparatory  to  the  organization,  by  the  two 
brothers  and  their  partners,  of  an  extensive  carrying  trade 
between  tide-water  and  the  military  and  trading  posts  and 
settlements  in  the  West.  By  this  engagement  in  business 
both  of  the  Porters  were  drawn  from  their  professions, — 
Augustus  from  surveying  and  Peter  B.  from  the  law,  which 
lie  had  studied  in  Connecticut  and  practiced  at  Canandaigua 
for  a  number  of  years.  Augustus  Porter  removed  his  family 
from  Canandaigua  to  a  residence  near  .Niagara  Falls  in 
1806;  Peter  B.  Porter,  then  representing  the  district  in  Con- 
gress, came  to  reside  at   Black  Rock  in   1810. 

The  part  of  Buffalo,  stretching  along  the  Niagara  River, 
which  is  still  known  locally  as  Black  Rock,  has  been  ab- 
sorbed in  our  city  so  long,  and  by  so  complete  an  incorpora- 
tion, that  its  distinctness  from  and  rivalry  with  the  Buffalo 
nt  that  day  is  hard  to  realize  now;  but  the  fact  was  empha- 
sized in  the  history  of  a  good  many  years.  Both  the  name 
and  the  rivalry  had  their  origin  in  an  outcrop  of  darkly 
colored  limestone  rock,  so  shaped  and  placed  by  nature  as 
to  afford  a  singularly  favorable  landing  place  on  the  Amer- 
ican shore  of  the  Niagara,  near  its  head.  As  the  landing 
of  a  ferry,  to  and  from  Fort  Erie,  it  had  been  in  use  from 
some  early  day.  In  an  interesting  paper  on  "The  ( )ld  Black 
Rock  Ferry,"  prepared  for  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society 
in  1863,  the  late  Mr.  Charles  D.  Norton  gave  the  following 
description  of  the  rock:  "In  1800  there  was  a  tolerable 
road    *  to  the  river  margin  over  a  flat  or  plateau  of 

land  about  two  hundred  feet  in  width.     Upon  the  northern 


BLACK  ROCK  RIVALRY  21 

extremity  of  this  plateau  there  was  a  black  rock,  in  shape 
an  irregular  triangle,  projecting  into  the  river;  having  a 
breadth  of  about  one  hundred  feet  at  the  north  end,  and 
extending  eastward  and  along  the  river  for  a  distance  of 
three  hundred  feet,  gradually  inclining  to  the  southeast, 
until  it  was  lost  in  the  sand.  The  rock  was  four  or  five  feet 
high,  and  at  its  southern  extremity  it  was  square,  so  that 
an  eddy  was  formed  there,  into  which  the  ferry-boat  could 
be  brought,  and  where  it  would  be  beyond  the  influence  of 
the  current.  From  this  rock  teams  could  be  driven  into 
the  boat,  over  a  connecting  lip  or  bridge.  The  natural  har- 
bor thus  formed  was  almost  perfect,  and  could  not  have 
been  made  by  the  appliances  of  art  a  more  complete  dock 
or  landing  place  for  a  boat." 

Buffalo  Creek  and  the  Buffalo  village  of  the  Holland 
Purchase  had  nothing  in  the  nature  of  a  port  to  compete 
with  this  small  natural  harbor  and  wharf,  which  belonged 
within  the  Mile  Strip  and  was  foreign  to  the  Hollanders' 
domain.  Entrance  to  the  Creek  from  the  open  lake  was 
unsheltered  from  storms,  and  was  obstructed  so  badly, 
moreover,  by  a  sand-bar,  that,  according  to  the  recollections 
of  one  old  resident,  "even  canoes  were  sometimes  shut  out, 
and  footmen  walked  dry  shod  across  the  mouth."  Hence 
the  systematic  carrying  trade  opened  by  Porter,  Barton  & 
Co.  gave  an  importance  to  the  Black  Rock  which  started  a 
growth  of  settlement  around  it,  quite  threatening  to  the 
prosperity  of  Mr.  Ellicott's  ambitious  town.  The  character 
of  the  commerce  then  developed  will  be  described  in  a  later 
chapter,  and  something  of  the  story  of  the  commercial 
struggle  between  the  Buffalo  Creek  and  the  Black  Rock 
villages  will  be  told. 

Before  establishing  his  residence  at  Black  Rock,  Con- 
gressman Porter  had  applied,  in  1809,  for  the  removal  of 
the  customs  port  of  entry  from  Buffalo  Creek  to  that  point. 


22  BEGINNINGS 

The  Collector  of  the  district,  Mr.  Granger,  wrote  a  letter 
of  remonstrance  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  which 
he  claimed  for  Buffalo  a  population  of  forty-three  families, 
besides  unmarried  men,  while  crediting  to  Black  Rock  no 
more  than  one  white  and  two  black  families,  in  addition  to 
a  temporary  ferry-house  and  tavern  "under  the  bank."  But 
that  was  very  early  in  the  infancy  of  "the  Rock." 

Despite  the  rivalry  of  the  Rock,  the  Creek  village  main- 
tained so  good  a  growth  that  one  who  came  to  it  for  resi- 
dence in  181  i,  Charles  Townsend,  wrote  in  later  life  (when 
he  was  known  as  Judge  Townsend)  that  he  found  a  popula- 
tion of  some  four  or  five  hundred,  with  "less  than  one 
hundred  dwellings,"  three  taverns,  a  stone  jail,  an  unfinished 
wooden  court  house,  and  a  small  building  which  served  for 
schoolhouse,  meeting  house,  and  public  purposes  of  every 
other  sort.  In  partnership  with  Mr.  George  Coit,  Judge 
Townsend  established  a  mercantile  linn  that  was  important 
lor  many  years,  ami  both  members  of  which  left  families  of 
note.  Another  firm  founded  in  1S11,  bv  Abel  M.  Gros- 
venor  and  Reuben  B.  Heacock,  gave  highlj  honored  names 
to  the  city.  In  the  same  year  came  Ileman  B.  Potter,  as  a 
young,  college-bred  and  well-trained  lawyer,  from  the  East. 

Distinction  was  given  to  the  year  1S1  i  by  the  appearance 
of  a  small  weekly  newspaper,  the  Buffalo  Gazette.  It  was 
the  second  to  be  printed  further  west  in  the  State  than  Can- 
andaigua,  a  small  sheet  having  preceded  it  at  Batavia  in 
1807.  The  publishers  were  two  brothers  from  Canan- 
daigua,  Smith  H.  and  Hezekiah  A.  Salisbury,  both  of  whom 
maintained  a  connection  with  journalism  at  Buffalo  and  at 
Black  Rock  for  many  years.  With  their  printing  equip- 
ment the  Salisburys  brought  a  small  stock  of  books  and  sta- 
tionery and  opened  a  little  shop  which  contributed  in  no 
trifling  way  to  the  raising  of  the  standard  of  life  in  the  place. 

And  now  we  approach  the  outbreak  of  war  with  England, 


THE  WAR  OF    1812-14  23 

which  had  such  grave  consequences  for  Buffalo  as  to  put 
the  town  in  total  eclipse  for  a  time.  The  Honorable  Peter 
B.  Porter,  who  represented  the  Western  New  York  district 
in  Congress,  belonged  in  that  body  to  the  vehement  group 
of  "War  Hawks,"  as  they  were  styled  at  the  time,  who  fol- 
lowed the  lead  of  Clay  and  Calhoun  in  demanding  armed 
resistance  to  the  domineering  use  of  British  power  at  sea. 
As  chairman  of  the  House  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs 
he  prepared  the  report  of  December,  181 1,  which  recom- 
mended war,  and  he  was  active  in  bringing  about  the 
declaration  of  hostilities,  made  formally  on  the  1 8th  of  the 
following  June.  That  he  satisfied  a  majority  of  his  con- 
stituents in  this  course  is  open  to  some  doubt.  For  his  own 
part,  he  was  ready  to  bear  his  share  of  what  came  from  it. 
He  resigned  his  seat  in  Congress,  was  appointed  Quarter- 
Master- General  of  New  York,  and  received  command  of  a 
body  of  troops,  composed  in  part  of  Indians  from  the  Six 
Nations,  who  made  common  cause  with  the  United  States. 

A  little  of  military  preparation  on  the  northern  frontier 
had  preceded  the  declaration  of  war,  but  considerably  less 
than  the  British  authorities  had  made  on  their  side.  Since 
1807  there  had  been  an  organization  of  militia  in  the  western 
part  of  the  State,  and  it  was  commanded  in  18 12  by  General 
Timothy  S.  Hopkins,  resident  near  Buffalo,  in  one  of  the 
country  towns.  Two  hundred  and  forty  men  from  General 
Hopkins's  brigade  had  been  ordered  out  for  service,  and  a 
Colonel  Swift,  from  Ontario  County,  had  arrived  at  Buf- 
falo on  the  17th  of  May  to  take  command  on  the  Niagara 
frontier.  The  first  detachment  of  militia,  on  its  march  to 
Lewiston,  came  through  the  village  next  day.  By  the  23d 
of  June  Colonel  Swift,  who  had  fixed  his  headquarters  at 
Black  Rock,  was  reported  to  have  600  militia  under  his 
command,  and  Fort  Niagara  was  garrisoned  by  a  small 
number  of  regular  troops.     The  British  had  a  larger  force, 


24  BEGINNINGS 

of  regular  soldiery,  with  a  strong  equipment  of  artillery,  on 
the  opposite  shore. 

General  Porter  arrived  at  his  home  on  the  27th  of  June, 
bringing  the  first  news  of  the  declaration  of  war.  The 
British  authorities  in  Canada  had  received  the  information 
some  hours  before,  and  acted  on  it  so  promptly  that,  before 
the  close  of  the  day,  they  had  captured  a  little  schooner 
which  lay  at  anchor  near  the  head  of  the  river,  waiting  for  a 
favorable  wind  to  take  her  to  Black.  Rock.  At  once  Gen- 
eral Porter  took  a  vigorous  direction  of  measures  for  bring- 
ing needed  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  frontier.  On  the 
30th  it  was  announced  in  the  Buffalo  Gazelle  that  "Major 
Frederick  Miller,  of  this  town,  has  been  appointed  major 
commandant  of  the  forces  at  Black  Rock;"  that  "Colonel 
Swift  has  taken  command  at  Lewiston;"  that  "several  com- 
panies of  militia,  <>!  General  Hopkins's  brigade,  have  been 
ordered  en  masse  to  Black  Rock;"  and  that  "the  light  infan- 
try company  of  Captain  Wells  and  militia  company  of 
Captain  Hull  are  embodied,  and  rendezvous  in  this  village 
to  protect  the  town."  Major  Miller  had  been  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  ferry  and  keeper  of  the  ferry  tavern  at  Black 
Rock  till  1810.  Since  that  time  he  had  been  the  landlord 
of  a  tavern  in  Buffalo,  out  Main  Street,  at  "the  Cold 
Spring."  The  companies  of  Captain  Wells  and  Captain 
Bull  appear  to  have  been  formed  independently,  for  home 
defence. 

Evidently  there  was  no  lack  of  spirited  response  to  the 
military  calls  of  the  emergency,  but  the  want  of  military 
knowledge  and  experience  was  very  great.  The  history  of 
the  war  as  a  whole  is  the  storv  of  a  reckless  undertaking, 
unprepared  for  and  little  understood.  This  part  of  the 
Canadian  frontier  became  its  principal  theatre;  but  Buffalo 
was  not  much  involved  in  the  operations  of  the  first  few 
months.     Batteries  erected  on  both  sides  of  the  river  defied 


ELLIOTT'S  EXPLOIT  AND  SMYTH'S  FIASCO  25 

each  other  by  occasional  shots,  but  did  not  come  into  active 
use  till  October,  when  Lieutenant  Elliott,  U.  S.  N.,  who  had 
been  sent  to  assist  in  fitting  out  the  little  armed  fleet  with 
which  Commodore  Perry  would  win,  next  year,  the  naval 
command  of  the  lakes,  struck  an  aggressive  blow.  Two 
armed  vessels,  one  of  which  had  been  captured  by  the  British 
at  Detroit,  were  lying  near  Fort  Erie,  and  Elliott,  on  a  sug- 
gestion, it  is  said,  from  Farmer's  Brother,  the  Seneca  Chief, 
planned  to  cut  them  out.  With  three  boat-loads  of  men, 
one  of  them  commanded  by  Dr.  Chapin,  he  surprised  them, 
before  dawn  of  the  morning  of  October  9th,  and  brought 
both  vessels  and  crews  away.  In  running  down  the  river 
the  prizes  were  exposed  to  a  heavy  fire,  and  one  of  them, 
after  being  brought  to  Squaw  Island,  was  pounded  to  pieces 
by  the  batteries  on  both  shores;  the  other  was  beached  at 
Black  Rock.  Fifty-eight  men  taken  from  the  enemy, 
twenty-seven  American  prisoners  released  from  durance  on 
the  ships,  and  two  twelve-pounder  guns,  were  the  gains  from 
this  brilliant  exploit,  in  which  four  of  the  attacking  party 
were  wounded  and  one  was  killed. 

About  seven  weeks  later  the  animating  effect  of  Elliott's 
success  was  more  than  destroyed  by  a  disgraceful  fiasco, 
having  nearly  the  same  scene.  The  Americans  had  suf- 
fered their  disastrous  repulse  at  Queenston ;  General  Van 
Rensselaer  had  retired  from  the  command  on  this  frontier; 
General  Alexander  Smyth,  from  Virginia,  had  succeeded 
him,  and  strenuous  efforts  of  preparation  had  been  made  for 
another  invasion  of  Canada,  to  be  launched  from  this  point. 
Thirty-five  hundred  men  had  been  massed  at  Buffalo  and 
Black  Rock;  General  Smyth  had  addressed  a  bombastic 
proclamation  to  them,  in  the  Napoleonic  style;  and,  on  the 
27th  of  November,  the  embarkation  of  the  whole  force,  in 
boats  provided  amply,  was  ordered  for  the  following  morn- 
ing.    Two  detachments  sent  over  in  advance  of  the  main 


26  BEGINNINGS 

body,  to  take  batteries  and  destroy  a  bridge,  did  blundering 
work;  yet  one  of  the  two  accomplished  enough  to  open  a 
safe  landing  for  Smyth  and  his  army  on  the  soil  he  had  been 
so  eager  to  invade.  But  his  eagerness  was  gone;  he  had 
spent  his  valor  in  proclamations  and  had  none  left.  He 
wasted  the  day  in  hesitations,  sent  over  a  ridiculous  summons 
to  the  British  commander  to  surrender,  and  then  disem- 
barked his  men.  By  next  morning  he  had  composed  a  new 
proclamation,  appointing  "to-morrow  at  eight  o'clock"  for 
a  fresh  start,  which  "neither  rain,  snow  nor  frost  will  pre- 
vent." Then,  said  he,  with  thrilling  eloquence,  "the  music 
will  play  martial  airs;  Yankee  Doodle  will  be  the  signal  to 
get  under  way;  the  landing  will  he  made  in  spite  of  cannon. 
Hearts  of  War!  to-morrow  will  be  memorable  in  the  annals 
of  the  United  States."  And  so  it  was.  Both  the  yesterday 
and  the  to-morrow  of  the  performance  were  memorable  days 
of  shame.  The  enemy  had  made  such  good  use  of  the  time 
wasted  by  Smyth  that  a  direct  landing  by  daylight  was  pos- 
sible no  longer.  General  Porter  proposed  a  crossing  some 
miles  below,  to  he  made  the  next  night,  and  the  command- 
ing general  acquiesced.  Again  the  men  were  embarked; 
again  there  were  hours  of  hesitation,  ending  in  orders  to  dis- 
embark, and  the  whole  movement  was  given  up.  Every- 
body was  sick  with  disgust  and  rage.  Many  of  the  men  in 
the  ranks  threw  down  their  arms  and  went  home.  General 
Porter  expressed  his  opinion  of  Smyth  so  plainly  in  a  pub- 
lished card  that  a  duel,  on  Grand  Island,  resulted,  with  no 
harm  done,  except  to  the  moral  law.  Dr.  Chapin,  serving 
as  an  independent  volunteer,  but  soon  to  be  commissioned 
by  Governor  Tompkins  as  Lieutenant-Colonel  by  brevet,  put 
still  plainer  words  into  print.  General  Smyth  found  it 
expedient  to  resign  the  command,  and,  presently,  he  was 
dismissed. 

Not  long  after  these  occurrences  a  rough  company  of 


BRITISH   INVASIONS  27 

soldiers  from  Baltimore  gave  Buffalo  an  alarming  experi- 
ence of  riot.  With  that  exception  the  town  seems  to  have 
been  undisturbed  till  the  summer  of  1813  when,  on  a  Sun- 
day morning,  the  11th  of  July,  the  first  invading  visit  of 
the  British  was  made.  Just  before  daylight  they  landed, 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  at  some  distance 
below  Black  Rock,  surprised  a  small  navy-yard  which  had 
been  established  at  Scajaquada  Creek,  burned  several  bar- 
rack buildings  and  a  block-house,  and  came  near  to  captur- 
ing General  Porter,  who  was  then  at  home.  The  General 
made  his  escape  through  the  woods  to  Buffalo  and  assisted 
in  rallying  the  militia  and  volunteers,  who,  with  the  help  of 
thirty  Indians,  led  by  Farmer's  Brother,  met  the  invaders 
at  about  the  point  where  Niagara  Street  makes  its  turn  on 
reaching  the  river,  and  drove  them  back.  Their  retreat  was 
disorderly  and  they  were  hotly  pursued.  They  lost  no  less 
than  a  hundred  men,  killed,  wounded  and  missing,  while  the 
Americans  lost  five  wounded  and  three  killed. 

Five  months  later  the  enemy  repeated  their  invasion,  and 
then  there  was  no  such  happy  escape  for  the  town.  The 
Niagara  frontier  had  nearly  been  stripped  of  troops,  to 
strengthen  an  abortive  expedition  against  Montreal.  Since 
the  previous  May  the  Americans  had  been  in  possession  of 
Fort  George,  on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  Niagara  at  its 
mouth.  Early  in  December  the  officer  commanding  there 
found  it  prudent  to  evacuate  the  fort  and  retire  to  Fort 
Niagara,  on  the  American  side.  On  doing  so  he  burned  the 
adjacent  village  of  Newark,  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  the 
pretty  town  of  Niagara-on-the-Lake ;  but  he  failed  to  burn 
the  enemy's  barracks  and  tents.  He  claimed  afterwards  to 
have  acted  on  orders  from  the  Secretary  of  War;  but  his 
orders  had  been  to  destroy  the  surroundings  of  the  fort,  if 
he  undertook  its  defence.  The  British  were  now  eager  to 
retaliate  his  wanton   barbarity,   and   the  weakness   of   the 


28  BEGINNINGS 

American  forces  along  the  whole  river  gave  them  oppor- 
tunity to  do  so  with  ease.  One  week  after  the  burning  of 
Newark,  on  the  19th  of  December,  they  surprised  Fort 
Niagara,  killed  eighty  of  its  almost  unresisting  garrison,  and 
swept  the  whole  shore  of  the  river  from  Youngstown  to 
Niagara  Falls  with  the  besom  of  (ire.  Ten  days  later  their 
second  attack  on  Buffalo  was  begun.  According  to  an  an- 
nouncement made  subsequently,  in  general  orders  from  the 
British  military  headquarters  at  Quebec,  the  attack  was 
made  by  "detachments  of  the  Royal  Scots  Eighth  (or  King's 
Forty-first)  and  the  flank  companies  of  the  Eighty-ninth  and 
One  Hundredth  regiments — the  whole  not  exceeding  one 
thousand  men."  This  mentions  no  Indians;  but  it  is  certain 
that  a  very  considerable  body  of  Indians, — estimated  at  not 
less  than  two  hundred,  were  in  the  affair.  James,  the 
English  historian  of  the  war,  mentions  "Indian  warriors,  not 
exceeding  one  hundred  and  twenty,"  and  indicates  not  less 
than  fifteen  hundred  as  being  in  the  regimental  force. 
American  militia  and  volunteers  to  the  reported  number  of 
two  thousand  and  eleven  had  been  assembled  hastily  at  Buf- 
falo and  Black  Rock  by  General  Hall,  of  Ontario,  who  was 
in  command.  The  number  was  ample,  but  the  training,  the 
experience  of  battle,  the  arms  and  the  ammunition,  were  all 
insufficient  to  make  a  trustworthy  force. 

The  invaders  came  in  three  detachments,  one,  on  the  night 
of  the  29th,  landing  below  Black  Rock,  the  other  two  cross- 
ing early  the  next  morning,  at  and  above  Black  Rock.  The 
first  column  had  repulsed  an  attack  and  disordered  the  mil- 
itia which  made  it  before  the  appearance  of  the  second  and 
third.  These  latter,  some  of  whose  boats  ran  aground  near 
shore,  were  opposed  stoutly  for  a  time,  and  most  of  the 
British  losses  were  suffered  there  and  then;  but  their  op- 
ponents gave  way  on  the  approach  of  the  first  column,  from 
down  river,  and  most  of  the  American  troops  were  soon  in 


BURNING  OF  THE  VILLAGE  29 

scattered  flight.  A  few  retired  slowly  down  the  Niagara 
Street  road,  and  some  ineffective  use  was  made  of  a  couple 
of  pieces  of  artillery,  to  check  the  British  pursuit;  but 
Colonel  Chapin  stopped  the  useless  firing,  and  took  the  re- 
sponsibility of  showing  a  flag  of  truce.  As  the  result  of  his 
parley  with  the  enemy  it  was  understood  that  the  town  was 
surrendered  and  that  private  property  should  be  spared;  but 
General  Riall,  the  British  commander,  repudiated  the  agree- 
ment when  he  found  that  Colonel  Chapin  was  not  in 
command. 

Meantime  the  British-Indian  warriors  had  swarmed 
through  the  woods  from  Black  Rock  to  Main  Street  and 
begun  to  plunder  and  burn.  Most  of  the  inhabitants  had 
fled  in  haste,  some  into  the  forest,  others  by  roads  to  neigh- 
boring towns.  A  few  were  captured,  and  nine,  including 
one  woman,  were  slain,  after  fighting  had  ceased.  The 
murdered  woman,  Mrs.  Lovejoy,  is  said  to  have  offered 
some  resistance  to  the  savages  who  were  pillaging  her  house, 
and  one  of  them  buried  his  tomahawk  in  her  brain.  Her 
near  neighbor,  Mrs.  Gamaliel  St.  John,  a  widow, — a  woman 
of  strong  character, — was  the  one  resident  of  the  village  who 
saved  her  home.  Sending  her  children  away,  in  the  care  of 
other  fugitives,  Mrs.  St.  John  remained,  and  was  able  to 
secure  an  Indian  guard  who  protected  her  house.  The 
small  dwelling  thus  spared,  the  stone  jail,  a  blacksmith  shop, 
and  the  frame  of  a  barn,  were  the  only  structures  left  to 
represent  Buffalo,  at  the  end  of  the  work  of  destruction, 
which  went  on  at  intervals  for  three  days. 

In  the  fighting  which  preceded  massacre  the  British  re- 
ported a  loss  of  31  killed,  72  wounded,  9  missing;  the  Amer- 
ican general  reported  about  30  killed,  40  wounded  and  69 
taken  prisoner.  Dr.  Chapin  was  among  the  prisoners  taken 
away. 

No  sooner  had  the  enemy  departed  than  a  few  fugitives 


30  BEGINNINGS 

returned  and  began  to  make  what  shift  they  could  for  tem- 
porary shelter  through  the  winter;  but  the  greater  number 
were  provisionally  quartered  at  Williamsville,  Willink,  Ba- 
tavia,  and  other  hospitable  places,  near  and  far.  The  winter 
was  one  of  suffering  and  of  constant  fear  of  fresh  savagery, 
along  the  whole  Niagara  frontier.  Liberal  help  came  from 
public  and  private  sources  to  relieve  the  needs  of  the  devas- 
tated region,  and  supplies  from  the  commissary  department 
of  the  army  were  furnished  for  a  time.  By  early  spring 
there  were  encouraging  tokens  of  a  resurrection  of  the 
stricken  town.  The  Salisburys  had  effected  a  timely  re- 
moval of  their  type  and  press  to  Harris  Hill,  and  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Gazette  went  on.  On  the  5th  of  April,  18  14, 
it  was  able  to  announce  that  Buffalo  village  "is  rising  again," 
and  to  say:  "Several  buildings  are  already  raised  and  made 
habitable.  Contracts  for  twenty  or  thirty  more  are  made, 
and  many  of  them  are  in  considerable  forwardness.  A 
brick  company  has  been  organized  by  an  association  of  the 
most  enterprising  and  public  spirited  citizens,  with  a  suf- 
ficient capital,  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the  price  of 
brick  so  reasonable  that  the  principal  streets  may  be  built 
up  of  that  article.  All  that  is  required  to  establish  Buffalo 
in  its  former  prosperity  is  ample  remuneration  from  govern- 
ment, and  peace."  Peace  came  within  the  year;  the  ample 
remuneration  from  government  to  indemnify  losses  in  the 
war  was  much  slower  in  coming;  and,  during  some  years  of 
the  renaissance  of  the  town,  there  was  hard  struggling  for 
its  new  footing  in  life. 

Tbe  immediate  rebuilding  that  went  on  in  1814  was  much 
stimulated  and  helped,  no  doubt,  bv  the  military  operations 
of  that  year.  Buffalo  became  the  center  of  action  in  Gen- 
eral Jacob  Brown's  campaign.  Excitements  were  plenty; 
regiments  were  coming  and  going;  business  of  several  kinds 
must  have  thrived.     The  capture  of  Fort  Erie,  the  battles 


JUDGE  SAMUEL  WILKESON  3  I 

of  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane,  the  long  siege  and  the 
heroic  deliverance  of  Fort  Erie,  in  which  General  Porter 
had  so  brilliant  a  part,  filled  the  summer  with  great  events, 
enacted  under  the  eye  of  the  people  of  the  town. 

Buffalo  was  rarely  fortunate  in  one  or  two  accessions  to 
its  citizenship  at  this  time.  As  a  Chautauqua  County  mil- 
itiaman, Samuel  Wilkeson  had  been  here  on  the  memorable 
30th  of  December,  and  had  stood  and  fought  manfully  in 
defence  of  the  town.  The  next  spring  he  came  again,  to 
stay,  bringing  his  family  by  lake,  on  a  boat  which  brought 
also  the  frames  and  other  makings  of  a  house  and  a  store. 
House  and  store  were  soon  put  together  and  occupied,  and 
the  quality  of  the  new  citizen  was  recognized  so  quickly  that, 
almost  at  once,  he  was  asked  to  serve  as  a  justice  of  the 
peace.  He  was  the  kind  of  man  needed  in  the  office  at  that 
time,  to  put  restraints  on  a  lot  of  lawless  characters  which 
the  war  had  added  to  its  other  evil  gifts  to  the  place.  He 
did  what  was  expected  of  him,  in  a  way  that  was  never  for- 
gotten, and  was  called  Judge  Wilkeson  thereafter,  to  the 
end  of  his  days.  As  one  of  his  sons  wrote  in  after  years,  "he 
swept  Buffalo  clean  of  the  lees  of  the  war." 

In  Judge  Wilkeson's  "Recollections,"  which  he  put  in 
writing  for  publication  in  a  Cincinnati  journal,  1842-3,  and 
which  are  reprinted  in  the  publications  of  the  Buffalo  His- 
torical Society,  he  describes  the  conditions  that  he  found  at 
Buffalo  when  he  came  to  it,  in  1814.  "The  war  which  had 
swept  over  the  Niagara  frontier,"  he  says,  "had  impover- 
ished the  inhabitants  of  tbe  little  place  that  has  since  grown 
into  the  City  of  the  Lakes.  Their  property  had  been  de- 
stroyed,— they  were  embarrassed  by  debts  contracted  in 
rebuilding  their  houses  which  had  been  burned  by  the 
enemy;  they  were  without  capital  to  prosecute  to  advantage 
mechanical  or  mercantile  employments;  without  a  harbor, 
or  any  means  of  participating  in  the  lake  trade,  and  were 


32  BEGINNINGS 

suffering,  with  the  country  at  large,  all  the  evils  of  a  de- 
ranged currency.  In  the  midst  of  these  accumulated  em- 
barrassments, the  construction  of  the  Erie  Canal  was  begun, 
and  promised  help."  No  other  man  seems  to  have  done  so 
much  as  the  writer  of  these  words  to  lift  the  little  resurrected 
community  out  of  the  state  they  describe.  His  energetic 
agency  in  making  a  harbor  for  the  town,  and  thereby  secur- 
ing to  it  the  commerce  that  would  come  with  the  coming  of 
"the  Grand  Canal,"  was  a  contribution  to  its  prosperity 
which  exceeded  that  from  any  other  man.  There  will  be 
much  to  say  of  him  hereafter  on  this  point. 

The  building  of  the  Erie  Canal,  under  discussion  since 
1807,  became  an  adopted  undertaking  in  [817,  and  work  on 
it  was  begun  in  July  of  that  year.  There  were  eight  years 
of  waiting  for  its  waters  to  reach  the  lake;  but  the  expecta- 
tion of  it  was  stimulating;  each  lengthening  of  its  navigable 
channel,  as  the  work  advanced,  increased  the  commerce  be- 
tween East  and  West,  and  all  business  was  helped. 

Meantime  the  re-growth  of  Buffalo  went  steadily  on. 
New  men  of  importance  to  its  future  came  to  it  in  1815. 
Albert  II.  Tracy,  who  rose  rapidly  to  a  high  standing  in 
public  life  and  at  the  bar;  Dr.  John  E.  Marshall,  whose  per- 
sonal value  to  the  town  was  enhanced  hv  that  of  the  son 
whom  he  gave  to  it;  David  M  Day.  who  came  to  found  a 
second  newspaper,  the  Niagara  Journal,  which  appeared 
in  the  spring  of  that  year.  In  the  following  July  the  Ga- 
zette was  able  to  say  that  nearly  as  many  houses  as  the 
British  had  burned  were  finished  already  or  being  built. 
A  new  court  house  was  begun  the  following  spring.  In 
1817  a  post-office  was  established  at  Black  Rock. 

The  year  18 18  brought  several  important  events;  among 
them  the  building  at  Black  Rock,  by  capitalists  from  New- 
York,  of  the  first  steamer  put  afloat  on  Lake  Erie,  or  on  any 
of  the  upper  lakes.     She  took  her  queer  but  appropriate 


THE  FIRST  STEAMBOAT  33 

name,  of  "Walk-in-the-Water,"  from  a  Wyandotte  or  Huron 
chief.  The  first  experience  of  the  little  steamer  when  com- 
pleted, in  August,  gave  a  grave  intimation  that  Black  Rock 
would  not  be  able  to  retain  its  past  standing,  as  the  port  of 
commerce  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Erie;  for  the  Walk-in-the- 
Water  could  not  stem  the  swift  current  of  the  Niagara,  and 
had  to  be  dragged  by  oxen,  as  sail  vessels  were,  up  to  still 
water  in  the  lake.  This  helped,  no  doubt,  to  rouse  deter- 
mination in  the  Buffalonians  that  their  natural  deprivation 
of  a  harbor  should  be  overcome  by  artificial  means.  It  had 
now  become  manifest  that  Black  Rock  would  outgrow  their 
town  if  this  were  not  done;  for  the  coming  canal  would  ter- 
minate there,  unless  a  sheltered  port  at  Buffalo  could  be 
offered  to  the  shipping  of  the  lakes.  The  Canal  Commis- 
sioners had  reported  that  they  found  it  expedient  to  connect 
the  canal  with  Lake  Erie  through  Buffalo  Creek,  rather 
than  through  the  Niagara;  but  this  conclusion  hinged  upon 
the  creation  of  a  "safe  harbor,  capable,  without  much  ex- 
pense, of  sufficient  enlargement  for  the  accommodation  of 
all  boats  and  vessels  that  a  very  extensive  trade  may  hereafter 
require."  This  gave  the  start  to  an  undertaking  which  be- 
came, in  the  course  of  the  next  few  years,  nothing  less  than 
heroic  and  extraordinary  on  the  part  of  a  few  men,  Judge 
Wilkeson  inspiring  and  leading  them  all.  The  story  of  the 
achievement  will  have  its  proper  place  when  the  develop- 
ment of  the  present  grand  harbor  at  Buffalo  is  traced  as  a 
whole. 

The  appearance  which  Buffalo  presented  in  that  year, 
1 8 1 8,  has  been  described  by  one  who  visited  it,  in  May. 
The  visitor  was  Millard  Fillmore,  afterward  President  of 
the  United  States.  He  was  a  youth  of  eighteen  years,  and 
had  been  teaching  a  country  school  during  the  previous  win- 
ter, at  the  head  of  Skaneateles  Lake.  Three  years  before 
his  death  Mr.  Fillmore,  on  the  request  of  the  Buffalo  His- 


34  BEGINNINGS 

torical  Society,  wrote  a  sketch  of  autobiography,  coming 
down  to  1830,  which  he  deposited  with  the  society,  under 
seal,  not  to  be  opened  during  his  life.  In  this  sketch  he 
says,  of  the  time  mentioned  above:  "After  my  school 
closed,  finding  nothing  better  to  turn  my  hand  to,  I  attended 
a  saw-mill  for  a  month  or  two,  and  then  shouldered  my 
knapsack  and  came  out  to  Buffalo,  to  visit  some  relatives 
and  see  the  country.  That  was  in  May,  181 8,  and  Buffalo 
then  presented  a  straggling  appearance.  It  was  just  rising 
from  the  ashes,  and  there  were  many  cellars  and  chimneys 
without  houses,  showing  that  its  destruction  by  the  British 
had  been  complete.  My  feet  had  become  blistered,  and  I 
was  sore  in  every  joint  and  muscle;  and  I  suffered  intensely. 
I  crossed  the  then  Indian  reservation  to  Aurora,  and  recol- 
lect a  long  rotten  causeway  of  logs  extending  across  the  low 
ground  from  Seneca  Street  nearly  to  the  creek,  over  which 
1  paddled  myself  in  a  canoe.  I  stayed  all  night  at  a  kind  of 
Indian  tavern  about  six  miles  from  Buffalo." 

\mong  the  relatives  in  this  region  whom  young  Millard 
Fillmore  came  to  visit  was  an  uncle,  the  Rev.  Glezen  Fill- 
more, a  Methodist  minister,  who  had  been  preaching  in  the 
neighboring  towns  since  [809,  but  who  was  appointed  this 
year  to  a  regular  circuit  which  included  Buffalo  and  Black 
Rock.  There  was  no  church  building  yet  in  the  town;  re- 
ligious services  were  held  in  the  court  house  and  in  the  small 
house  that  was  used  for  a  school.  The  Methodists  in  Buf- 
falo numbered  only  four;  but  Mr.  Fillmore  determined  that 
a  meeting-house  should  be  built.  With  help  from  Joseph 
Ellicott  and  from  New  York  the  needed  money  was  raised, 
and  the  first  of  Buffalo  churches  was  dedicated  early  in  1819. 
In  that  year  the  boundary  line  between  Canada  and  the 
United  States,  as  prescribed  by  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  was 
run  through  Niagara  River,  under  commissioners  of  whom 
General  Porter  was  one,  and  by  surveyors  of  whom  Colonel 


THE  FIRST  DAILY  MAIL  35 

William  A.  Bird  (who  became  resident  at  Black  Rock)  was 
the  chief. 

General  Porter,  in  the  next  year,  was  wedded  to  a  lady 
of  the  Breckenridge  family  in  Kentucky,  who  brought  five 
young  slaves  to  her  new  home.  Under  the  New  York  law 
of  1 8 1 8,  which  gradually  extinguished  slavery  in  the  State, 
they  would  become  free  when  they  reached  the  age  of 
twenty-five.  Evidently  these  were  not  the  first  slaves  on  our 
soil,  for  the  Gazette  of  January  27,  1818,  had  advertised 
one  for  sale, — "a  young,  healthy  black  woman  and  child," 
who  "understands  all  kinds  of  house-work  and  cooking,  and 
is  perfectly  honest." 

In  1820  the  inhabitants  of  Buffalo  and  Black  Rock  wel- 
comed their  first  daily  mail  from  the  East.  In  a  paper  read 
long  afterwards  to  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society,  Judge 
Nathan  K.  Hall,  who  had  been  Postmaster-General,  it  will 
be  remembered,  in  President  Fillmore's  administration,  de- 
scribed the  arrangements  of  the  Post-office  Department  for 
that  daily  service  between  Buffalo  and  New  York,  as  it  was 
carried  on  from  1820  to  1824.  Giving  the  schedule  time 
from  point  to  point  on  the  route,  he  concluded  the  statement 
by  saying:  "It  will  thus  be  seen  that  a  letter  which  left 
New  York  on  Monday  morning  at  9  o'clock  would  reach 
this  city  at  6  o'clock  the  next  Sunday  evening,  and  Erie  three 
days  later,  if  the  mails  were  not  behind  time.  This  fre- 
quently happened  in  bad  weather." 

It  was  not  until  1820  that  the  second  church  building  in 
Buffalo  was  erected  by  the  Episcopalian  Society  of  St.  Paul. 
In  1 82 1  the  county  of  Erie,  as  now  existent,  was  set  off  from 
Niagara  County;  Joseph  Ellicott  (long  resident  at  Batavia, 
and  taking  little  part  in  Buffalo  affairs)  resigned  the  agency 
of  the  Holland  Purchase;  the  Walk-in-the- Water  steamboat 
was  driven  ashore  in  a  storm  and  wrecked.  In  1823  the 
great  question  of  the  western  terminus  of  the  Erie  Canal  was 


36  BEGINNINGS 

decided  in  favor  of  Buffalo,  a  sufficient  channel  for  the  ship- 
ping of  the  day  having  been  opened  from  its  creek. 

This  brings  us  to  the  year  of  years  in  the  early  history  of 
the  city, — the  year  of  the  opening  of  the  great  canal  through- 
out its  length, — the  year  1825.  "Buffalo  in  1825"  was  the 
subject  of  a  proud  description  that  year,  in  a  historical  and 
statistical  pamphlet,  printed  by  H.  A.  Salisbury  and  written 
and  published  by  S.  Ball.  Time  has  made  his  statistics 
more  interesting  than  the  writer  could  have  expected  them 
ever  to  be.      I  must  afford  space  for  a  selected  few: 

The  census  of  the  previous  January  had  found  2,412  in- 
habitants in  the  village  on  the  Creek,  and  1,039  at  Black 
Rock.  In  the  former  population  there  were  counted  4 
clergymen,  17  attorneys,  9  physicians,  3  printers,  giving  em- 
ployment to  10  hands,  2  bookbinders,  4  goldsmiths,  51  car- 
penters and  joiners,  19  masons  and  stone  cutters,  7  black- 
smiths, etc..  etc.;  but  the  lack  of  a  single  shipwright  was 
remarked  with  surprise  and  regret.  Trade  was  now  sup- 
porting 26  dry-goods  stores,  36  groceries,  7  dealers  in  cloth- 
ing, 3  in  hats,  6  in  shoes,  4  in  drugs,  3  in  jewelry,  1  in  hard- 
ware, n  hooks.  Manufacturing  industry  was  represented 
by  3  tanneries,  1  rope-walk,  1  brewery.  The  village  could 
now  offer  "1  1  houses  of  public  entertainment"  to  the  bodily 
man,  with  a  public  library,  a  reading  room  and  a  theatre  for 
the  entertainment  of  his  mind.  The  Presbyterians  had 
added  a  meeting  house  to  the  two  mentioned  heretofore,  and 
two  new  religious  societies,  of  Baptists  and  Universalists, 
had  been  formed.  A  bank  had  come  into  existence;  an  in- 
surance office  had  been  opened,  and  the  weekly  journals  (one 
religious)  had  increased  to  four.  Of  shipping  that  belonged 
to  the  port  1,050  tons  were  reported,  including  1  steamboat, 
1  brig,  3  schooners,  1  sloop,  and  4  "transportation  boats," 
averaging  25  tons  each ;  but,  says  the  reporter,  "there  are  up- 
wards of  60  sail  of  good,  substantial  and  safe  vessels  owned 


OPENING  OF  THE  ERIE  CANAL  37 

upon  this  lake,  42  of  which  entered  this  port  last  season." 
"There  are  also,"  he  adds,  "9  regular  lines  of  stages  arriving 
and  leaving  here  every  day;  3  to  the  east,  3  to  the  north,  and 
a  morning  and  evening  line  to  Black  Rock  (meeting  and 
transferring  their  passengers  to  a  stage  from  the  Canada 
shore),  and  1  to  the  west;  the  carriages  are  principally  post 
coaches."  "There  is  also  the  steam  brig  'Superior,'  of  346 
tons  burthen,  whose  accommodations  have  not  been  sur- 
passed, making  a  trip  to  Detroit,  a  distance  of  nearly  300 
miles,  every  8  or  9  days." 

Such  was  the  town  of  Buffalo,  and  such  the  measure  of 
lake  commerce,  when  the  second  epoch  of  their  history  was 
opened  for  both  by  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal.  It  was 
not  a  bad  showing  of  growth,  under  adverse  conditions,  for 
the  town  which  had  been  destroyed  twelve  years  before.  To 
the  writer  of  this  pamphlet  of  1825  the  future  of  the  town 
was  not  dazzling  in  prospect,  but  full  of  promise  and  hope. 
His  view  was  remarkably  sane.  "That  it  will,  at  no  very 
remote  period,"  he  wrote,  "rival  the  largest  inland  town  in 
America,  in  point  of  business  and  opulence,  seems  to  be  a 
point  conceded;  but  that  it  will  mature  with  the  rapidity  of 
a  mushroom,  or  rise  in  magnificence  like  the  enchanted 
palace  (as  many  imagine),  I  am  not  credulous  enough  to 
believe." 

On  the  26th  of  October  the  Erie  Canal  was  opened  to 
Lake  Erie  with  ceremonies  as  imposing  as  they  could  be 
made.  Governor  De  Witt  Clinton,  with  committees  of  dis- 
tinguished men  from  other  parts  of  the  State,  had  come  to 
Buffalo,  to  take  passage  back  on  the  first  boat  that  would 
traverse  the  full  length  of  the  canal.  On  the  morning  of  the 
26th  they  were  escorted  in  procession  to  a  handsomely  fitted 
packet-boat,  the  "Seneca  Chief,"  where  brief  addresses  were 
made,  by  Mr.  Jesse  Hawley,  who  had  been  the  first  (as  early 
as  1807)  to  advocate  the  building  of  a  canal  the  full  length 


38  BEGINNINGS 

of  the  State,  and  by  Judge  Forward,  who  spoke  for  the  town. 
At  ten  o'clock  the  "Seneca  Chief,"  drawn  by  four  grey 
horses,  slipped  from  her  wharf  and,  leading  three  other  boats 
in  procession,  started  on  her  memorable  voyage.  That  mo- 
ment a  cannon  was  fired;  an  instant  later  the  faint  sound  of 
another  report  was  heard  from  far  down  the  canal;  and  so 
the  starting  of  the  Governor's  boat  was  signalled  from  gun 
to  gun,  planted  at  proper  distances  apart,  till  the  inarticulate 
announcement  reached  Albany,  and  a  responsive  signal  came 
hack.  The  telctonic  message  (if  we  may  call  it  so)  was 
three  hours  and  twenty  minutes  in  making  its  circuit  of 
sonic  seven  hundred  miles. 

Further  speeches  in  the  court  house,  banquets  at  the  two 
leading  taverns  and  a  grand  ball  in  the  evening  completed 
the  celebration  of  the  day  at  Buffalo;  but,  some  time  later, 
a  committee  which  had  accompanied  the  Governor  to  New 
York  brought  water  from  the  ocean  and  it  was  poured  into 
the  lake,  with  a  degree  of  ceremony  that  expressed  the  real 
ecstasy  of  feeling  which  so  pregnant  an  event  might  reason- 
ably excite. 


CHAPTER   II 

IN  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS: 

1825-1850 

THE  effect  upon  Buffalo  of  the  opening  of  the  Erie 
Canal  appears  to  have  been  all  that  people  as  reason- 
able as  the  pamphlet-writer,  Mr.  Ball,  could  expect. 
It  did  not  flood  the  port  with  a  sudden  great  access  of  com- 
merce; because  the  western  country,  to  and  from  which  the 
streams  of  lake  and  canal  trade  would  flow  abundantly  in 
due  time,  had  first  to  be  furnished  with  the  people  who 
could  buy  and  sell.  The  primary  business  of  the  canal  was 
to  bring  such  people  forward  from  the  East,  and  deliver 
them  to  the  shipping  of  the  lakes,  for  carriage  to  all  the 
shores  from  which  they  might  spread  over  the  empty  North- 
west. How  empty  the  lake-bordering  regions  of  the  North- 
west were  at  this  time  may  be  judged  from  a  few  statistical 
facts. 

The  most  populous  part  of  the  lake  border  was  between 
Buffalo  and  Cleveland,  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie; 
but  even  there  the  settlement  was  still  scant.  Erie,  the 
Presque  Isle  post  of  the  French  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  had  been,  thus  far,  the  most  important 
port  on  the  lake;  but  west  of  it  there  was  nothing  that  could 
contribute  much  to  trade.  Ohio  had  acquired  at  this  time  a 
considerable  population,  but  gathered  almost  wholly  in  its 
southern  half,  brought  into  the  State  by  the  river  route;  and 
the  settlement  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  was  proceeding  along 
the  same  lines, — by  the  Ohio  River  to  the  Mississippi,  and 
distributed  along  the  tributaries  of  those  great  streams. 
Cleveland  had  but  600  inhabitants  in  1820,  and  the  number 
would  not  grow  to  1,000  till  ten  years  from  that  time.  To- 
ledo and  Milwaukee  had  no  existence  even  in  name.     Chi- 

39 


40  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

cago  was  represented  by  the  military  post  of  Fort  Dearborn, 
and,  as  described  by  Major  Long  in  1823,  by  a  "few  huts, 
inhabited  by  a  miserable  race  of  men,  scarcely  equal  to  the 
Indians,  from  whom  they  are  descended."  Detroit,  as  a 
French  settlement,  was  old,  and  it  had  been  an  actually  in- 
corporated city  since  1815;  but  its  population  in  1820  was 
but  1,442,  increasing  in  the  next  decade  to  2,222.  The  back 
country  of  Michigan  was  so  bare  of  white  inhabitants  that 
the  census  of  1820  had  counted  in  the  whole  territory  but 
8,591.  By  1830  the  count  had  risen  to  31,346;  and  most  of 
the  increase  must  have  been  in  the  last  half  of  the  decade. 
Judge  Cooler,  in  his  volume  on  Michigan  in  the  series  of  the 
"American  Commonwealths,"  says  of  the  opening  of  the 
Erie  Canal  that  it  was  "the  great  event  of  the  period,  which 
had  most  to  do  with  giving  sudden  impetus  to  the  growth  of 
Michigan.  It  was  not  long  after  this  before  steamers  were 
abundant  on  the  lakes,  no  less  than  seven  on  Lake  Erie  in 
1826,  and  four  years  thereafter  a  daily  line  was  running  be- 
tween Buffalo  and  Detroit."  Illinois  had  acquired  a  popu- 
lation of  157,000  by  1S50,  but  it  was  spread,  says  Ford's 
history  of  the  State,  "north  from  Alton  as  far  as  Peoria, 
principally  on  the  rivers  and  creeks,"  and  "a  large  wilder- 
ness tract  was  still  to  be  peopled  between  Chicago  and 
Galena." 

There  were  not  many  people,  it  will  be  seen,  in  the  lake 
region  of  the  West,  to  trade  with,  when  the  Erie  Canal  was 
opened;  and,  excepting  furs,  they  had  almost  no  product  to 
spare.  They  could  not  yet  raise  food  sufficient  for  them- 
selves, and  were  receiving  supplies  of  breadstuff's  from  east- 
ern points.  Before  Buffalo  could  handle  much  commerce 
between  canal  and  lake  it  would  have  to  give  attention  to 
westward  emigration,  and  that  was  its  principal  and  most 
profitable  business  for  the  next  few  years.  The  multiplica- 
tion of  steamboats  between  Buffalo  and  Detroit  from  one  to 


THE   TIDE  OF   WESTERN    EMIGRATION  41 

seven,  in  1826,  shows  how  quickly  the  stream  began  to  flow. 
By  1830  the  arrival  of  emigrants  at  Detroit  was  put  at  15,000 
for  the  year.  By  1836  they  were  flooding  that  distributing 
town.  In  Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  it  is  said  of  that 
year  that  "a  careful  estimate  in  June  by  a  citizen  showed 
that  one  wagon  left  the  city  every  five  minutes  during  the 
twelve  hours  of  daylight;"  and  "there  was  an  average  of 
three  steamboats  a  day,  with  from  200  to  300  passengers 
each." 

Evidently  it  was  the  business  incident  to  this  movement 
of  people  from  the  East  to  the  West,  more  than  anything 
derived  from  new  commercial  interchanges,  that  raised  the 
population  of  Buffalo  in  1830  to  8,668,  and  to  15,661  in  1835. 
No  statistics  of  that  passenger  movement  on  the  canal  are  to 
be  found;  but,  as  late  as  1833,  the  freight  shipments  from 
Buffalo  by  canal,  as  measured  by  the  collection  of  tolls,  were 
far  below  those  at  Rochester  and  Syracuse. 

In  some  interesting  reminiscences  recorded  not  long  be- 
fore his  death  by  Mr.  James  L.  Barton,  son  of  Benjamin 
Barton,  of  the  early  transportation  firm  of  Porter,  Barton  & 
Co.,  he  relates  that  in  the  spring  of  1827  he  came  to  Buffalo 
from  Black  Rock  and  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge 
Wilkeson  in  the  forwarding  business,  which  they  carried  on 
together  for  two  years.  The  Judge  then  retired  and  Mr. 
Barton  continued  the  business  for  a  few  years  more. 
"While  the  partnership  continued,"  wrote  Mr.  Barton,  "and 
afterwards  when  I  was  alone,  we  had  the  agency  of  a  large 
line  of  boats  on  the  canal  and  vessels  on  the  lake;  yet  so 
scarce  was  the  western  freight  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  a 
full  boat-load,  although  the  boats  were  then  of  light  tonnage. 
A  few  tons  of  freight  was  all  that  we  could  furnish  each 
boat  to  carry  to  Albany.  This  they  would  take  in  and  fill 
up  at  Rochester,  which  place,  situated  in  the  heart  of  the 
wheat-growing  district  of  Western  New  York,  furnished 


42  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

nearly  all  the  down  freight  that  passed  on  the  canal.  Thus 
we  lived  and  struggled  on  until  1830." 

The  commerce  of  large  fields  was  not  yet  creatable;  but 
local  trade  must  have  been  having  a  rapid  growth;  for  the 
neighboring  country  was  fast  filling  with  people.  Erie 
County  in  1825  had  24,310  inhabitants;  in  1830  they  num- 
bered 35,710;  in  1835  they  were  increased  to  57,594.  The 
advance  of  settlement  in  the  county  was  promoted  greatly  in 
1826  by  a  purchase  from  the  Senecas  of  large  tracts  from  the 
south  and  east  sides  of  their  Buffalo  Creek  Reservation, 
amounting  to  a  total  of  33,637  acres  of  land.  At  the  same 
time  the  Senecas  sold  considerable  parts  of  their  Tonawanda 
and  Cattaraugus  reservations  to  the  same  purchasers,  a  com- 
bination called  the  Ogden  Company,  who  marketed  the 
land. 

Thus  far  in  its  history  Buffalo  had  had  no  citizen  whose 
celebrity  in  the  world  equals  that  of  \{c*\  Jacket,  the 
Seneca  orator,  whose  cabin,  on  the  edge  of  the  Indian  reser- 
vation, was  within  the  present  limits  of  the  city.  His  sad 
intemperance  had  robbed  him  of  his  impressive  dignity  and 
lowered  him  in  the  esteem  of  his  own  people,  as  well  as  in 
that  of  the  whites;  but  his  death,  in  1830,  took  a  notable 
figure  from  the  town.  It  left  no  name  or  personage  in  the 
place  that  was  or  would  he  of  wide  fame.  But  another  was 
soon  given;  for  Millard  Fillmore  came  from  East  Aurora 
to  Buffalo  that  year,  to  pursue  the  practice  of  law.  Since 
his  visit  of  twelve  years  before  Mr.  Fillmore  had  struggled 
through  a  trying  period  of  legal  study,  supporting  himself 
by  school  teaching  and  other  labors,  and  had  practiced  the 
profession  at  East  Aurora  since  1823.  In  Buffalo  he  entered 
at  first  into  partnership  with  Joseph  Clary;  but  in  1834  Mr. 
Nathan  K.  Hall,  who  had  been  a  student  in  his  office  at 
Aurora,  became  his  partner,  and,  two  years  later,  the  famous 
law  firm  of  Fillmore,   Hall  &  Haven  was  formed.     All 


THE  CHOLERA  OF   1832  43 

three  members  of  the  firm  were  subsequently  connected  with 
the  government  of  the  United  States  at  the  same  time,  Mr. 
Fillmore  as  President,  Mr.  Hall  as  Postmaster-General 
(and  eventually  as  a  Justice  of  the  United  States  District 
Court),  and  Mr.  Solomon  G.  Haven  as  the  Representative 
of  this  district  in  Congress. 

In  one  of  the  volumes  of  the  publications  of  our  Histor- 
ical Society,  Mr.  Ismar  S.  Ellison  has  told  us  that  the  first 
considerable  immigration  of  Germans  into  Buffalo  began  in 
1828,  and  that  the  arrivals  in  that  and  a  few  following  years 
gave  the  city  a  number  of  its  most  honored  German  names. 
It  was  then  that  the  Urbans,  Beyers,  Hauensteins,  Greiners, 
Mesmers,  Goetzes,  Haberstros,  Feldmans  and  Dellenbaughs 
made  their  homes  here.  Of  the  political  emigration  from 
Germany  in  1848  Buffalo  does  not  seem  to  have  received 
much;  but  considerable  numbers  came  during  1839  and  a 
little  after,  in  consequence  of  religious  discontents  in  Prussia, 
as  will  be  told  in  a  future  chapter  of  church  history. 

Buffalo  became  a  chartered  city  in  1832,  and  its  first 
mayor  was  Dr.  Ebenezer  Johnson,  as  mentioned  heretofore. 
If  the  assumption  of  a  new  civic  dignity  afforded  pride  to 
the  community,  an  overwhelming  sorrow  and  fear  came 
with  it;  for  this  was  the  black  year  of  the  first  visitation  of 
Asiatic  cholera  to  the  western  world.  The  disease  was 
brought  into  America  in  May  or  June  by  English  emigrant 
ships  which  landed  their  passengers  at  Quebec.  Thence  it 
travelled  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  through  Lake  Ontario,  and 
so,  by  the  Niagara,  to  Buffalo,  whence  it  was  conveyed  to 
the  upper  lakes.  It  raged  in  this  city  through  most  of  the 
summer  weeks,  fought  with  most  valiantly,  by  every  method 
that  good  sense  could  suggest,  at  a  time  when  the  disease  was 
a  terrifying  mystery,  the  secret  of  its  nature  and  propagation 
unknown.  Four  courageous  and  able  men  took  on  them- 
selves the  trying  duties  of  a  board  of  health.     Thev  were 


44  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

the  mayor,  Dr.  Johnson,  acting  with  Roswell  W.  Haskins, 
Lewis  F.  Allen,  and  Dyre  Tillinghast,  assisted  with  equal 
courage  and  self-devotion  by  the  health-physician  of  the 
city,  Dr.  John  E.  Marshall,  and  by  an  undertaker  of  notable 
intrepidity,  Loring  Pierce,  who  seems  to  have  been  as  help- 
ful with  the  sick  as  with  the  dead. 

The  fourth  volume  of  the  publications  of  the  Buffalo  His- 
torical Societj  contains  a  vivid  account  of  the  pestilence  of 
1832,  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Lewis  F.  Allen,  who  tells  a  pa- 
thetic tale  in  connection  with  the  emergency  hospital  which 
was  established  with  promptitude  by  the  board  of  health: 
"Pierce  took  partial  charge,"  writes  Mr.  Allen,  "so  far  as 
moving  the  destitute  cholera  patients  into  it  and  supervising 
arrangements.  But  corpses  were  almost  daily  carried  out, 
and,  but  a  few  days  after  its  opening,  the  chief  nurse  and 
factotum  died.  That  was  a  calamity,  and  the  board  were 
appalled.  What  was  to  be  done?  After  casting  about  for 
one  to  refill  the  place,  Mr.  Pierce  found  a  stout,  good-look- 
ing, healthy  Irish  girl  of  five  and  twenty  years,  or  there- 
abouts, who  offered  her  services,  and  he  brought  her  to  the 
meeting  of  the  board.  She  looked  cheerful,  spoke  hope- 
fully, and  appeared  the  very  embodiment  of  health  and  good 
spirits.  When  asked  if  she  had  no  fears  of  the  disease  she 
answered  in  the  negative,  and  went  energetically  and  faith- 
fully to  work.  Within  the  space  of  four  days  afterwards 
that  cheerful,  kind,  devoted  girl  was  carried  out  of  the  hos- 
pital to  her  grave.  There  were  sad  hearts  in  the  board  of 
health  that  day.  Pierce  laid  her  shrouded  body  tenderly  in 
her  coffin,  and  gave  her  a  hurried  yet  respectful  burial  in 
the  High  Street  field  of  graves.  All  that  the  board  of  health 
knew  of  her  history  or  name,  was  'Bridget.'  ' 

Mr.  Allen  gives  no  statistics  of  mortality  from  the  cholera 
visitation,  but  Mr.  Crisfield  Johnson,  in  his  History  of  Erie 
County,  states  the  deaths  to  have  been  80  in  number  and  the 
total  of  cases  184. 


ACTIVITY  ON  THE  LAKES  45 

Without  consciousness  of  the  fact,  one  small  part  of  the 
city  was  obtaining  at  this  time  the  most  essential  safeguards 
against  intestinal  diseases  like  cholera,  by  the  distribution  to 
it  of  pure  water  through  pipes,  from  a  spring,  avoiding  the 
use  of  wells.  Since  1826  the  Buffalo  and  Black.  Rock  Jubi- 
lee Water  Works  Co.  had  been  laying  wooden  pipes  from 
the  Jubilee  Springs,  on  Delaware  Avenue  near  Cleveland 
Avenue,  and  in  1832  it  had  sixteen  miles  of  such  pipes  laid 
down. 

By  1834  Chicago  had  become  a  commercially  recog- 
nizable place.  The  sand  bar  at  the  mouth  of  its  river  had 
been  cut  through,  a  pier  had  been  built,  and  a  schooner,  for 
the  first  time,  sailed  into  the  port.  The  village  had  acquired 
a  newspaper,  the  Democrat,  which  announced  in  June  of 
that  year  that  "arrangements  have  been  made  by  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  steamboats  on  Lake  Erie,  whereby  Chicago 
is  to  be  visited  by  a  steamboat  from  Buffalo  once  a  week 
until  the  25th  of  August." 

The  flow  of  emigration  to  the  Northwest  was  now  swell- 
ing to  a  flood,  and  ship-building  on  the  lakes  was  taxed  to 
supply  the  demands  it  made.  In  1837,  according  to  the  Buf- 
falo Commercial  Advertiser  (then  in  the  third  year  of  its 
daily  publication) ,  there  were  forty-two  steamboats  in  active 
employment  on  Lake  Erie,  and  six  more  on  the  stocks.  In- 
dicating the  profits  of  steamboating  at  the  time,  it  was  said: 
"The  'James  Madison,'  a  splendid  boat,  left  here  a  few  days 
ago  for  Chicago.  The  Gazette,  printed  in  Erie,  where  the 
boat  is  owned,  says  she  will  clear  this  trip  $20,000." 

It  was  soon  after  this  time  (in  1839)  that  Captain  Augus- 
tus Walker  introduced  on  the  lakes  the  first  steamboat  con- 
structed with  an  upper  cabin.  It  was  regarded  as  a  perilous 
and  reckless  experiment,  most  people  expecting  so  top-heavy 
a  craft  to  "turn-turtle"  in  the  first  Lake  Erie  storm  she  had 
to  meet.    Captain  Walker's  "Great  Western,"  however,  soon 


46  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

silenced  her  critics,  and  offered  a  model  of  comfort  to  pas- 
sengers which  steamboat  builders  had  to  follow  thereafter. 

Since  1835  the  whole  country  had  been  yielding  itself  to 
the  orgy  of  land  speculation  which  had  its  ruinous  conse- 
quences in  the  great  collapse  of  1837-  In  another  work,  the 
present  writer  has  given  a  brief  account  of  that  national  dis- 
temper and  its  causes,  and  cannot  explain  the  experience  of 
it  in  Buffalo  better  than  by  some  quotation  from  his  former 
writing:  "Since  recovery  from  the  crisis  of  1819  [when  all 
business  had  been  stimulated  to  excess  after  the  three  stag- 
nant years  of  the  War  of  [812-14]  the  increase  in  population, 
the  spread  of  western  settlement,  the  rise  of  new  towns  and 
growth  of  older  cities,  the  eager  activity  of  public  and  pri- 
vate enterprise  in  every  field,  had  had  no  precedent  in  the 
modern  history  of  the  world.  They  had  been  stimu- 

lated immensely  by  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal  in 
1825,  and  quite  as  much,  perhaps,  by  the  rapid  multiplica- 
tion of  steamboats  on  rivers  and  lakes.  No  other  country  in 
the  world  had  utilized  the  steamboat  so  rapidly,  or  gained  so 
much  from  it;  for  no  other  had  such  waterways  opening  into 
such  expanses  of  undeveloped  land.  Railways,  with  steam 
locomotion,  had  their  beginning  in  1  830,  and  1,27;  miles  had 
been  built  in  the  United  States  within  the  next  six  years. 
In  the  rush  of  this  unparalleled  progress  it  is  not  at  all 
strange  that  even  sober-minded  people  lost  their  heads,  and 
saw  no  limit  to  the  continued  working  of  the  new  agencies 
of  travel  and  transportation  that  were  driving  it  on.  It 
seemed  possible  to  mark  a  thousand  spots  where  new  towns 
would  spring  up  in  the  next  few  years;  and  no  less  possible 
to  forecast  the  growth  of  existing  cities  and  towns. 

"It  was  just  at  the  time  when  this  fever  of  speculation  was 
prepared  for  by  the  circumstances  of  the  day  that  a  mis- 
chievous stimulant  was  given  to  it,  by  President  Jackson's 
removal   of   government   deposits   from    the    Bank   of   the 


"wild-cat"  banking  and  land  speculation       47 

United  States  to  a  large  number  of  State  banks.  For  a  short 
time,  while  the  change  was  going  on,  it  gave  business  a 
check ;  but  that  soon  passed  and  was  followed  by  quite  oppo- 
site effects.  Naturally  there  was  a  scramble  for  the  de- 
posits, and  a  fresh  output  of  State  charters  for  new  banks, 
soon  running  into  a  new  era  of  'wild-cat'  banking,  worse 
than  that  which  followed  the  War  of  1812.  Again  there 
was  an  inflated  and  depreciated  paper  currency,  an  inflated 
credit  system,  and  the  speculative  spirit  was  intoxicated  still 
more.  Then  came  another  measure  of  government  which 
helped  the  mischief  on.  The  last  of  the  public  debt  having 
been  extinguished  in  1836,  and  a  surplus  exceeding  $42,- 
000,000  having  accumulated  in  the  national  treasury,  an  act 
was  passed  which  ordered  the  distribution  of  all  but 
$5,000,000  of  this  surplus,  as  a  loan  without  interest,  in  four 
quarterly  instalments,  among  the  States.  The  prospect  of 
that  large  addition  to  funds  in  the  States,  for  all  sorts  of 
public  improvements  and  other  purposes,  gave  still  another 
impulse  to  speculation." 

For  reasons  which  have  been  indicated  already,  there  was 
probably  no  town  in  the  country  where  the  mania  of  the  time 
raged  more  extravagantly  than  in  BufTalo.  In  a  fine  paper, 
read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  in  1865, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  George  W.  Hosmer,  long  pastor  of  the  Uni- 
tarian Church,  described  the  local  stimulants  of  speculation 
in  those  wild  years:  "The  mania  of  speculation  here,"  he 
wrote,  "was  not  strange, — there  was  foundation  to  stand 
upon.  From  the  opening  of  the  canal,  in  1825,  there  was  a 
rush  of  western  emigration  through  Buffalo;  each  year  it 
grew  greater  than  before;  the  canal  was  crowded;  hotels  all 
full;  warehouses  groaned  under  their  burdens;  vessels  and 
steamers  could  not  be  built  fast  enough  for  the  demands  of 
business.  I  was  here  in  the  autumn  of  1835,  and  one  morn- 
ing I  was  at  the  dock,  with  many  other  strangers,  gazing 


48  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

upon  the  mighty  heaving  western  tide.  There  was'  a  pile  of 
goods  and  furniture  all  along  Joy  &  Webster's  wharf,  more 
than  thirty  feet  high,  and  upon  the  top  of  it  sat  as  many  as 
a  dozen  Senecas,  men  and  women,  they,  too,  with  the  rest  of 
us,  gazing  with  astonishment  at  this  sudden  flood  of  life 
sweeping  over  them,  coming  they  knew  not  whence,  and 
going  they  knew  not  whither.  It  was  marvellous!  Land 
was  wanted  ;  land  to  stand  upon,  land  to  speculate  with  ;  land 
was  gold!  And  then  it  seemed  that  all  the  opening  West 
was  to  come  with  its  harvest  contributions  floating  right  to 
Buffalo.  Railroads  then  were  not  much  thought  of  for 
carrying  freight.  To  this  point  came  the  lake, — from  this 
went  the  canal;  and  here  might  be  the  New  York  of  the 
West;  and  so  it  would  have  been,  but  for  the  coming  of  rail- 
roads to  compete  with  vessels  for  the  carrying  trade.  It  was 
not  strange  that  men  here  made  a  great  mistake, — got  wild 
with  hope.'' 

In  his  large-hearted  way,  the  Reverend  Doctor  goes  on  to 
say:  "I  love  to  think  what  those  men  of  Buffalo,  in  1835,  in 
their  great  hope,  meant  to  do  here.  The  merchants  were  to 
have  an  exchange  tilling  Clarendon  Square,*  with  a  tower- 
ing dome  22;  feet  above  the  pavement.  Commodore  Perry 
was  to  have  a  monument  of  white  marble  in  front  of  'the 
churches, 'f  one  hundred  feet  high,  with  graceful  carving, 
armorial  bearings  and  emblematic  statues.  Education  was 
to  have  the  University  of  Western  New  York,  with  magnifi- 
cent endowment,  and  the  foremost  men  of  the  country  in  its 
various  departments.  Xor  were  the  good  intents  all  on 
paper  merely;  one  of  the  wildest  of  the  hopers  did  actually 
start  a  free  public  school  for  sixty  scholars,  children  of  the 
poor,  and  kept  it  open  and  flourishing  for  several  years." 

Among  those  who  lived  through  that  period  of  delirium 

*  The  block  between  Main.  Washington,  North  and  South  Divisions  Streets. 
t  On  Main  Street,  between  Niagara  and  Erie  Streets. 


THE  CRAZE  OF  THE  SPECULATORS  49 

and  took  its  lessons  to  heart  was  Guy  H.  Salisbury,  the  de- 
lightfully wise  and  gentle-natured  son  of  Smith  H.  Salis- 
bury, the  pioneer  printer  and  journalist  of  these  parts.  In 
1863,  when  the  greenback,  inflation  of  an  irredeemable  cur- 
rency was  threatening  a  repetition  of  the  experience  of  1837, 
Guy  Salisbury  wrote  a  chapter  of  historical  warning,  in 
which  he  gave  some  particulars  of  the  "craze"  he  had  been 
witness  to  in  those  days.  "The  most  singular  feature  of  the 
speculative  mania,"  he  tells  us,  "was  the  blindness  that 
seemed  to  have  come  over  the  common  sagacity  of  men  who, 
in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  had  sense  enough  to  look  to 
their  own  interests.  They  purchased  land  of  persons  whose 
responsibility  was  often  unknown,  without  knowledge  of 
title  or  protection  against  prior  incumbrances.  Men  of 
straw  bought  blocks  on  credit,  giving  mortgages  for  the  pur- 
chase money,  and  then  sold  them  out  in  lots  with  no  pro- 
vision for  releases  from  the  lien  which  covered  the  whole. 
A  very  curious  illustration  of  the  recklessness  pro- 
duced by  the  wonderful  success  of  some  of  the  operators, 
who  fancied  their  luck  would  turn  everything  they  touched 
to  gold,  was  the  buying  out  of  individuals  by  the  lump,  with- 
out inventory  or  estimate,  which  was  gone  into  in  a  few  in- 
stances. 'I'll  give  you  $150,000  for  all  your  property,  ex- 
cept your  wife  and  babies  and  household  furniture,'  would 
be  the  bantering  proposition  over  a  bottle  of  champagne. 
'Done,'  says  the  other,  and  the  bargain  was  made.  The 
buyer  took  possession  of  the  lands,  tenements,  mortgages, 
notes,  book  accounts,  choses  in  action,  etc.,  and  paid  over  the 
small  amount  of  cash  agreed  on  for  the  down  payment,  giv- 
ing mortgage  security  on  the  property  for  the  balance.  *  *  * 
The  sad  sequel  to  the  career  of  that  wholesale  purchaser,  in 
the  transaction  above  referred  to,  remains  to  be  told.  I  met 
him  day  before  yesterday  on  his  way  to  the  poor-house,  with 
a  certificate  in  his  hand  from  the  Overseer  of  the  Poor,  en- 


50  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

titling  him  to  the  shelter  of  that  last  refuge  of  the  unfortu- 
nate! Yet  he  figured  in  '36  as  worth  three-quarters  of  a 
million ;  and  so  extensive  were  his  transactions  that  he  kept  a 
branch  office  in  New  York.  *  *  *  It  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that,  in  the  affluent  season  of  his  prosperity,  he  sup- 
ported for  five  years  a  free  school  for  orphan  boys  and  girls, 
of  whom  twelve  from  each  of  the  five  wards  of  the  city  had 
thus  the  privilege  of  a  good  education,  ami  were  furnished 
with  books  and  stationery  free  of  charge." 

The  person  referred  to  in  this  strikingly  dramatic  case 
was  Alanson  Palmer,  known  as  Colonel  Palmer  in  the  days 
of  his  glory,  when  he  travelled  in  a  six-horse  coach,  and  as 
"Lance"  Palmer  in  the  more  familiar  speech  of  later  days. 

Mr.  James  L.  Barton,  in  his  Reminiscences,  relates  an  in- 
cident of  his  own  experience  which  illustrates  the  intoxica- 
tion of  the  time.  He  was  the  owner  of  two  lots  at  Black 
Rock  which  cost  him  originally  $250,  but  which  he  thought 
to  be  worth  $3,000  in  the  fall  of  [835.  Early  in  1836  he- 
was  absent  from  the  city  for  a  few  weeks,  and,  on  the  morn- 
ing after  his  return,  he  was  met,  as  he  walked  down  Main 
Street,  by  three  men  in  succession  who  asked  what  he  would 
take  for  his  lots.  To  the  first  one  he  said  $6,000;  to  the  sec- 
ond $7,500;  to  the  third  one.  "$2O,O0O,  ten  per  cent,  down, 
the  balance  in  four  annual  payments."  "Saj  six  annual 
payments  and  I  will  take  it,"  said  the  latter;  and  the  bargain 
was  concluded  before  they  parted,  Mr.  Barton  receiving 
$2,000,  with  bond  and  mortgage  for  the  remainder.  The 
ultimate  of  the  transaction  he  does  not  disclose. 

The  king  of  the  speculators  was  Benjamin  Rathbun,  a 
man  described  as  Napoleonic  in  appearance  as  well  as  in 
action,  who  handled  large  affairs  in  a  powerful  way.  He 
began  his  career  in  Buffalo  as  landlord  of  the  Eagle  Tavern, 
to  which  he  gave  great  fame.  From  this  success  he  went  on 
to  enterprises  which  had  no  limit  so  long  as  the  bubble  of 


RATHBUN'S  CAREER  51 

inflated  expectation  and  credit  went  unpricked.  Says  Mr. 
Welch  in  his  "Recollections:"  "He  contracted  to  build 
houses,  stores,  factories  and  public  buildings,  which  he  ac- 
complished with  vigor  and  skill.  He  bought  lands  for 
building  purposes.  He  multiplied  his  industries  and  work- 
men. As  his  work  widened  out  he  brought  to  his  aid  the 
most  competent  and  skilled  assistants,  superintendents,  fore- 
men and  experts.  He  made  large  contracts  for  building 
materials,  opened  stone  quarries,  established  brick  yards, 
machine  shops,  and  several  stores  for  supplying  the  various 
needs  of  his  workmen,  as  well  as  those  of  the  public."  He 
owned  stage  lines,  and  introduced  a  grand  line  of  omnibuses 
on  Main  Street,  with  conductors  in  uniform.  "It  was  said 
that  at  his  failure  he  had  3,000  men  in  his  employ,  and  no 
partner.  This,  in  a  small  city  of  15,000  to  20,000  popula- 
tion, is  an  enormous  number,  relying  on  one  man's  uncer- 
tainties." 

Rathbun's  breakdown,  which  came  in  the  summer  of  1836, 
was  made  worse  by  the  discovery  that  he  had  been  staving 
it  off  recklessly  for  some  time  by  extensive  and  daring  for- 
geries of  endorsement  on  paper  upon  which  he  negotiated 
loans.  He  was  promptly  arrested,  but,  notwithstanding  the 
criminality  of  his  doings  and  the  wide-spread  distress  that 
his  failure  produced,  the  man  had  so  won  the  friendship  of 
his  fellow  citizens  that  it  seems  to  have  been  thought  useless 
to  bring  him  to  trial  in  Buffalo.  For  two  years  his  trial  was 
postponed  and  he  lay  in  jail.  Finally,  at  Batavia,  he  was 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  five  years. 
After  serving  his  term  he  went  to  New  York,  engaged  there 
in  hotel-keeping,  and  ended  his  life  in  a  prosperous  way. 

One  of  the  achievements  of  the  booming  enterprise  of  the 
time  was  a  railroad  from  Buffalo  to  Niagara  Falls,  opened 
in  the  fall  of  1836,  when  a  locomotive  was  seen  for  the  first 
time  in  this  part  of  the  world. 


52  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

Rathbun's  failure  brought  speculation  in  this  region  to  a 
halt  in  advance  of  the  general  collapse,  which  came  in  1837. 
The  prostration  that  ensued  was  greater  nowhere,  probably, 
than  here.  "We  tumbled,"  says  Mr.  Salisbury,  "from  the 
zenith  to  the  nadir — and  it  was  a  nine-days'  fall;"  and  he 
asks:  "Did  no  good  grow  out  of  all  this  evil?"  "There 
were,  indeed,  stately  edifices  built,  innumerable  stores,  ware- 
houses and  mammoth  hotels  erected,  canals  dug,  railroads 
projected,  ships  and  steamboats  put  afloat,  under  the  im- 
pulses of  '36,  which  remained  and  were  of  some  use  after. 
But  what  was  gained  by  this  precocity  of  growth?"  In  Mr. 
Salisbury's  view,  looking  at  the  "pecuniary  distress  and 
stagnation  of  business"  which  followed,  there  was  no  gain, 
even  remote.  For  a  few  years  Buffalo  must  have  been  at  a 
standstill  in  growth,  if  it  did  not  recede.  The  census  of 
1840  showed  only  a  population  of  18,215, — an  increase  of  a 
little  more  than  14  per  cent,  since  1835. 

The  depression  of  business  and  the  distresses  of  the  time 
were  not  allowed  to  stagnate  life  in  Buffalo  throughout  the 
whole  year  of  1837.  Excitements  in  plenty  were  stirred  up 
before  it  closed  by  the  rebellion  in  Canada,  most  commonly 
spoken  of  in  that  day  as  the  Patriot  War.  The  leaders  of 
the  discontented  Canadians,  failing  in  their  first  revolution- 
ary demonstrations,  on  Canadian  soil,  escaped  to  this  side  of 
the  boundary,  and  found  hosts  of  Americans  ready  to  lend 
some  help  and  abundant  sympathy  to  new  attempts. 

Buffalo  became  the  center  of  plotting  and  organizing  for 
a  serious  campaign.  William  Lyon  Mackenzie,  the  head 
and  front  of  the  revolt  in  Canada  West,  arrived  here  on  the 
nth  of  December,  1837,  and  was  received  with  warmth. 
Mass  meetings  gave  enthusiastic  expression  to  public  feeling 
in  favor  of  the  cause  for  which  he  spoke.  Volunteers  were 
enrolled,  arms  and  munitions  of  war  were  collected,  and 
Mackenzie,  with  a  small  following,  took  possession  of  Navy 


THE  PATRIOT  WAR  53 

Island,  on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  Niagara  channel,  to 
make  it  the  rendezvous  and  base  of  operations  for  the  de- 
liverance of  Canada  from  British  misrule.  A  provisional 
government,  headed  by  Mackenzie,  was  proclaimed;  public 
lands  and  bounties,  to  be  realized  at  a  future  day,  were 
offered  to  volunteers;  government  bills  were  issued  and  be- 
came current  to  some  extent  on  the  American  side.  Con- 
fidence in  the  undertaking  grew  fast,  and  a  patriot  force  was 
soon  assembled  on  the  island,  which  the  loyalists  on  the 
neighboring  shore,  at  Chippewa,  were  in  no  haste  to  attack. 

On  the  29th  of  December  a  little  steamer  named  the 
"Caroline"  was  hired  at  Buffalo  and  taken  down  the  river 
for  ferry  service  between  Navy  Island  and  Schlosser,  on  the 
American  shore.  She  made  two  trips  that  afternoon,  and 
that  was  the  end  of  her  service.  In  the  course  of  the  ensu- 
ing night  seven  boat-loads  of  armed  men  came  over  from 
Chippewa  and  made  a  successful  seizure  of  the  little 
steamer,  killing  one  man  in  the  melee,  towed  her  into  the 
middle  of  the  stream,  set  fire  to  her  and  sent  her  blazing 
down  the  rapids  and  over  the  great  Falls. 

Generally  in  the  country,  and  especially  on  this  border, 
there  was  great  excitement  over  this  invasion  of  American 
soil.  Public  clamor  for  angry  measures  by  the  government 
was  such  that  a  president  less  sensible  and  cool-headed  than 
Van  Buren  might  easily  have  been  pushed  into  action  that 
would  lead  to  war.  As  it  was,  the  situation  held  grave  dan- 
ger for  a  time,  and  not  merely  in  the  first  treatment  of  the 
affair,  but  three  years  afterward,  when  one  Alexander  Mc- 
Leod,  who  boasted  of  having  taken  part  in  the  seizure  of  the 
"Caroline,"  and  of  having  been  the  slayer  of  Amos  Durfee, 
the  single  victim  of  the  fight,  was  caught  on  the  American 
side  of  the  river,  imprisoned  and  tried. 

The  American  government  seems  to  have  acted  with 
proper  vigor  against  the  undertakings  of  the  rebellious  Ca- 


54  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

nadians  and  their  sympathizers  within  its  jurisdiction. 
General  Scott  was  sent  to  the  frontier,  and  a  brigade  of  New 
York  State  militia  was  called  out.  Further  reinforcement 
of  the  Patriots  on  Navy  Island  from  this  side  of  the  river 
was  stopped.  No  effective  rising  in  Canada  invited  them 
to  the  other  shore,  and  they  evacuated  the  island  on  the  14th 
of  January,  after  holding  it  a  month.  Some  further  at- 
tempts at  mere  raiding  into  Canada  were  made  in  this  region 
during  the  next  few  weeks,  by  small  bands,  which  planned 
to  cross  the  frozen  lake  where  it  narrows,  near  the  foot;  but 
they  were  all  broken  up,  and  Buffalo  soon  ceased  to  be  a 
center  of  interest  in  the  Patriot  War. 

Once  more,  however,  in  the  summer  of  1838,  a  daring 
company  went  over  from  Schlosser  to  Navy  Island,  and 
thence  to  Chippewa,  from  which  point  they  marched  a  few 
miles  into  the  bowels  of  the  land,  burned  a  tavern  and  cap- 
tured a  detachment  of  lancers;  but  this  intrepid  army  was 
composed  of  but  twenty-four  Canadians  and  one  American 
youth.  The  people  they  wished  to  deliver  would  not  rally 
to  their  support,  and  they  were  forced  to  break  ranks  and  fly. 
Most  of  them  suffered  capture,  and  some  were  condemned 
to  long  captivity  in  the  penal  colony  of  Van  Dieman's  Land. 
Some  years  afterward,  one  of  the  latter  number,  Benjamin 
Wait,  published  his  experience  in  a  little  book  which  was 
classic  for  a  generation  in  this  part  of  the  world. 

During  the  next  three  years  there  were  secret  filibustering 
societies,  called  Hunter  Lodges,  in  a  number  of  American 
towns,  which  occasionally  found  an  opportunity  to  seize  and 
burn  a  Canadian  steamer,  to  the  cry  of  "Remember  the 
Caroline,"  or  to  commit  some  other  wanton  and  useless  out- 
rage on  the  Canadian  border.  It  was  not  till  after  the  trial 
and  acquittal  of  McLeod,  in  October,  1841,  that  such  sput- 
terings  of  the  Patriot  War  were  entirely  stopped. 

Despite  the  recent  crash  of  business,  the  loss  of  manv  for- 


THE  TOWN   IN  THE  FORTIES  55 

tunes,  and  undoubtedly  "hard  times"  in  general,  there  was 
no  lack  of  animation  in  the  social  life  of  these  days.  It  is 
pleasantly  pictured  in  a  paper  contributed  to  the  eighth  vol- 
ume of  the  publications  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  by 
Mrs.  Martha  Fitch  Poole,  who  came  to  Buffalo  in  1835. 
She  describes  Buffalo  as  she  saw  it  then:  "Indians  walked 
the  street  in  blankets  and  moccasins,  cows  were  grazing  at 
the  roadsides,  and  pigs  roamed  at  their  own  sweet  will,  only 
kept  out  of  beautiful  gardens  by  stout  fences,  usually  of  the 
picket  variety.  Yet  Buffalo  was  a  very  beautiful  city,  not- 
withstanding. There  was  little  or  nothing  to  pull  down, 
and  buildings  of  the  better  sort  were  rapidly  filling  up  the 
open  spaces.  The  elegance  with  which  the  city  was  laid  out, 
though  the  area  was  limited  at  that  time,  was  ever  admired. 
It  was  noted  for  the  magnificent  trees  that  bordered  every 
street  and  lane,  while  the  views  of  river  and  lake,  uninter- 
rupted for  miles  by  the  smoke  of  railroads  or  business  struc- 
tures, were  superb.  Birds  sang  from  morning  till  night  in 
the  most  populous  sections  of  the  city,  and  such  gardens  of 
flowers  and  nurseries  of  fruit-trees  in  this  locality  as  could 
then  be  seen  are  things  of  the  past. 

"Buffalo  was  a  bustling  business  place  eight  months  of 
the  year,  say  from  April  to  December.  The  other  four  were 
given  up  quite  generally  to  social  enjoyment.  The  winter 
of  1 836- 1 837  was  the  coldest  and  the  longest  I  have  ever  ex- 
perienced. Navigation  did  not  open  until  the  end  of  May, 
and  the  ice  did  not  entirely  disappear  from  the  lake  until 
June  10th.  We  were  literally  ice-bound  that  winter,  and  as 
there  were  no  means  of  transportation  except  by  stage-coach 
or  sleighing,  everybody  stayed  at  home,  contributing  to  the 
general  pleasure.  Buffalo  was  at  this  time  preeminently  a 
social  center.  The  guests  were  often  not  a  few  from  Ba- 
tavia,  LeRoy,  Lewiston,  Niagara-on-the-Lake  and  Niagara 
Falls." 


56  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

The  social  gayety  of  the  city  was  much  enhanced,  late  in 
the  '30s  or  early  in  the  '40s,  by  the  military  post  then  estab- 
lished by  the  government,  on  the  tract  of  ground  between 
Main,  Delaware,  Allen  and  North  streets,  and  maintained 
there  for  several  years. 

Hitherto  in  its  municipal  existence,  the  city  of  Buffalo 
had  remained  a  part  of  the  old  Buffalo  township  or  town. 
Now,  in  the  spring  of  1839,  city  and  town  were  made  iden- 
tical, and  all  which  the  chartered  city  did  not  cover  became 
the  town  of  Black  Rock,  the  latter  enveloping  the  city  by  a 
circuit  of  territory  from  the  river  to  the  lake. 

The  Indians  seen  by  Mrs.  Poole  in  the  streets  of  Buffalo, 
in  the  later  '30s,  were  soon  to  disappear.  From  1838  to 
1842  the  combination  known  as  the  Ogden  Company  was 
engaged  in  strenuous  efforts  to  acquire  for  white  settlement 
the  lands  still  held  by  them  in  Western  New  York.  In  the 
first  named  year  the  company  obtained  from  a  council  of 
chiefs  a  doubtful  conveyance  of  all  the  remaining  reserva- 
tions, for  the  sum  of  $202,000,  and  an  equally  doubtful  rati- 
fication of  a  treaty  with  the  government  of  the  Tnited  States, 
which  would  give  to  the  New  York  Indians  1,820,000  acres 
of  land  in  Kansas,  for  their  settlement  there.  Scandalous 
methods  of  briberv  and  intoxication  were  reported  to  have 
been  used  in  procuring  signatures  of  assent  to  these  docu- 
ments, and  the  genuineness  of  the  chieftainship  of  many  who 
signed  them  was  brought  into  dispute.  So  much  public 
feeling  was  roused  in  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  Indians, 
and  the  greater  number  of  them  were  so  determined  not  to 
be  driven  out  of  their  old  homes,  that  the  Ogden  Company 
did  not  attempt  to  enforce  its  claim  to  the  lands.  It  pressed 
new  propositions  upon  the  Indians,  however,  and  succeeded 
at  last  in  securing  a  cession  of  the  Buffalo  Creek  and  the 
Tonawanda  reservations.  This  was  accomplished  in  the 
spring  of  1842,  and  the  Indians  departed  from  those  lands 
in  the  course  of  the  next  two  or  three  years,  some  going  to 


RAILWAY  DEVELOPMENT  57 

the  other  reservations  in  Western  New  York,  and  some  to 
the  West.  Buffalo  was  benefited  by  the  change  of  country 
neighbors,  along  the  course  of  Buffalo  Creek,  which  this 
brought  about. 

Ten  thousand  acres  of  the  Creek  Reservation,  at  its  west- 
erly end,  were  bought  for  a  communistic  colony  from  Ger- 
many, having  the  name  of  The  Ebenezer  Society,  which 
improved  and  cultivated  its  lands  most  thriftily  for  nearly 
twenty  years.  It  then  sold  the  whole  property  in  parcels, 
and  established  a  new  settlement  in  Iowa. 

Buffalo  was  now  prosperous  again;  and  it  had  come  to  a 
point  of  beginning  in  many  things,  among  the  agencies,  the 
instrumentalities  and  the  attendant  conditions  of  its  further 
development,  which  have  worked  on  their  several  lines  so 
continuously  and  importantly  since  that  they  need  to  be 
treated  with  more  distinctness  than  in  a  general  sketch  of 
history  like  this.  In  future  chapters  there  will  be  an  en- 
deavor to  give  them  such  treatment  as  will  exhibit  the 
varied  lines  and  processes  of  evolution,  along  which  and  by 
which  our  city  has  come  to  be  what  it  is  to-day.  Meantime 
such  matters  will  be  passed  with  no  more  than  the  occasional 
mention  of  some  primary  fact,  to  thread  them  with  other 
events. 

The  event  of  supreme  importance  in  1843  occurred  in  its 
first  month,  when  railway  connection  of  Buffalo  with  Al- 
bany was  completed  by  the  opening  of  the  Buffalo  and 
Attica  Railroad,  which  added  the  last  link  to  a  chain  of 
connected  roads,  stretching  across  the  State.  Eleven  years 
had  passed  since  the  first  of  these  roads,  running  from  Al- 
bany to  Schenectady,  was  built.  The  second,  from  Schenec- 
tady to  Utica,  was  finished  in  1836;  the  third,  from  Utica  to 
Syracuse,  in  1839;  the  remaining  links  were  added  more 
rapidly,  within  three  years.  The  day  of  stage  coaching 
from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Hudson  was  already  at  an  end;  travel 


$8  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

by  the  packet  boats  of  the  canal  would  dwindle  and  soon 
pass;  but  the  freight  traffic  of  the  canal  was  not  yet  much 
disturbed;  for  the  State  exacted  equal  tolls  for  some  years 
on  all  freight  transportation,  whether  by  railroad  or  canal. 

It  has  been  stated  sometimes  that  the  chain  of  railroads 
which  reached  Buffalo  in  1843  was  identical  with  the  line 
afterwards  consolidated  by  the  New  York  Central  Com- 
pany; but  that  is  not  the  fact,  so  far  as  concerns  the  western 
extremity  of  the  line.  From  Batavia  to  Buffalo  the  New 
York  Central  acquired  a  distinct  line  of  rails.  The  Buffalo 
and  Attica  part  of  the  original  chain  passed  into  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Buffalo  and  New  York  Citj  Railroad  Company, 
and  was  extended  to  Hornellsville,  to  connect  with  the  New 
York  and  Erie  Railway,  then  in  progress  from  New  York 
to  Dunkirk,  for  straight  connection  with  the  lakes. 

The  lake  and  canal  carrying  trade  was  now  fairly  entering 
the  period  of  its  greatest  growth.  Even  the  Far  West  of 
the  '40s, — the  West,  that  is,  of  the  Upper  Lake  country, 
was  beginning  to  offer  large  products  to  the  markets  of  the 
Fast.  The  first  cargo  of  grain  from  any  part  of  Lake  Mich- 
igan had  come  to  Buffalo  in  1836;  the  first  from  Chicago 
in  1839.  Prior  to  1843  the  loading  and  unloading  of  grain, 
by  handling  it  in  bags,  baskets  and  barrels,  and  hoisting  it 
with  ropes  and  pulleys,  was  expensive  and  slow.  In  that 
year  the  business  was  revolutionized  by  the  introduction  of 
what  has  been  known  since  as  the  grain  elevator,  which 
scoops  the  loose  grain  from  the  holds  of  vessels  by  the  opera- 
tion of  large  cups  or  buckets  on  a  revolving  endless  belt,  and 
carries  it  to  the  top  of  storage  and  transfer  warehouses  for 
easy  distribution  thence,  by  gravity,  through  pipes  and 
chutes.  The  first  grain  elevator  in  the  world  was  con- 
structed and  brought  into  use  at  Buffalo  by  Mr.  Joseph  Dart, 
in  1843. 

An  indication  of  the  new  importance  and  the  new  charac- 


PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1 848  59 

ter  that  business  operations  were  assuming  is  in  the  fact  that 
a  Board  of  Trade  was  organized  in  1844.  The  full  waken- 
ing of  a  city  spirit  in  the  town  was  marked,  we  may  say,  by 
the  introduction  of  gas-lighting  in  1848. 

The  presidential  election  of  that  year,  1848,  was  made 
specially  interesting  to  Buffalo  by  the  Whig  nomination  of 
Millard  Fillmore  for  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 
Mr.  Fillmore  had  been  much  in  public  life  since  1829,  serv- 
ing several  terms  in  the  State  Assembly  and  three  terms  in 
Congress,  and  he  was  holding  the  office  of  Comptroller  of 
the  State  when  called  from  it  to  the  second  place  in  the 
national  government.  By  the  death  of  President  Taylor  he 
became  President  in  July,  1850. 

The  great  national  Free  Soil  Convention  of  1848,  assem- 
bled in  Buffalo  on  the  9th  of  August,  lent  further  local  in- 
terest to  the  political  campaign  of  that  year.  According  to 
estimates  at  the  time,  there  were  40,000  people  in  the  gather- 
ing, from  every  free  State  and  from  three  States  in  the  South. 
They  included  a  remarkable  number  of  men  who  were  emi- 
nent already  or  who  became  so  in  the  politics  of  the  next 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years.  They  were  seceders  from  both 
of  the  old  political  parties,  joined  by  many  abolitionists,  in 
the  premature  inauguration  of  a  movement  against  further 
extensions  of  slavery,  or,  as  the  cry  of  the  day  expressed  it, 
for  "free  soil,  free  speech,  free  labor  and  free  men."  With 
great  enthusiasm  they  nominated  Martin  Van  Buren  for 
President  and  Charles  Francis  Adams  for  Vice-President; 
but  in  the  ensuing  election  they  carried  no  State,  and  the 
only  immediate  consequence  of  their  undertaking  was  the 
election  of  Taylor  and  Fillmore.  Nevertheless  it  had  great 
ultimate  results.  Its  defeat  gave  encouragement  to  increas- 
ing aggressions  in  the  slaveholding  interest,  which  speedily 
reanimated  the  defence  of  free  soil,  embodied  its  motive  in 
the  Republican  party,  and  drew  success  in  i860  from  the 
seeming  failure  of  1848. 


60  THE  ERA  OF  THE  WATERWAYS 

A  very  different  memorability  was  given  to  the  year  1849, 
by  the  recurrence  of  cholera,  which  made  its  first  appearance 
on  the  30th  of  .May,  in  a  single  case,  occurring  on  one  of  the 
screw  propellers  in  the  port.  At  the  end  of  the  next  week 
five  cases  had  been  reported,  with  one  death,  and  the  roll 
lengthened  rapidly  from  that  time.  By  the  12th  of  July 
there  had  been  356  cases  reported,  and  the  deaths  numbered 
103.  The  board  of  health  began  then  to  publish  daily  re- 
ports, giving  the  names  and  residences  of  the  dead.  Its  first 
bulletin  announced  31  new  cases  and  13  deaths  in  the  pre- 
vious twenty-four  hours.  Next  day  the  stricken  numbered 
38,  and  again  there  were  13  deaths.  This  time  the  victims 
included  the  health  physician  of  the  city,  Dr.  Charles  (.'. 
Haddock,  whose  heavy  labors  had  worn  out  his  strength  and 
made  him  an  easy  prey  to  the  disease.  On  the  day  of  his 
death  the  Commercial  Advertiser  had  said:  "The  cholera 
prevails  to  a  great  extent  among  that  class  who  are  unable 
to  procure  medical  aid,  and  they  are  therefore  compelled  to 
rely  upon  the  city  physician,"  and  it  called  upon  the  Com- 
mon Council  to  authorize  the  appointment  of  two  a<-:stants, 
at  the  least.  In  further  remarks  it  estimated  that  three- 
fourths  of  the  deaths  had  occurred  among  foreign  residents, 
and  located  them  most  extensively  in  that  eastern  section  of 
the  city  (surrounding  the  junction  of  Swan  Street  with 
Seneca)  known  then  as  "The  Hydraulics,"  where  the  water 
in  a  short  length  of  canal,  dug  for  manufacturing  uses,  had 
been  imperfectly  drained  off  and  allowed  to  stagnate.  A 
week  later,  the  same  paper  raised  its  estimate  of  the  deaths 
among  foreign  laborers  in  the  city  to  nine-tenths  of  the 
whole;  and  explained  that  work  in  progress  on  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  Hamburg  and  Erie  canals  had  brought  a  large 
number  of  such  laborers  to  the  city,  and  that  many  of  them 
were  living  in  temporary  shanties  in  the  lower  parts  of  the 
town. 


THE  CITY  IN   1850  61 

The  worst  day  of  the  deadly  epidemic  was  the  24th  of 
July,  when  the  new  cases  rose  in  number  to  103  and  the 
deaths  to  32.  This  followed  a  heavy  shower  of  rain,  after  a 
prolonged  drouth,  which  increased,  of  course,  the  infecting 
of  wells, — the  general  source  at  that  time  of  the  domestic 
water-supply.  This  chief  agency  in  the  spreading  of  the 
disease  does  not  seem  to  have  been  suspected  in  the  least. 
The  main  danger  was  supposed  to  lurk  in  foods,  and  warn- 
ings against  the  eating  of  green  vegetables  were  most  strenu- 
ously urged. 

Signs  of  diminution  in  the  spread  and  virulence  of  the  dis- 
ease began  to  appear  in  the  latter  part  of  August,  and  on  the 
7th  of  September  the  board  of  health  made  its  last  report, 
having  no  death  to  announce  that  day.  It  had  recorded 
in  all,  from  the  beginning,  2,535  cases  of  the  cholera  and 
877  deaths;  but  the  tale  may  not  have  been  complete.  "It 
has  been  asserted,"  said  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  in  sub- 
sequent comment  on  the  trying  experience,  "that  there  were 
between  50  and  60  interments  in  the  course  of  twenty-four 
hours  at  the  height  of  the  disease,  and  there  were  undoubt- 
edly deaths  from  cholera  of  which  the  board  had  no  knowl- 
edge, as  many  persons  had  no  physician,  and  were  buried  by 
their  friends  without  any  notice  to  the  authorities." 

The  census  of  1850  found  a  population  in  Buffalo  num- 
bering 42,261,  against  29,773  m  1 845,  being  an  increase  of 
about  42  per  cent,  in  five  years,  which  is  rapid  growth.  In 
that  year  the  enterprise  of  supplying  the  city  with  water 
from  the  Niagara,  to  be  drawn  through  a  tunnel  passing 
under  the  Erie  Canal  and  Black  Rock  harbor,  was  under- 
taken by  a  company  which  completed  its  works  within  the 
next  two  years.  In  18^3,  under  a  new  charter,  Buffalo  was 
expanded  by  the  annexation  to  it  of  the  township  of  Black 
Rock,  which  gave  the  city  an  area  of  about  forty  square 
miles. 


CHAPTER    III 

IN  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS  : 

1851—1908 

WE  have  come  to  a  time  when  railroads  were  begin- 
ning to  be  of  importance  in  the  development  of 
travel  and  trade.  For  twenty  years  there  had  been 
a  slow  building  of  railway  lines  in  the  Atlantic  States,  but 
only  to  the  extent  of  9,000  miles  in  the  entire  country,  and 
the  West  had  hardly  felt  this  new  quickener  of  life.  Now, 
for  a  brief  period,  there  was  a  suddenly  vigorous  push  of 
railway  building  westward.  In  [851,  by  the  opening  of  the 
Hudson  River  road  to  Albany,  and  the  finishing  of  the  Xew 
York  and  Erie  to  Dunkirk,  Xew  York  City  obtained  two 
complete  connections  by  rail  with  our  lake.  From  Buffalo 
a  westward  extension  of  rails  along  the  southern  shore  of  the 
lake,  as  far  as  the  Pennsylvania  boundary,  was  opened  bv 
the  Buffalo  and  State  Line  Railroad  Company  in  February, 
1852.  In  that  year  two  railways  from  the  western  end  of 
Lake  Erie  to  Chicago  were  brought  into  operation;  and  the 
needed  links  between  our  State  Line  road  and  Toledo  were 
filled  in  the  next  year,  completing  a  railway  connection  of 
Chicago  with  Xew  York.  In  [854  the  chain  was  stretched 
from  Chicago  to  the  Mississippi,  and  it  was  lengthened  to 
the  Missouri  in  1859.  Before  that  time  a  halt  in  all  business 
enterprise  had  been  called  by  the  financial  crash  of  1857, 
and  the  halt  was  prolonged  by  the  ensuing  Civil  War. 

Meantime,  in  1852,  Buffalo  had  been  doubly  connected 
with  the  Xew  York  and  Erie  Railway,  h\  a  line  to  Corning, 
built  by  the  Buffalo  and  Xew  York  City  Railway  Company, 
and  by  a  second  line  to  Hornellsville  (now  Hornell),  pro- 
duced by  an  extension  of  the  Buffalo  and  Attica  road,  which 
the  New  York  and  Erie  had  leased.     In  this  year,  moreover, 

62 


THE  PANIC  OF    1857  63 

the  railway  connection  of  Buffalo  with  Canada  and  with  the 
West  through  Canada  was  undertaken,  by  the  beginning  of 
a  Buffalo  and  Brantford  road,  which,  being  extended  to 
Goderich,  in  1858,  took  the  name  of  the  Buffalo  and  Lake 
Huron  Railway.  In  1853  tne  consolidation  of  the  several 
connecting  roads  between  Buffalo  and  Albany,  in  the  New 
York  Central  Railroad,  was  effected;  and,  in  1855,  the  Buf- 
falo and  Niagara  Falls  road  was  taken  into  the  New  York 
Central  system. 

Generally  in  the  country  a  similar  activity  of  railway 
construction  prevailed,  and  all  industries  were  stimulated 
in  a  corresponding  degree.  In  the  nine  years  which 
ended  at  the  close  of  1857,  21,000  miles  were  added  to  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States,  representing  an  expenditure 
of  $700,000,000,  largely  from  abroad.  At  the  same  time, 
the  great  increase  of  gold  production,  since  the  discoveries 
of  1848  in  California  and  of  1 85 1  in  Australia,  was  lowering 
the  standard  of  values,  and  opening  a  period  of  rising  prices 
throughout  the  world.  The  two  causes  combined,  putting 
strains  upon  capital,  on  one  hand,  and  stimulating  produc- 
tion and  trade  on  the  other,  were  working,  in  both  Europe 
and  America,  to  bring  about  the  conditions  which  have 
always  resulted  in  a  monetary  panic  and  commercial  col- 
lapse. The  influences  so  tending  were  exaggerated  in 
America,  as  they  had  been  in  the  period  between  1825  and 
1837,  by  tne  immensity  of  the  allurement  to  speculative 
ventures  in  inimitably  tempting  fields. 

All  the  preparations  for  panic  were  complete  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1857,  and  it  was  started  with  suddenness  on  the  24th 
of  August  by  a  crashing  failure  at  Cincinnati,  of  the  Ohio 
Life  Insurance  and  Trust  Company,  an  important  corpora- 
tion, so  expanded  in  its  operations  as  to  break  many  lesser 
ones  in  its  fall.  At  this  signal  of  alarm  the  usual  scrambling 
of  the  timid  and  nervous  for  self-saving  began.     Deposits 


64  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

were  drawn  from  banks  to  be  hoarded;  money  disappeared 
from  circulation  ;  prices  dropped.  On  the  third  day  follow- 
ing the  Cincinnati  failure  the  Buffalo  Commercial  Adver- 
tiser announced  "a  long  row  of  banks,  many  of  them  in  the 
land  of  steady  habits,"  as  having  "gone  down,  or  been 
thrown  out  by  the  brokers;"  but  it  could  add:  "Thus  far 
Buffalo  has  mostly  escaped.  Right  here  in  the  largest  grain 
market  in  the  world,  where  transactions  are  more  frequent 
and  heavier  than  at  any  other  port  on  the  round  globe,  our 
produce  men  have  thus  far  endured  the  rapid  decline  in 
the  price  of  breadstuff's  without  any  failure  to  meet  their 
obligations." 

But  failures  in  Buffalo  were  only  postponed.  On  Mon- 
day the  31st  the  Commercial  Advertiser  reported  "quite  a 
panic  this  morning,  occasioned  by  the  suspension  of  the 
Reciprocity  Hank  on  Saturday.  This  was  increased  by  the 
news  that  the  Hollister  Bank  would  not  open  its  doors ;"  and, 
"owing  to  the  excitement,  a  run  was  commenced  on  several 
ol  the  banks  as  soon  as  they  were  opened."  Next  day  (Sep 
tember  1st),  the  panic  was  said  to  have  "entirely  subsided 
and  confidence  is  restored  ;"  but  the  suspension  of  <  diver  Lee 
&  Co.'s  Hank  was  announced  on  the  4th,  ami  the  failure  of 
two  large  produce  houses  was  made  public  on  the  5th.  On 
the  S tli  there  was  casual  mention,  without  explanation,  of 
the  fact  that  800  mechanics  had  been  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment, and  a  policy  of  reticence  on  such  matters  was  inti- 
mated a  few  days  later  in  the  remark  that  "we  have  protested 
against  publishing  as  'failures1  the  temporary  inability  of 
sound  men  to  meet  their  acceptances." 

Late  in  September  fresh  waves  of  panic  began  to  sweep 
over  the  country  and  strew  it  with  wrecks.  Railroad  cor- 
porations went  to  the  wall ;  Michigan  Central,  Illinois  Cen- 
tral, New  York  and  Erie  among  the  rest.  The  panic  was 
carried  over  sea,  especially  into  Great  Britain,  which  was 


THE  PANIC  OF   1 857  65 

estimated  to  have  $400,000,000  invested  in  the  United  States. 
There  were  serious  bank  suspensions  in  Scotland,  in  October, 
and  the  Bank  of  England  was  only  saved  by  a  suspension  of 
the  operation  of  the  banking  act.  The  Commercial  Adver- 
tiser could  still  say  of  Buffalo,  on  the  2nd  of  October,  that 
she  "is  going  along  at  a  slow  rate,  with  the  burden  of  her 
immense  commerce  upon  her.  *  *  *  The  class  of  private 
failures  which  have  occurred  are  not  bad.  They  are  in 
most  instances  rather  suspensions  than  failures.   :  We 

have  no  runs,  no  excitements,  and  only  the  general  gloom 
and  depression  indicates  the  peril  of  the  times."  Neverthe- 
less, the  1 2th  of  October  brought  announcement  of  the  sus- 
pension of  the  local  Pratt  Bank,  followed  by  that  of  the 
important  iron  and  hardware  house  of  Pratt  &  Co. 

The  published  list  of  broken  banks  in  the  country  now 
numbered  182.  On  the  13th  of  October,  by  agreement, 
specie  payments  were  suspended  by  all  the  banks  in  New 
York  City  which  had  held  out  against  it  hitherto,  and  their 
example  was  followed  the  next  day  by  all  the  banks  in  the 
State.  This  relieved  the  strain  of  the  situation,  and  all 
business  in  the  country  settled  down  to  an  experience  which 
had  no  more  of  excitements  in  it,  but  only  the  grim  endur- 
ance of  a  painfully  benumbing  half-palsy  in  the  whole  social 
frame.  "The  caulker's  hammer,"  said  the  Commercial, 
describing  Buffalo  conditions  on  the  15th  of  October,  "is  not 
heard  in  the  shipyards;  the  vessels  and  steamers  which 
should  be  now  busily  engaged  in  forwarding  the  harvest  lie 
chafing  at  the  wharves;  the  foundries  which  live  upon  the 
shipping  interests  are  some  of  them  closed  and  others  almost 
idle.  So,  too,  in  every  department  of  industry,  there  is  a 
benumbing  paralysis." 

From  such  prostration  there  was  not  much  emergence  of 
industrial  and  commercial  activity  in  the  country  during  the 
next  two  years.    It  was  said  to  be  at  the  worst  in  1859.      In 


66  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

i860  there  were  marked  beginnings  of  recovery,  notwith- 
standing the  distractions  of  the  great  political  struggle  of 
that  year,  and  the  menace  of  national  disruption  that 
followed. 

No  community  in  the  country  was  interested  in  the  elec- 
tion of  i860  more  profoundly  than  this.  In  the  politics  of 
the  epoch  that  came  then  to  its  close,  Buffalo  had  been,  from 
its  first  days,  with  little  varying,  a  stronghold  of  the  Fed- 
eralists in  their  time  and  of  the  Whigs  in  theirs.  In  the 
latter-day  division  of  the  Whig  party  it  had  given  a  large 
following  to  Fillmore  and  the  Silver  Grays,  even  into  the 
American  or  Know  Nothing  movement  of  ]Sq2-6.  But 
now  a  majority  of  its  voters  had  broken  their  old  political 
affiliations,  both  Whig  and  Democratic,  and  had  come  into 
the  new  Republican  party,  organized  to  resist  the  encroach- 
ments of  slavery  on  free  soil.  In  the  main,  that  party 
divided  Erie  County  and  Buffalo  with  the  Douglas  Democ- 
racy; for  not  many  relics  of  Mr.  Fillmore's  former  follow- 
ing went  with  him  to  the  support  of  the  Hell  and  Everett 
nominations  of  i860.  Abraham  Lincoln  received  a  ma- 
jority over  Douglas  in  the  local  vote.  His  nomination  had 
been  .1  grievous  hurt  to  Republican  feeling,  at  first,  here  as 
in  other  parts  of  New  York,  which  desired  Mr.  Seward  ;  but 
confidence  in  him  grew  with  increasing  knowledge,  and 
there  was  abounding  enthusiasm  in  the  campaign. 

On  the  journey  of  the  President-elect  to  Washington,  for 
his  entrance  upon  the  appalling  task  to  which  he  had  been 
called,  he  arrived  in  Buffalo  on  the  afternoon  of  Saturday, 
February  16,  1861,  and  had  a  reception  at  the  railway  station 
so  tumultuously  enthusiastic  and  ill-controlled  that  he  and 
his  party  were  nearly  crushed.  From  the  balcony  of  the 
American  Hotel  he  made  one  of  the  brief  and  cautious 
speeches  of  his  tour,  and  that  evening  he  went  through  the 
ordeal  of  handshaking  with  a  multitude  of  visitors.   Mrs. 


THE  NEWS  FROM  SUMTER  67 

Lincoln  receiving  many  at  the  same  time.  The  Presidential 
party  spent  the  Sunday  in  Buffalo,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln accompanied  ex-President  Fillmore  to  the  Unitarian 
Church,  of  which  the  latter  was  a  member.  In  the  evening, 
Mr.  Lincoln  attended  Mrs.  Fillmore  to  a  meeting  at  St. 
James  Hall,  to  hear  an  address  in  the  interest  of  some  of  the 
Indian  tribes  of  the  West. 

The  city  had  now  a  population  exceeding  81,000,  having 
nearly  doubled  its  numbers  in  ten  years.  It  could  send  a 
strong  contingent  of  citizens  to  the  defense  of  the  Union, 
when  rebellious  slavery  opened  its  wicked  attack  a  few 
weeks  later, — and  it  did  so.  News  of  the  opening  of  the 
bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter  came  to  the  morning  papers 
of  the  13th  of  April,  and  little  more  was  known  till  the 
morning  of  Monday,  the  15th,  when  tidings  of  the  surrender 
of  the  fort  set  passion  aflame.  There  were  no  political 
parties  that  day.  Crowds  swarmed  to  a  public  meeting  in 
the  evening,  overflowing,  first  the  Court  House,  then  Krem- 
lin Hall,  and  finally  massing  itself  in  the  public  street.  A 
Democrat,  the  Hon.  Eli  Cook,  presided,  and  speeches  from 
Democrats  and  Republicans  were  all  in  one  tone.  An  en- 
rollment of  volunteers  for  tender  of  service  to  the  govern- 
ment was  begun  at  once. 

A  second  public  mass  meeting,  more  formally  planned, 
was  held  the  next  evening  at  the  Metropolitan  Theatre,  with 
ex-President  Fillmore  in  the  chair.  Mr.  Fillmore  spoke 
with  no  uncertain  feeling  of  the  duty  of  the  hour.  "We 
have  reached,"  he  said,  "a  crisis  in  the  history  of  this  country 
when  no  man,  however  humble  his  rank  or  limited  his  influ- 
ence, has  a  right  to  stand  neutral.  Civil  war  has  been  inau- 
gurated, and  we  must  meet  it.  Our  government  calls  for 
aid,  and  we  must  give  it."  Judge  Clinton,  Judge  Daniels, 
Dr.  Brunck,  H.  K.  Viele,  A.  M.  Clapp,  and  others,  spoke 
to  the  same  purpose  with  warmth,  and  resolutions  of  cor- 


68  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

responding  spirit,  reported  from  a  committee  of  which 
Joseph  Warren,  editor  of  the  Democratic  organ,  the  Daily 
Coumr,  was  chairman,  were  adopted  with  acclaim. 

On  the  1 8th  the  organization  of  enrolled  volunteers  in 
companies  was  begun.  The  three  militia  regiments  of  the 
city  and  county  lost  no  time  in  recruiting  their  ranks  and 
preparing  for  any  duty  to  which  they  might  be  called.  The 
Common  Council  appropriated  $50,000  to  provide  for 
families  of  volunteers,  and  private  subscriptions  added 
$30,000  more.  Prominent  elderly  citizens  formed  a  com- 
pany, with  ex-President  Fillmore  for  their  captain,  to  per- 
form escort  duty,  paying  honor  to  the  soldiery  of  the  field. 
It  took  the  name  of  the  "Union  Continentals,"  and  wore  the 
uniform  of  the  Continentals  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

On  the  3d  of  May  tour  companies  were  sent  forward  to 
the  rendezvous  at  Elmira,  followed  on  the  1  ith  by  six  more, 
with  cheers  and  tears,  and  the  whole  city  out  to  bid  them 
God-speed.  Many  members  of  the  militia  regiments,  see- 
ing little  prospect  of  active  service  in  them,  went  into  these 
companies  of  volunteers.  The  ten  companies  became  an 
organized  regiment  at  once,  as  the  21st  New  York  State 
Volunteers,  Colonel  William  F.  Rogers  commanding,  and 
were  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States  for  two 
years.  From  Elmira  the  regiment  went  forward  to  Wash- 
ington on  the  iSth  of  June.  It  had  no  part  in  the  disastrous 
Bull  Run  battle  of  the  next  month,  being  stationed  at  Fort 
Runvon,  near  Alexandria,  at  the  time.  In  August  it  was 
assigned  to  Wadsworth's  brigade  in  McDowell's  division, 
and  went  through  months  of  drill  and  training,  with  the  rest 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  till  McClellan's  movements 
began  in  the  following  spring.  Being  in  McDowell's 
Corps,  the  21st  Regiment  escaped  the  Peninsular  campaign, 
but  had  its  share  of  the  suffering  and  disaster  of  the  succeed- 
ing battles,  fought  under  General  Pope.     In  the  second  Bull 


THE  TWENTY-FIRST  N.  Y.  V.  69 

Run  fight,  of  August  30,  1862,  it  lost,  in  killed,  two  officers 
and  fifty-one  enlisted  men,  who  died  on  the  field  or  subse- 
quently from  wounds  then  received.  In  the  next  month  the 
shattered  regiment  followed  McClellan  to  Maryland,  for 
the  driving  back  of  Lee,  and  fought  at  both  South  Mountain 
and  Antietam,  with  further  losses  of  twenty  killed  and  fifty- 
one  disabled  by  curable  wounds.  Its  last  severe  campaign- 
ing was  under  Burnside,  in  the  fatal  assaults  on  the  entrench- 
ments of  the  enemy  at  Fredericksburg,  but  its  losses  were 
small.  The  last  few  months  of  its  two  years'  term  of  service 
were  spent  in  provost-guard  duty  at  Acquia  Creek.  Late 
in  April  it  was  dismissed  and  received  a  great  ovation  on  its 
arrival  home. 

From  first  to  last  of  its  service  the  losses  of  the  21st  Regi- 
ment by  death  were  2  officers  and  50  enlisted  men  who  were 
killed  in  action;  23  enlisted  men  who  died  of  wounds;  2 
officers  and  40  enlisted  men  who  died  of  disease  and  other 
causes.  The  wounded  officers  who  recovered  were  7  in 
number,  the  enlisted  men  140.  The  two  officers  who  met 
death  on  the  field  were  Captain  Jeremiah  P.  Washburn  and 
Lieutenant  William  L.  Whitney,  both  at  the  Second  Bull 
Run.  The  two  who  died  of  disease  were  Captain  Elisha  L. 
Hayward  and  Surgeon  Charles  H.  Wilcox.  Among  the 
severely  wounded  at  Bull  Run  was  the  young  artist,  John 
Harrison  Mills,  who,  afterwards,  wrote  the  history  of  the 
regiment. 

Soon  after  the  21st  Regiment  left  Buffalo,  Captain  Daniel 
D.  Bidwell,  of  the  74th  Regiment  of  State  Militia,  obtained 
authority  to  enlist  another  regiment  in  the  city,  and  the  en- 
rollment went  rapidly  on.  Before  the  ranks  of  the  regiment 
were  filled  it  was  ordered  to  New  York  (September  16),  and 
there  it  was  made  up  as  the  49th  New  York  Volunteers, 
composed  of  four  companies  from  Buffalo  and  Erie  County, 
four  from   Chautauqua   County,   and   one  each   from   the 


70  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

counties  of  Niagara  and  Westchester.     Late  in  September, 
1 86 1,  the  49th,  with  Daniel  D.  Bidwell  as  its  Colonel,  was 
ordered  to  the  front,  and  was  in  camp  till  the  following 
spring,  embodied  in  the  Sixth  Corps.     It  then  went  through 
the  Peninsular  campaign,  suffering  slight  losses  in  the  battles 
of  Lee's  Mills,  New  Bridge,  Garnett's  Farm  and  White  Oak 
Swamp  Bridge.     On  returning  from  the  Peninsula  it  fought 
at  Antietam,  with  a  loss  of  8  killed  and  16  wounded,  and  at 
Fredericksburg,  where  nine  were  wounded,  one  officer  of 
whom  died.     In  the  following  spring  it  was  in  battle  at 
Marye's  Heights  and  Salem  Church,  and  gave  6  more  of 
its  number  to  death  and  1 1  to  wounds.     By  a  long  forced 
march  it  reached  the  field  of  Gettysburg  in  time  to  have 
some  part  in  that  terrible  struggle,  but  only  at  the  cost  of 
2  wounded  men.     The  spring  of   1864  found  the  regiment 
with  Grant,  in  the  awful  battles  of  May,  from  which  it  came 
a  mere  wreck.     In  the  Wilderness,  at  Spottsylvania,  at  Cold 
Harbor,  it  left  9  officers  and  61  enlisted  men  dead  on  the 
field  ;  while  2  officers  and  22  in  the  ranks  died  of  the  wounds 
they  received,  and  4  officers,  with   122  enlisted  men,  were 
wounded,  but  lived.      In  July  the  Sixth  Corps  was  detached 
from  the  army  besieging  Petersburg  and  sent  to  the  defence 
of  Washington,  where  special  distinction  was  won  at  fort 
Stevens  by  the  49th.      In  that  engagement  its  Lieutenant- 
Colonel,  George  W.  Johnson,  received  a  mortal  wound.     At 
Cedar   Creek,    in    the   succeeding   campaign    of    Sheridan 
against  Early,  the  regiment  bore  an  heroic  part;  and  there 
its  former  Colonel,  Daniel  D.  Bidwell,  lately  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  Brigadier-General,  was  killed.     Of  its  officers 
2  were  wounded;  of  its  enlisted  men  27  were  wounded  and 
1 1  were  killed.     The  three  years'  term  of  most  men  remain- 
ing in  the  regiment  had  expired  on  the  19th  of  September, 
one  month  before  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek  was  fought;  but 
all  save  89  of  the  number  had  accepted  re-enlistment  and 


THE   FORTY-NINTH   N.  Y.  V.  71 

fought  on.  They  were  consolidated  in  five  companies,  and, 
returning  to  Petersburg,  went  through  the  last  scenes  of  the 
war,  even  to  Appomattox  Court  House  and  the  surrender  of 
Lee.  When,  on  the  20th  of  June,  1865,  their  thinned  ranks 
and  their  tattered  flag  were  brought  home,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  George  H.  Selkirk,  they  had  the  reception 
they  deserved. 

In  the  whole  period  of  its  service  the  regiment  had  re- 
ceived into  its  ranks  about  1,350  men.  Of  its  officers,  10 
had  been  killed  in  battle,  5  had  died  of  wounds,  5  had  died 
of  disease,  14  had  recovered  from  wounds.  Of  enlisted  men, 
84  had  been  killed  in  action,  42  had  died  of  wounds,  147 
had  died  of  disease,  23  had  died  while  prisoners  in  the 
enemy's  hands,  5  from  other  causes,  230  had  recovered  from 
wounds.  The  officers  killed  in  action  were  Captain  Wil- 
liam T.  Wiggins  and  Lieutenants  Henry  C.  Valentine  and 
Reuben  M.  Preston,  in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness;  Cap- 
tains Reuben  B.  Heacock  and  Seward  H.  Terry,  Lieuten- 
ants Herman  Haas,  Mortimer  L.  V.  Tyler,  and  J.  P.  Mc- 
Vean,  at  Spottsylvania;  Lieutenant  David  Lambert,  Jr.,  at 
Washington;  Lieutenant  Charles  A.  Sayres,  at  Winchester. 
The  officers  who  died  of  wounds  were  Lieutenant-Colonel 
George  W.  Johnson,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Erastus  D.  Holt, 
Major  William  Ellis,  Captains  Charles  H.  Hickmott  and 
John  F.  E.  Plogsted.  Those  who  died  of  disease  were  Cap- 
tains Raselas  Dickinson  and  Charles  H.  Moss,  Lieutenants 
William  Bullymore,  Henry  D.  Tillinghast,  Frederick  Van 
Gayle. 

When  the  49th  Regiment  left  Buffalo,  in  the  summer  of 
1861,  recruiting  for  another  regiment  was  already  begun, 
under  authority  given  to  General  Gustavus  A.  Scroggs,  of 
the  State  Militia,  to  raise  a  full  brigade  within  the  State. 
Enlisting  for  the  regiment  to  be  formed  in  Buffalo  was 
begun  early  in  September,  and  in  January  it  received  its 


72  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

designation  as  the   iooth  Regiment  N.  Y.  Vols.     Its  men 
came  to  a  large  extent  from  neighboring  counties  and  towns. 
Chautauqua    County    furnished    its    commanding    officer, 
Colonel  James  M.  Brown.      It  went  to  the  field  with  full 
ranks,  in  March,  reaching  Washington  on  the   12th;  was 
assigned  to  Casey's  Division,  Fourth  Corps,  and  was  pushed 
almost  immediately  into  the  trials,  hardships  and  sufferings 
of  the  Peninsular  campaign.     Its  first  experience  of  battle, 
at  Fair  Oaks,  was  as  terrible  as  new  soldiers  can  ever  have 
gone  through,  and  it  did  not  flinch.      Its  brigade  was  ad- 
vanced to  the  extreme  front  of  the  Union  lines,  and  ordered 
to  charge  through  a  tangled  slashing  of  timber,  in  which  the 
men   of  the    iooth  were  exposed   almost  helplessly   to  the 
enemy's  guns.     Some  one  had  blundered  in  the  ordering  of 
the  useless  charge,  and  they  paid  the  cost  of  the  blunder  in 
39  lives,  77  wounds,  and  60  missing  men,  either  prisoners 
or  of  unknown  fate.     Colonel  Brown  was  among  the  miss- 
ing.    That  he  fell  is  certain;  but  his  body  was  never  found, 
and  the  circumstances  of  bis  death  are  not  even  to  be  guessed. 
Colonel    George   B.   Dandy,   of   the   regular  army,  was  ap- 
pointed   to   fill   his   place.      Even    before   the  battle,   much 
sickness  had  thinned  the  regiment,  and  at  the  end  of  July  it 
mustered   only    15   officers   and   436  men.      Unless   quickly 
filled  up  it  would  lose  its  identity  by  consolidation  with  some 
other,  and  Buffalo  was  appealed  to,  to  save  it  from  that  fate. 
The  Board  of  Trade  of  the  city  took  upon  itself  the  under- 
taking to  restore  the  organization  to   its   proper  strength. 
Meantime  the  regiment  had  a  period  of  comparative  rest, 
at  Gloucester  Point,  on  the  York,  which  lasted  till  Christmas 
Day,  when  it  was  embarked  for  transfer  to  service  farther 
south.     Its  new  field  proved  to  be  the  South  Carolina  coast, 
where,  after  six  months  of  varied  movements  and  employ- 
ments, it  came  to  a  second  experience  of  the  worst  horrors 
of  war.     This  was  in  the  desperate  assaulting  of  Fort  Wag- 


THE  ONE  HUNDREDTH  N.  Y.  V.  73 

ner,  on  Morris  Island,  at  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of 
Charleston.  There  the  100th  suffered  losses  even  heavier 
than  at  Fair  Oaks.  Four  officers  and  76  enlisted  men  came 
to  their  death  in  those  assaults,  either  immediately  or  later, 
from  wounds;  6  officers  and  106  enlisted  men  received 
wounds  from  which  they  recovered  ;  while  the  missing  num- 
bered 31.  The  succeeding  seven  months  on  Morris  Island 
were  uneventful.  Then,  in  April,  1864,  the  regiment  went 
north  again,  to  pass  for  a  time  under  the  command  of  Gen- 
eral Butler,  at  Bermuda  Hundred,  and  to  be  engaged  till 
the  end  of  the  war  in  the  operations  against  Petersburg  and 
Richmond.  Its  last  fighting  was  on  the  2d  of  April,  1865, 
in  the  storming  of  Fort  Grig,  at  the  rear  of  the  Petersburg 
fortifications,  the  desperate  defenders  of  which  had  sworn 
never  to  surrender.  From  that  sanguinary  victory  it  went 
to  join  in  the  pursuit  of  the  retreating  army  of  Lee,  and  saw 
the  rebellion  come  to  its  end.  It  was  not  discharged  from 
service,  however,  till  the  28th  of  August,  and  was  then,  for 
some  reason,  sent  to  Albany  to  be  mustered  out,  disappoint- 
ing the  wish  in  Buffalo  to  see  it  and  honor  it  as  a  regiment 
on  its  home-coming  from  the  war.  Colonel  Dandy,  lately 
commissioned  Brigadier-General,  had  commanded  the 
brigade  for  some  time  past,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Warren 
Granger  held  the  regimental  command.  Captain  George 
H.  Stowits,  who  had  resigned  the  principalship  of  one  of 
the  public  schools  of  Buffalo  to  enter  the  regiment  as  a  pri- 
vate, and  who  had  been  acting  assistant  adjutant  general 
on  the  brigade  staff,  had  been  promoted  to  be  major,  in 
May,  but  resigned  at  the  end  of  that  month,  before  his  com- 
mission was  received.  He  wrote  the  history  of  the  regiment 
a  few  years  after  his  return  home. 

In  its  whole  service  the  100th  Regiment  had  8  officers  and 
115  enlisted  men  killed  in  action;  4  officers  and  67  enlisted 
men  wounded  mortally,  of  whom  2  of  the  former  and  1 1  of 


74  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

the  latter  died  in  the  enemy's  hands.  One  officer  and  186 
men  died  of  disease,  62  of  the  latter  in  Confederate  prisons; 
15  enlisted  men  died  from  causes  not  stated,  of  whom  6  were 
prisoners  when  they  died.  Of  the  members  of  the  regiment 
who  suffered  capture  and  imprisonment  and  survived,  11 
were  officers  and  185  were  from  the  ranks. 

The  death-roll  (if  officers  is  as  follows:  Colonel  James 
M.  Brown,  Lieutenant  Samuel  S.  Kellogg.  Lieutenant  John 
Wilkeson,  Jr.,  killed  at  Fair  Oaks;  Lieutenant  and  Adjutant 
Herbert  H.  Haddock,  Lieutenant  fames  Kavanagh,  Lieu- 
tenant Charles  H.  Runkle,  killed  at  Fort  Wagner;  Major 
James  H.  Dandy,  killed  at  Fort  Grig;  Lieutenant  Azor  H. 
Hoyt,  killed  at  Drewry's  Bluff;  Captain  William  Richard- 
son, died  of  wounds  received  at  Deep  Bottom,  Va.;  Lieu- 
tenant Cyrus  Brown,  died  of  wounds  at  Fort  Wagner; 
Lieutenant  James  H.  French,  died  of  wounds  received  at 
Drewry's  Bluff;  Lieutenants  Rodney  B.  Smith  and  Charles 
S.  Farnum,  died  of  disease. 

Besides  the  three  regiments  whose  history  has  been 
sketched,  several  companies  which  became  attached  to  other 
organizations  were  raised  wholly  or  partly  in  Buffalo  during 
the  first  year  of  the  war.  The  most  important  of  the  num- 
ber was  an  artillery  company  of  German  citizens,  formed 
originally  in  i860,  under  Captain  Michael  Wiedrich,  and 
connected  with  the  65th  Regiment  of  State  Militia.  In 
January,  1861,  soon  after  the  secession  movement  began,  its 
services  were  offered  formally  to  the  State,  and  accepted, 
but  it  was  not  called  upon  till  October,  when  it  was  organ- 
ized as  Battery  I,  of  the  1st  New  York  Artillery.  It  left 
Buffalo  on  the  16th  of  October,  and  was  attached  to  Blen- 
ker's  Division,  in  Virginia.  Few  of  the  twelve  batteries 
the  regiment  were  ever  together  in  service,  and,  in  many 
engagements,  during  the  next  three  years,  "Wiedrich's  Bat- 
tery"  made   a   well-known   name   for   itself.      It   began    its 


wiedrich's  battery  75 

career  in  Fremont's  encounter  with  Ewell  at  Cross  Keys, 
June  8,  1862,  where  3  of  its  members  were  killed  and  6 
received  wounds.  It  was  in  six  battles  of  Pope's  campaign, 
including  the  Second  Bull  Run,  where  1  of  its  officers  and 
13  enlisted  men  received  wounds.  It  was  with  Hooker  at 
Chancellorsville,  and  suffered  4  deaths  there,  14  wounds, 
and  lost  2  of  its  guns.  It  was  with  Meade  at  Gettysburg, 
and  3  killed,  9  wounded,  were  its  losses  there.  It  was  with 
Grant  at  Wauhatchie  and  Lookout  Valley  and  Missionary 
Ridge.  It  went  with  Sherman  through  his  Atlanta  cam- 
paign, through  his  "March  to  the  Sea,"  and  through  his 
campaign  in  the  Carolinas,  to  the  end.  Captain  Wiedrich 
bore  the  more  than  well-earned  title  of  Colonel  when  his 
Battery  came  home,  to  a  proud  reception,  on  the  23d  of 
June,  1865. 

For  a  regiment  of  Engineers  (the  Fiftieth)  organized  in 
the  summer  of  1861,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  C.  B. 
Stuart,  three  companies,  E,  L  and  M,  were  enlisted  in  part 
at  Buffalo.     Its  service  was  in  the  Virginia  field. 

An  Independent  Battery,  the  nth,  was  raised  partly  in 
Buffalo  by  Captain  Albert  von  Putkammer,  during  the  first 
year  of  war.  It  served  in  the  Pope  campaign,  at  Freder- 
icksburg, Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg,  and  in  Grant's  Vir- 
ginia campaign. 

Company  G,  of  the  33d  Regiment  N.  Y.  Vols.,  was  en- 
listed at  Buffalo  between  May  and  July,  1861,  taking  the 
name  originally  of  "The  Richmond  Guards."  The  service 
of  the  regiment  was  in  Virginia  and  Maryland. 

At  about  the  same  time,  Company  D  of  the  35th  and  Com- 
pany A  of  the  36th  N.  Y.  Vols,  were  partly  enlisted  in  the 
city,  and  went  to  two  years  of  service  in  Virginia. 

Buffalo  and  Erie  County  were  raising,  also,  that  summer, 
a  company  for  what  became  the  44th  N.  Y.  Vols.  This 
regiment  was  planned  to  be  a  special  undertaking  of  all 


jt>  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

parts  of  the  State,  as  a  memorial  of  Colonel  Ellsworth,  the 
young  officer  whose  regiment  was  the  first  to  enter  Virginia, 
at  Alexandria,  and  who  was  shot  when  taking  down  a  rebel 
flag.     It  was  called  "The  People's  Ellsworth  Regiment." 

Later  in  the  year,  some  considerable  part  of  one  company 
(K)  for  the  69th  Regiment,  destined  for  the  Irish,  or 
Meagher's,  Brigade,  was  enlisted  in  Buffalo  and  went  to 
take  part  in  the  Virginia  campaigns. 

Three  companies  of  the  8th  Cavalry  and  several  of  the 
10th  were  also  made  up,  to  some  extent,  in  this  city,  at  that 
time,  and  served,  the  former  in  Virginia,  the  latter  in  Vir- 
ginia, West  Virginia  and  Maryland. 

Between  the  fall  of  1861  and  the  spring  of  1862  Buffalo 
contributed  a  company  (E)  to  the  78th  N.  V.  Vols.,  which 
served  subsequently  in  Virginia,  Tennessee  and  Georgia, 
and  which  suffered  heavily  at  Chancellorsville. 

Between  these  two  years,  also,  there  were  parts  of  three 
companies  raised  for  what  was  designated  as  the  Eirst  Regi- 
ment of  Mounted  Rides,  which  had  active  service  in  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina. 

No  enlistments  were  made  in  Buffalo  for  the  94th  N.  Y. 
Vols.,  but  the  regiment  was  raised  by  Colonel  H.  R.  Viele 
of  Buffalo,  and  went  into  service  under  his  command.  It 
was  ordered  in  the  first  instance  to  Alexandria,  and  Colonel 
Viele  was  appointed  military  governor  of  that  city,  with 
command  of  a  brigade  of  the  forces  stationed  there.  Ill 
health  compelled  him  to  resign  at  the  end  of  a  few  months. 
Some  time  later,  Colonel  Adrian  R.  Root,  of  Buffalo,  was 
appointed  to  the  command  of  the  94th. 

Then,  in  July,  after  the  failure  of  the  Peninsular  cam- 
paign, came  the  call  of  the  President  for  300,000  more  vol- 
unteers, and  the  requisition  on  Buffalo  for  a  regiment,  to  be 
organized  under  the  supervision  of  a  committee  of  citizens 
appointed  by  the  Governor  of  the  State.     Major  Edward  P. 


THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTEENTH  N.  Y.  V.  77 

Chapin,  of  the  44th  (Ellsworth)  Regiment,  then  invalided 
by  a  wound  received  at  Hanover  Court  House  and  on  re- 
cruiting duty  at  Buffalo,  was  invited  to  the  colonelcy  of  the 
proposed  regiment,  and  obtained  permission  to  accept  it. 
On  his  request,  Lieutenant  John  B.  Weber,  of  the  44th,  was 
made  his  Adjutant.  Both  Major  Chapin  and  Lieutenant 
Weber  had  entered  the  Buffalo  Company  of  the  44th.  The 
regiment,  soon  designated  as  the  116th  N.  Y.  Vols.,  was 
filled  so  rapidly  that  nearly  a  thousand  men  were  ready  for 
the  orders  which  came  on  the  5th  of  September  to  proceed 
to  Baltimore,  where  it  went  into  camp  for  some  weeks.  In 
due  time  it  was  shipped  to  New  Orleans,  became  part  of 
General  Emory's  Division  of  the  19th  Army  Corps,  and 
entered  upon  the  Mississippi  and  Red  River  campaigns  of 
General  Banks.  Colonel  Chapin  was  soon  called  to  brigade 
command,  and  the  regiment  was  headed  by  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Robert  Cottier.  Its  first  experience  of  battle  was 
during  the  advance  on  Port  Hudson,  at  Plain  Store  (May 
21,  1863),  where  it  won  distinction  by  a  vigorous  charge, 
under  the  lead  of  Major  George  M.  Love,  which  broke  the 
enemy  and  saved  the  day.  On  the  27th  of  the  same  month 
it  took  part  in  the  first  of  two  ill-judged  assaults  on  the 
bristling  defences  of  Port  Hudson,  which  sent  hundreds  of 
men  to  useless  death.  Colonel  Chapin,  commanding  the 
brigade,  was  one  of  the  first  to  fall,  killed  instantly  by  a 
shot  through  the  brain.  The  losses  of  the  regiment  were  18 
enlisted  men  killed  in  the  action,  one  officer  and  10  enlisted 
men  wounded  mortally.  One  officer  and  3  enlisted  men 
were  killed  and  2  of  the  latter  wounded  mortally  in  the 
second  assault,  of  June  14th.  Three  officers  and  99  men 
who  were  disabled  in  the  two  assaults  recovered  from  their 
wounds.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cottier,  prostrated  by  ma- 
larial fever,  died  at  Baton  Rouge,  and  Major  George  M. 
Love,  suffering  from  a  severe  wound,  became  Colonel  of  the 


78  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

regiment  and  commander  of  the  brigade.  On  the  surrender 
of  Port  Hudson,  following  that  of  Vicksburg,  the  116th 
went  to  service  in  Western  Louisiana,  against  the  Confed- 
erate General  Dick  Taylor,  and  went  afterwards  into  camp 
at  Franklin  till  the  following  March.  Meantime  Adjutant 
John  B.  Weber  had  been  commissioned  to  form  a  colored 
regiment,  which  became  the  89th  U.  S.  Colored  Infantry, 
mustered  into  service  (  k  tuber  8,  1863.  Colonel  Weber  was 
placed  also  in  command  of  the  brigade  to  which  his  regi- 
ment belonged.  Subsequently  the  treatment  of  the  regiment 
by  General  Banks  was  deemed  so  unjust  by  the  officers  that 
all  resigned,  in  June,  1864.  At  that  time  the  1 16th,  called 
to  the  field  again  in  March,  had  been  through  the  ill- 
managed  Red  River  Expedition,  and  was  nearing  the  end 
of  its  service  in  the  southwest.  In  July  it  came  north  and 
was  sent  immediately  into  the  Shenandoah  Valley  to  take 
part  in  Sheridan's  brilliant  campaign.  At  Opequon, 
Fisher's  Hill  and  Cedar  Creek  it  fought  and  paid  its  toll  of 
lives.  Its  last  fighting  was  at  Cedar  Creek.  It  remained 
mi  duty  in  the  Valley  till  the  next  spring,  but  its  duties  were 
light.  In  March,  1865,  Colonel  Love  was  commissioned 
Brevet  Brigadier-General,  and  the  command  of  the  regi- 
ment devolved  upon  Lieutenant-Colonel  John  M.  Sizer, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  John  Higgins,  who  succeeded  Cottier, 
having  resigned  in  the  previous  September.  In  April  the 
1 1 6th  went  to  provost  duty  in  Washington;  in  June  it  came 
home,  and  its  reception  at  Buffalo,  on  the  13th,  was  such  as 
should  be  given  to  a  regiment  of  which  Sheridan,  in 
officially  endorsing  a  report  made  by  Colonel  Love  (before 
his  promotion),  had  said:  "The  regiment  of  Colonel  Love 
enjoys  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  in  the  Nineteenth 
Army  Corps."  The  history  of  the  regiment,  written  by 
Captain  Orton  S.  Clark,  was  published  in  1868. 

From  first  to  last,  the  losses  of  the  1 16th  were  as  follows: 


THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-FIFTH  N.  Y.  V.  79 

Killed  in  action,  3  officers,  58  enlisted  men;  died  of  wounds, 
2  officers,  36  enlisted  men;  died  of  disease,  2  officers,  119 
enlisted  men,  4  of  the  latter  while  in  the  enemy's  hands; 
wounded,  but  recovered,  9  officers,  243  men;  captured  by 
the  enemy,  1  officer,  61  enlisted  men. 

The  officers  who  died  in  the  service  were:  Colonel  Ed- 
ward P.  Chapin  (commissioned  Brigadier-General  after  his 
death),  Lieutenant  Timothy  J.  Linnahan,  killed  at  Port 
Hudson;  Captain  David  W.  Tuttle,  killed  at  Donaldsville; 
Lieutenant  Charles  Standart,  killed  at  Sabine  Cross  Roads; 
Captain  David  Jones,  died  of  wounds  received  at  Port 
Hudson;  Lieutenant  Charles  Borusky,  died  of  wounds  re- 
ceived at  Plain  Store;  Lieutenant-Colonel  Robert  Cottier 
and  Captain  James  Ayer,  died  of  disease. 

During  the  later  years  of  the  war  many  parts  of  organiza- 
tions for  all  branches  of  the  military  service  of  the  govern- 
ment were  made  up  in  Buffalo.  In  August,  1862,  Colonel 
John  E.  McMahon  received  authority  to  recruit  a  regiment 
for  the  Irish  Legion,  or  Corcoran's  brigade,  with  head- 
quarters in  this  city.  On  its  first  organization  the  regiment 
was  designated  as  the  155th  N.  Y.  Vols.;  but  a  subsequent 
reorganization  of  the  brigade  caused  some  shifting  of  com- 
panies, and  the  bulk  of  what  had  been  the  155th  became  the 
164th  Regiment,  with  Colonel  McMahon  in  the  command. 
Two  of  its  companies,  C  and  D,  were  enlisted  in  Buffalo. 
In  November  the  regiment  entered  service  at  Newport 
News,  Va.,  where  it  was  mustered  in,  and  it  served  in  Vir- 
ginia throughout  the  war.  During  the  campaign  of  1864, 
under  Grant,  it  was  among  the  frightful  sufferers  at  Cold 
Harbor,  from  the  mistake  of  the  assault  made  there  on  im- 
pregnable lines.  Four  of  its  officers  and  28  others  were 
killed  in  the  assault;  3  officers  and  27  enlisted  men  died  of 
wounds  received;  1  officer  and  41  enlisted  men  recovered 
from  wounds  received;  besides  these  there  were  "missing" 


80  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

3  officers  and  50  enlisted  men.  Colonel  John  E.  McMahon 
had  died  previously  of  disease,  at  Buffalo,  in  March,  1863. 
His  successor,  Colonel  James  P.  McMahon,  fell  in  this 
deadly  assault.  The  heroic  death  of  the  latter  is  memorial- 
ized in  one  of  the  finest  of  the  poems  of  the  late  David  Gray, 
entitled  "How  the  Young  Colonel  Died." 

Three  companies,  D,  G  and  H,  of  the  132nd  N.  Y.  Vols., 
recruited  in  1862  for  the  Spinola  Brigade,  were  raised  partly 
at  Buffalo.     Their  service  was  in  North  Carolina  during 

1863-4. 

One  company,  K,  for  the  151st  N.  Y.  Vols.,  went  partly 
from  Buffalo  to  service  in  Virginia,  West  Virginia  and 
Maryland. 

Another  company,  also  K,  was  contributed  by  this  city 
and  county  to  the  160th  N.  Y.  Vols.,  which  had  severe 
service  at  Port  Hudson,  in  the  Red  River  campaign  of 
General  Banks,  and  in  Sheridan's  Shenandoah  campaign. 

Of  the  1  1  th  Regiment  of  Cavalry,  known  originally  as 
"Scott's  Nine  Hundred,"  two  companies,  L  and  M,  were 
raised  partly  in  Buffalo  during  1862.  The  service  of  the 
regiment  was  in  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  Louisiana,  Mis- 
sissippi and  Tennessee. 

In  the  later  months  of  1862  the  27th  Independent  Battery 
of  Light  Artillery,  often  described  as  the  Buffalo  Light 
Artillery,  was  recruited  and  organized  in  the  city  by  Cap- 
tain John  B.  Eaton,  and  mustered  into  service  December 
17th.  Its  service  was  in  Virginia,  where  it  lost,  in  the 
operations  before  Petersburg,  2  men  who  died  of  wounds, 
and  c;  who  recovered  from  their  wounds. 

Late  in  the  same  year  and  early  in  1863  no  less  than  six 
companies,  D,  E,  H,  K,  L  and  M,  were  enlisted  wholly  or 
partly  in  Buffalo  for  the  12th  Cavalry  ("Third  Ira  Harris 
Guard"),  which  served  in  North  Carolina  till  the  end  of 
the  war. 


IN  THE  LAST  OF  THE  WAR  YEARS  8  I 

A  still  larger  contribution  was  made  in  1863  from  Buffalo 
to  the  1 6th  N.  Y.  Cavalry,  Colonel  Henry  M.  Lazelle. 
Companies  B,  C  and  D  were  enlisted  almost  fully  in  this 
city,  and  Companies  E,  G,  H  and  L  were  recruited  here  in 
part.     The  service  of  the  regiment  was  in  Virginia. 

Between  July  and  September,  1863,  the  33d  Independent 
Battery  of  Light  Artillery  was  enlisted,  principally  at  Buf- 
falo, and  served  in  Virginia  till  the  war  closed. 

One  company  for  the  13th  Cavalry  and  one  for  the  1 8th 
went  partly  from  the  city  the  same  year,  both  to  their  first 
service  against  the  rioters  of  New  York.  The  former  went 
afterwards  to  Virginia,  the  latter  to  Louisiana  and  Texas. 

In  the  late  months  of  1863  and  early  in  1864  parts  of  five 
companies,  C,  D,  F,  K  and  M,  were  recruited  in  Buffalo  for 
the  24th  N.  Y.  Cavalry,  and  had  service  in  Virginia  during 
the  remainder  of  the  war. 

In  the  same  period,  nine  of  the  twelve  companies  of  the 
2d  Regiment  of  Mounted  Rifles  were  recruited  in  part  at 
Buffalo.  The  regiment  left  the  State  in  March,  1864,  and 
had  severely  active  service  in  the  Virginia  operations  of  the 
last  year  of  the  war,  losing,  in  all,  by  death,  9  officers  and  209 
enlisted  men. 

The  last  three-years  regiment  that  was  raised  in  the  State, 
the  179th  N.  Y.  Vols.,  obtained  its  Company  E  and  parts  of 
four  other  companies  by  enlistments  at  Buffalo  in  1864. 
It  went  to  the  field  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  operations 
before  Petersburg  and  the  final  actions  of  the  war.  On 
June  17th,  soon  after  its  arrival  at  Petersburg,  Captain 
Daniel  Blatchford  of  Company  E  was  killed  in  a  desperate 
charge. 

On  the  istof  September,  1864,  Colonel  William  F.  Berens 
received  authority  to  raise  a  new  regiment,  the  187th  N.  Y. 
Vols.,  with  headquarters  for  the  enlistment  at  Buffalo,  and 
six  companies,  mustered  in  for  one  year,  were  ordered  to  the 


82  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

field  in  October,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Daniel  Myers.  Three  companies  went  later, — the  last  one 
in  May,  1865.  The  incomplete  regiment  took,  part  in  en- 
gagements at  Hatcher's  Run  and  White  Oak.  Bridge,  Vir- 
ginia. Many  of  its  members  were  volunteers  from  the  65th 
Regiment  of  State  Militia. 

The  final  recruiting  in  Buffalo  was  in  the  winter  and 
spring  of  1865  for  two  companies  in  a  regiment,  the  194th, 
which  did  not  reach  the  field. 

Of  the  naval  service  rendered  from  Buffalo  there  seems  to 
be  no  available  source  of  information.  That  it  was  con- 
siderable there  can  be  no  doubt.  It  happened  that  the  first 
of  the  dead  of  the  war  to  be  brought  home  to  our  city,  and 
to  receive  impressive  public  obsequies  (April  6,  1862),  was 
a  naval  officer.  Captain  Thomas  A.  Build,  killed  in  the  pre- 
ceding month  while  commanding  the  U.  S.  Steamer  Pen- 
guin in  an  engagement  at  Mosquito  Inlet,  on  the  east  coast 
of  Florida.  Captain  Budd  had  been  formerl)  m  the  U.  S. 
Navy,  had  commanded  the  flagship  of  Commodore  Wilkes 
in  his  Southern  Exploring  Expedition,  and  had  resigned. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  he  offered  himself  to  the 
government  at  once. 

The  men-folk  of  the  city  were  far  from  alone  in  the  pa- 
triotic services  of  the  time.  What  women  could  do  for  the 
national  cause,  by  softening  the  hardships,  soothing  the  suf- 
fering, cheering  the  hearts  of  its  defenders  in  the  field,  thev 
did,  with  unsparing  labor,  unceasing  thoughtfulness,  over- 
flowing gratitude  and  love.  A  great  concentration  of  the 
womanly  energies  of  the  city  for  such  service  was  effected  in 
November,  1861,  by  the  organization  of  the  Ladies'  General 
Aid  Society,  under  the  presidency  of  Mrs.  Horatio  Sey- 
mour, and  its  establishment  as  a  branch  of  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission,  conducting  the  local  work  of  that 
noblest  humane  agency  yet  seen,  at  that  day,  in  the  world. 


CENTRAL  FAIR  AND  OLD  SETTLERS'   FESTIVAL  83 

Later,  a  Ladies'  Christian  Commission,  locally  representing 
the  United  States  Christian  Commission,  was  organized,  and 
performed  similarly  energetic  work.  It  was  under  the 
auspices  of  the  latter  that  a  grand  Central  Fair,  opened  on 
the  22d  of  February,  1864,  was  conducted  for  nine  days 
with  such  success  as  to  realize  a  net  fund  of  $25,607  for 
undertakings  of  army  relief. 

One  of  the  notable  features  of  the  Fair  was  an  Old  Set- 
tlers' Festival,  at  which  many  survivors  of  the  village  period 
of  Buffalo,  even  back  to  the  destruction  of  it  in  1813,  joined 
in  giving  exhibitions  and  illustrations  of  life  as  it  was  in  the 
primitive  days.  With  daily  changes  of  programme,  the 
festival  was  conducted  for  a  week,  at  American  Hall,  while 
the  bazaar  section  of  the  Fair  occupied  St.  James  Hall,  on 
the  Washington  Street  side  of  the  site  of  the  present  Iroquois 
Hotel.  The  unique  fete  of  the  Old  Settlers  was  enjoyed  so 
greatly  that  it  was  repeated  annually  for  a  number  of  years. 

Everything  of  helpfulness  to  the  government  and  the  army 
had  liberal  support  from  the  business  men  of  Buffalo.  Gen- 
erally they  were  prospering  throughout  the  period  of  the 
war,  and  generally  they  gave  to  the  cherished  cause  with  a 
free  hand.  In  all  its  main  departments  the  business  of  the 
city  appears  to  have  derived  more  benefit  than  injury  from 
the  war.  Buffalo  had  had  little  dealing  with  the  Southern 
States  in  the  past;  lost,  therefore,  few  customers  or  debts; 
while  the  closing  of  southward  channels  turned  a  consid- 
erable new  movement  of  western  trade  into  the  highway  of 
the  lakes.  This  fact  was  noted  in  the  Buffalo  Express  of 
May  21,  1861,  when  it  said  :  "Buffalo  sees  the  commerce  of 
the  lakes,  of  which  she  is  mistress,  multiplied  and  increased 
by  the  disorders  of  the  Southwest  and  the  derangements  of 
the  border.  Trade  turned  northward  from  the  channels  it 
has  pursued  heretofore  takes  the  course  which  leads  it  into 
her  hands."     Four  months  later,  on  the  5th  of  September, 


84  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

it  could  still  say:  "The  conditions  of  business  have  re- 
mained with  us  scarcely  affected  by  the  turmoil  of  our  civil 
war,  and  what  depression  we  have  experienced  has  been 
almost  wholly  due  to  the  moral  influence  of  the  nation's 
troubles."  And  again,  on  the  23d  of  September:  "The 
business  of  Buffalo  is  thus  far  more  stately  in  its  proportions 
than  in  the  brightest  years  of  the  peaceful  past." 

hi  the  Civil  War  period  Buffalo  grew  in  population  from 
a  count  of  81,129  in  the  National  census  of  i860  to  94,2  10  in 
the  State  census  of  1865.  The  succeeding  five  years  carried 
the  enumeration  of  1870  up  to  117,714.  The  prosperity 
which  these  figures  suggest  came  to  the  city  as  the  opening 
ol  a  period  of  broader  and  more  energetic  development 
along  every  line  of  its  advance.  The  historic  incidents  of 
progress  hereafter  can  all  be  arranged  best  in  a  classified 
way,  on  those  various  lines,  and  not  much  outside  of  them 
remains  for  mention  in  this  general  sketch. 

A  brief  recurrence  of  war  excitements  was  produced  for 
the  city  in  1866,  In  the  crazily  planned  invasion  of  Canada 
by  a  few  hundreds  of  Fenians,  who  chose  Buffalo  as  their 
rendezvous  and  place  of  crossing  the  Niagara  River.  They 
entered  the  Dominion  in  the  early  morning  of  June  1,  ad- 
vanced a  few  miles  inland,  and  were  encountered  the  next 
day  by  Canadian  and  British  forces  at  Ridgway,  where  a 
sharp  but  brief  engagement  was  fought,  with  some  loss  on 
both  sides.  The  invaders  retired  from  it,  but  were  taken 
prisoners  by  the  authorities  of  the  United  States  on  their 
recrossing  of  the  river.  Fenian  reinforcements  which 
swarmed  to  Buffalo  for  some  days  came  too  late.  General 
Grant  arrived  in  the  city  on  the  2d,  and  placed  General  Wil- 
liam F.  Barrv  in  command  on  the  frontier;  Fort  Porter 
received  an  artillery  garrison;  but  the  affair  was  at  an  end. 
The  authorities  dealt  leniently  with  the  violators  of  interna- 
tional law,  and  Fenianism,  which  had  more  show  than  sub- 
stance in  it,  soon  expired. 


THE  CRISIS   OF    1873  85 

In  Buffalo,  as  elsewhere,  prosperity  was  checked  seriously 
by  the  conditions  that  produced  the  financial  crisis  of  1873; 
and  business  on  most  lines  showed  a  heavy  decline  from  1871 
to  1876.  Apparently,  however,  the  disturbance  in  many 
other  commercial  centers  was  considerably  greater  than 
here.  Notwithstanding  the  general  depression  of  industries, 
an  increasing  stream  of  foreign  immigration  flowed  to  the 
city  in  these  years,  and  from  other  lands  than  Germany  and 
Ireland,  which  had  sent  us  hitherto  nearly  all  that  we  had 
in  our  citizenship  that  was  alien  in  blood.  The  first  con- 
siderable planting  of  the  great  colony  of  Poles  which  has 
now  taken  almost  entire  possession  of  a  large  district  of  the 
city  occurred  in  this  period.  Somewhat  later  the  Italians 
began  coming  in  numbers.  Between  1870  and  1875  the 
city  population  advanced  from  117,714  to  134,557,  and  in 
1880  it  had  risen  to  155,134. 

The  most  serious  labor  strike  that  had  then  troubled  Buf- 
falo occurred  in  1877,  as  part  of  a  general  demonstration 
among  railway  employees  in  many  sections  of  the  country 
against  a  reduction  of  pay.  The  rioting  and  destruction  of 
property  that  attended  the  strike  were  more  violent  in  this 
city  and  in  Pittsburg  than  elsewhere.  Mobs  of  ruffians  of 
all  sorts  improved  the  opportunity  for  lawlessness,  and  were 
practically  in  possession  of  the  railroad  yards  for  four  days, 
from  the  22nd  to  the  25th.  Not  only  were  the  local  regi- 
ments of  militia  called  out,  but  neighboring  companies  were 
ordered  to  the  scene. 

There  came  now  a  time  of  remarkable  stimulation  in 
every  department  of  activity,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  exhibits 
of  development  that  are  reserved  for  subsequent  pages. 
This  led  up  to  the  only  inflation  of  real  estate  values  that 
Buffalo  has  ever  given  way  to  since  the  instructive  ex- 
perience of  1836-7.  A  remarkable  conservatism  in  the 
pricing  of  city  ground  had  prevailed  for  fifty  years;  and  it 


86  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

resisted  for  a  long  time  the  infectious  fevers  of  booming 
speculation  that  were  running  through  the  country  in  the 
eighties.  At  last,  in  about  1888,  it  succumbed,  and  real 
estate  speculation  rioted  for  the  next  four  or  five  years. 
Buffalo  was  equipped  in  that  period  with  street-extensions 
and  new  streets,  generally  sewered,  paved  and  gas-lighted  in 
advance  of  settlement  on  them,  which  more  than  twenty 
years  passed  since  have  hardly  filled;  and  our  city  map 
was  fringed  with  a  surrounding  of  projected  suburbs,  most 
of  which  exist  only  in  a  memory  of  lost  fortunes  to-day. 
The  losses  attending  the  collapse  of  the  inflation  were  wide- 
spread, and  depressed  the  whole  spirit  and  capability  of  the 
city  for  a  number  of  years. 

A  second  railroad  strike,  of  more  seriousness  locally  than 
that  of  1877,  occurred  in  1892.  It  lasted  longer,  beginning 
on  the  15th  of  August  and  collapsing  on  the  25th.  The 
situation  became  so  grave  that  a  large  part  of  the  State 
Militia,  even  from  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  State,  was 
ordered  to  Buffalo  by  the  Governor.  By  refusing  to  join  it 
the  organizations  of  trainmen  and  firemen  brought  it  to  an 
end. 

The  project  of  an  All-American  exposition  of  arts  and 
industries,  to  promote  trade  and  social  relations  between  the 
countries  and  peoples  of  North,  South  and  Central  America, 
and  to  be  held  on  the  Niagara  frontier,  was  conceived  and 
urged  in  1896  by  Captain  John  M.  Brinker,  of  Buffalo.  A 
number  of  enterprising  capitalists  and  business  men  became 
interested  in  the  scheme,  and  a  Pan-American  Exposition 
Company  was  incorporated  in  June,  1 897.  In  the  following 
September  the  directors  of  the  company  selected  Cavuga 
Island,  at  La  Salle,  about  two  miles  from  Niagara  Falls,  for 
the  site  of  the  proposed  exposition;  but  prospects  of  war 
with  Spain  and  other  discouragements  brought  a  halt  in  the 
undertaking  and  it  went  not  much  farther  at  the  time.  The 
idea,  however,  was  kept  alive. 


THE  PAN-AMERICAN   EXPOSITION  87 

When  the  war  with  Spain  had  come  and  gone,  Mayor 
Conrad  Diehl,  of  Buffalo,  was  induced  to  revive  the  proposi- 
tion, as  one  which  our  city  should  take  in  hand.  He  did  so 
in  a  special  message  to  the  Common  Council,  which  called 
out  an  effective  response.  A  new  company  was  incor- 
porated, originally  capitalized  at  $1,000,000,  but  having  that 
amount  raised  quickly  to  $2,500,000.  The  company  was 
authorized  to  issue  bonds  to  the  amount  of  its  stock,  and  both 
stock  and  bonds  were  taken,  mostly  at  home.  Appropria- 
tions of  $500,000  and  $300,000  for  National  and  State  ex- 
hibits were  obtained  at  Washington  and  Albany,  and 
agencies  for  wakening  interest  in  the  enterprise  worked 
actively  in  other  parts  of  the  Union  and  abroad.  Cayuga 
Island  was  discarded  as  a  practicable  site  for  the  exposition, 
because  of  inadequate  railway  facilities,  and  the  use  of  large 
grounds  on  the  northern  edge  of  Delaware  Park,  with  some 
use  of  the  Park  and  its  beautiful  lake,  was  obtained.  The 
Spanish  style  of  architecture  for  buildings  was  adopted  as 
appropriate,  in  view  of  the  extent  to  which  the  Spanish- 
American  peoples  were  expected  to  participate. 

When  all  preparations  were  in  working  order,  the  organ- 
ization of  chief  officials  of  the  Pan-American  Exposition 
was  as  follows: 

President:     John  G.  Milburn. 

Secretary:     Edwin  Fleming. 

Treasurer:     George  L.  Williams. 

Directors:  Frank  B.  Baird,  George  K.  Birge,  Herbert 
P.  Bissell,  George  Bleistein,  John  M.  Brinker,  Conrad 
Diehl,  W.  Caryl  Ely,  H.  M.  Gerrans,  Charles  W.  Good- 
year, Harry  Hamlin,  William  Hengerer,  Charles  R.  Hunt- 
ley, John  Hughes,  William  H.  Hotchkiss,  J.  T.  Jones,  F. 
C.  M.  Lautz,  John  G.  Milburn,  E.  G.  S.  Miller,  H.  J. 
Pierce,  John  N.  Scatcherd,  R.  F.  Schelling,  Carleton 
Sprague,  Thomas  W.  Symons,  George  Urban,  Jr.,  George 
L.  Williams. 


88  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

Executive  Committee:  John  N.  Scatcherd,  Chairman; 
George  K.  Birge,  Conrad  Diehl,  Harry  Hamlin,  Charles 
R.  Huntley,  J.  T.  Jones,  Robert  F.  Schelling,  Carleton 
Sprague,  Thomas  W.  Symons. 

Director-General:     William  I.  Buchanan. 

Commissioner-General  and  Auditor:     John  B.  Weber. 

Director  of  Concessions:     Frederick  W.   Taylor. 

Board  of  Architects:  John  M.  Carrere,  Chairman; 
George  F.  Shepley,  R.  S.  Peabody,  Walter  Cook,  J.  G. 
Howard,  George  Cary,  Edward  15.  Green,  August  C. 
Esenwein. 

Director  of  Color:     C.  Y.  Turner. 

Director  of  Sculpture:     Karl  Bitter. 

Director  of  Works:     Newcomb  Carleton. 

Landscape  Architect:     Rudulf  Ulrich. 

Chief  of  Building  Construction:     J.  H.  Murphy. 

Chief  Engineer:     S.  J.  Fields. 

Chief  of  M.  and  E.  Bureau:     Henry  Rustin. 

Director  of  Fine  Arts:     William  A.  Collin. 

Superintendent  of  Electric  Exhibits:     George  F.  Sever. 

Superintendent  of  Graphic  Arts,  Machinery,  etc.: 
Thomas  M.  Moore. 

Superintendent  of  Liberal  Arts:     Selim  H.  Peabody. 

Superintendent  of  Ethnolog)  and  Archaeology:  A.  L. 
Benedict. 

Superintendent  of  Live  Stock,  Dairy,  etc.:  Frank  A. 
Converse. 

Superintendent  of  Horticultural  and  Food  Products: 
F.  W.  Taylor. 

Superintendent  of  Mines  and  Metallurgy:  David  T. 
Day. 

Superintendent  of  Manufactures :     Alger  M.  Wheeler. 

As  happens  generally  in  such  undertakings,  the  appointed 
day  for  opening  the  Exposition,  May  i,  1901,  found  much 


THE  PAN-AMERICAN   EXPOSITION  89 

incompleteness  of  preparation  for  it,  but  mostly  in  matters 
which  general  managers  cannot  control.  Some  States  and 
some  foreign  countries  had  been  late  in  their  building 
undertakings,  and  great  numbers  of  exhibitors  were  unready 
to  make  use  of  the  space  they  had  engaged.  Something  of 
this  tardiness  was  due,  without  doubt,  to  the  dispiriting 
effects  of  a  wet  and  cold  spring.  The  opening  of  the  Ex- 
position to  the  public  took  place,  nevertheless,  on  the  ap- 
pointed day,  but  the  formal  ceremonies  of  its  inauguration 
were  postponed  until  the  20th.  Exercises  held  then  in  the 
Temple  of  Music  included  addresses  by  Vice-President 
Roosevelt,  Lieutenant-Governor  Timothy  L.  Woodruff,  of 
New  York,  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  of  Massachusetts, 
and  Mayor  Conrad  Diehl ;  with  noble  poems  read  by  Robert 
Cameron  Rogers  and  Frederick  Almy. 

The  United  States  Government  interested  itself  most 
heartily  in  the  Exposition,  and  realized  most  perfectly  in  its 
finely  organized  exhibits  the  instructive  main  purpose  in 
view.  Every  department  of  the  government  contributed 
something  interestingly  representative  of  the  functions  and 
public  services  it  performs,  or  of  the  national  resources  and 
activities  over  which  it  presides.  The  three  buildings  of 
the  group  in  which  these  exhibits  of  governmental  work 
were  arranged  became  the  centers  of  a  more  substantial 
attraction  than  any  others  on  the  ground. 

Thirteen  of  the  States  of  our  Federal  Union  were  repre- 
sented by  handsome  buildings  under  official  care.  The  fine 
permanent  building  of  New  York  State,  in  marble,  on  public 
park  grounds,  is  now  the  property  of  the  Buffalo  Historical 
Society.  The  New  England  States  were  joined  in  the  erec- 
tion of  a  beautiful  building  for  their  common  use.  The 
other  States  represented  by  governmental  buildings  were 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota 
and  Illinois.     Porto  Rico,  alone,  of  the  outlying  possessions 


90  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

of  the  United  States,  presented  exhibits  in  a  building  of  its 
own.  Other  American  countries  which  contributed  ad- 
mirably, not  only  to  the  Pan-American  display  of  resources 
and  products,  but  to  the  housing  of  them,  were  Canada, 
Mexico,  Cuba,  Chile,  Ecuador,  Honduras  and  the  Domin- 
ican Republic. 

That  Buffalo  was  benefited  by  the  Exposition  will  hardly 
be  disputed;  but  in  immediate  financial  results  it  was  not  a 
success.  A  late-coming  spring  ami  a  singularlj  unfavorable 
state  ot  weather  throughout  most  of  the  months  following 
were  blighting  in  themselves;  but  the  fatal  stroke  came  in 
the  awful  tragedy  of  the  assassination  of  President  Mc- 
Kinley,  which  occurred  on  the  6th  of  September.  While 
holding  a  reception  in  the  Temple  of  Music,  on  the  Exposi- 
tion grounds,  the  President  was  shot  by  a  Polish  anarchist, 
who  approached  him  in  the  passing  line  of  people,  with  a 
pistol  hidden  by  a  handkerchief  in  his  hand.  Death  was  not 
immediate  ;  there  were  eight  days  of  suffering,  heroically  en- 
dured, while  the  country  was  thrilled  with  hopes  and  fears. 
Death  came  on  the  14th,  and  Vice-President  Roosevelt  im- 
mediately took  the  oath  of  office  as  President,  at  the  resi- 
dence (if  Mr.  Ansley  Wilcox,  who  was  his  host  at  the  time. 

To  many  thousands  of  people  the  Pan-American  Exposi- 
tion is  a  delightful  memory;  but  it  was  not  thronged  as  it 
needed  to  be  for  an  immediate  repayment  of  its  cost.  The 
total  admissions  were  8,120,048;  the  total  revenue  from  ad- 
missions $2,406,875.80.  The  total  expenditures  upon  it 
were  $9,447,702.93  ;  the  total  income,  including  payments  on 
capital  stock  and  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  bonds,  was 
$8,869,757.20.  The  loss  to  stockholders  ($1,643,203.  qo  in 
amount)  was  entire.  First  mortgage  bonds  were  paid,  but 
nothing  was  received  by  the  holders  of  the  second  issue,  of 
$500,000.  Towards  the  payment  of  unsettled  accounts, 
which  amounted  to  $577,945.73,  a  Congressional  appropria- 
tion of  $500,000  was  obtained. 


VSSSm 


HOUSE  WHERE  McKINLEY  DIED, 
from  it  to  otl 

This  house,  which  was  built  early  in  the  development  of 

Buffalo,  was  occupied  and  owned  from  1884  to  1904  by 
John  G.  Milburn,  the  leading  attorney,  and  a  close  friend 
of  President  McKinley.  When  the  President  was  shot  on 
September  6,  1901,  he  was  taken  to  this  house,  where  he 
was  tenderly  cared  for  until  his  death  on  September  14th. 
Mr.  Milburn  removed  to  Xew  York  about  1404,  and  after- 
ward parted  with  the  house. 

gain 

of  the  cen 
The 
its  raci:  e  been  gre;  mer 

predominai  uted  by  the 

immense  ac 
in  the  city  is  esl 

result 
nducte< 


HE   "SOCIAL  SURVEY"   OF    1909-1910  91 

Since  th  interesting  year  of  the  Pan-American  Exposi- 
tion the  anals  of  the  city  have  been  eventful  in  little  beyond 
such  incidcts  of  development  and  growth  as  will  have  their 
proper  plae  in  chapters  that  follow  this  general  sketch. 
In  these  laest  years  there  have  been  marked  improvements 
of  civic  caracter  appearing.  A  different  public  spirit, 
more  gencalized  and  more  purposeful,  has  been  making 
itself  felt.  An  effective  marshalling  of  civic  forces, — the 
concentra  ;n  of  public  effort  to  well-chosen  public  ends, — 
has  becom  more  practicable  from  year  to  year. 

Falling  1  with  a  custom  then  prevalent,  Buffalo,  in  1907, 
set  apart  ie  first  days  of  September  as  an  "Old  Home 
Week,"  dcing  which  its  sons  and  daughters  who  had  gone 
from  it  to  ther  abodes  were  invited  to  a  festive  reunion  with 
their  old  nighbors  and  fellow  citizens.  They  came  in  large 
numbers  rom  far  and  near,  received  abundant  entertain- 
ment, bot  public  and  private,  and  the  city  enjoyed  a  happy 
week. 

The  cerus  of  1900  had  found  352,000  inhabitants  of  Buf- 
falo, agaist  255,664  in  1890,  showing  an  increase  of  nearly 
38  per  eer.  The  enumeration  of  1910,  announced  late  in  the 
year,  macs  the  present  population  423,715, — an  increase 
in  the  la:  decade  of  but  little  more  than  20  per  cent.  The 
gain  is  sdisappointing  as  to  raise  doubts  of  the  correctness 
of  the  cenus. 

The  inrease  of  foreign  population  has  been  very  great, 
and  its  rcial  lines  have  been  greatly  changed.  The  former 
predomiance  of  the  German  stock  is  being  disputed  by  the 
immense  accession  of  Poles,  whose  present  (1910)  number 
in  the  cir  is  estimated  to  be  not  less  than  80,000.  This  esti- 
mate is  ie  result  of  a  very  careful  and  thorough  "Social 
Survey/  onducted  in  1909-1910,  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
John  Daiels,  whose  report  of  his  findings  and  conclusions 
as  to  th    ondition  of  that  part  of  the  city  population  was 


THE  "SOCIAL  SURVEY"   OF    1909-1910  91 

Since  the  interesting  year  of  the  Pan-American  Exposi- 
tion the  annals  of  the  city  have  been  eventful  in  little  beyond 
such  incidents  of  development  and  growth  as  will  have  their 
proper  place  in  chapters  that  follow  this  general  sketch. 
In  these  latest  years  there  have  been  marked  improvements 
of  civic  character  appearing.  A  different  public  spirit, 
more  generalized  and  more  purposeful,  has  been  making 
itself  felt.  An  effective  marshalling  of  civic  forces, — the 
concentration  of  public  effort  to  well-chosen  public  ends, — 
has  become  more  practicable  from  year  to  year. 

Falling  in  with  a  custom  then  prevalent,  Buffalo,  in  1907, 
set  apart  the  first  days  of  September  as  an  "Old  Home 
Week,"  during  which  its  sons  and  daughters  who  had  gone 
from  it  to  other  abodes  were  invited  to  a  festive  reunion  with 
their  old  neighbors  and  fellow  citizens.  They  came  in  large 
numbers  from  far  and  near,  received  abundant  entertain- 
ment, both  public  and  private,  and  the  city  enjoyed  a  happy 
week. 

The  census  of  1900  had  found  352,000  inhabitants  of  Buf- 
falo, against  255,664  in  1890,  showing  an  increase  of  nearly 
38  per  cent.  The  enumeration  of  19 10,  announced  late  in  the 
year,  makes  the  present  population  423,715, — an  increase 
in  the  last  decade  of  but  little  more  than  20  per  cent.  The 
gain  is  so  disappointing  as  to  raise  doubts  of  the  correctness 
of  the  census. 

The  increase  of  foreign  population  has  been  very  great, 
and  its  racial  lines  have  been  greatly  changed.  The  former 
predominance  of  the  German  stock  is  being  disputed  by  the 
immense  accession  of  Poles,  whose  present  (1910)  number 
in  the  city  is  estimated  to  be  not  less  than  80,000.  This  esti- 
mate is  the  result  of  a  very  careful  and  thorough  "Social 
Survey,"  conducted  in  1909-1910,  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
John  Daniels,  whose  report  of  his  findings  and  conclusions 
as  to  the  condition  of  that  part  of  the  city  population  was 


92  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

published  June  4,  1910,  in  the  Survey,  the  weekly  "journal 
of  constructive  philanthropy,"  issued  by  the  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society  of  the  City  of  New  York.  The  80,000  were 
found  to  have  come  into  Buffalo  since  1870,  the  census  of 
that  year  having  shown  no  more  than  135  natives  of  Poland 
within  its  bounds.  Soon  after  that  date  the  tide  of  Polish 
immigration  began  to  rise.  In  1873  the  Polish  Catholics 
could  build  a  church  for  themselves,  on  ground,  at  the  corner 
of  Peckham  and  Townsend  Streets,  \\  Inch  was  given  to  them 
by  an  enterprising  dealer  in  real  estate,  Joseph  Bork.  This 
Church  of  St.  Stanislaus, — originally  a  frame  building, 
but  superseded  by  a  structure  of  stone  in  1884, — received  as 
its  pastor  a  young  Polish  priest,  Father  Jan  Pitass,  who  has 
been  in  charge  of  the  parish  ever  since.  "The  founding  of 
St.  Stanislaus,"  says  Mr.  Daniels  in  his  report,  "marked  the 
certain  beginning  of  the  rise  of  Buffalo's  Polish  colony. 
Father  Pitass  may  be  regarded  as  the  godfather  of  the  Poles 
in  Buffalo,  but  Joseph  Bork  played  the  part  of  nurse  to  the 
colony  in  its  infancy.  In  partnership  with  others,  he  owned 
a  large  tract  of  land  in  that  district.  Me  built  little  one-story 
wooden  dwellings  in  the  St.  Stanislaus  neighborhood — 400 
of  them  in  three  months  —  which  he  sold  to  the  Poles  on  the 
basis  of  twenty-five  or  fifty  dollars  down  and  the  rest  payable 
under  mortgage.  The  hard  times  following  the  panic  of 
1873  struck  the  colony  and  put  a  stay  to  immigration  for 
several  years.     But  by  the  close  of  the  year  1881 

there  were  about  10,000  Poles  in  the  city.  Few  of  the  immi- 
grants were  penniless,  but  few  had  more  than  enough  to 
keep  them  a  short  time  until  they  could  get  work. 
The  Charity  Organization  Society,  the  Catholic  Diocese, 
and  the  city  itself  were  forced  to  take  remedial  action.  The 
cit)  built  barracks,  which  provided  shelter  for  several  hun- 
dred of  the  most  needy.  *  Gradually  the  immi- 
grants secured  work.  Joseph  Bork  had  resumed  his  building 


OUR  POLISH   COLONY  93 

operations  in  the  open  region  east  of  St.  Stanislaus,  and  the 
newcomers  were  moving  thither  as  fast  as  he  could  supply 
them  with  houses.  In  due  course  the  barracks  were  cut  up 
into  firewood.  *  *  *  And  so  a  little  Poland  has  grown 
up  in  Buffalo,  only  it  is  not  so  very  little.  It  covers  an  entire 
section  of  East  Buffalo,  extending  a  mile  and  a  half  east  from 
St.  Stanislaus  Church  and  a  mile  north  and  south  at  its  mean 
width.  This  section  is  now  almost  solidly  Polish.  There  are 
two  small  outlying  colonies,  one  to  the  southeast  near  the 
city  line  and  the  other  at  Buffalo's  northwest  corner." 

Mr.  Daniel's  Survey  brought  facts  to  light  from  which  the 
following  estimates  were  derived  :  That  the  Poles  contribute 
a  fifth  of  the  entire  labor  supply  of  the  city,  and  fully  a  third 
of  the  rough  labor  in  manufacturing.  "They  are  in  Buf- 
falo's elemental  industries."  "Sixty  per  cent,  are  common 
laborers;  thirty  per  cent,  semi-skilled;  nine  and  five-tenths 
per  cent,  skilled;  three-tenths  of  one  per  cent,  highly 
skilled."  "Sixty-four  per  cent,  receive  in  wages  not  over 
$1.75  per  day,"  and  their  yearly  earnings  are  considerably 
less  than  is  required  for  proper  family  subsistence.  These 
enter  as  large  factors  into  the  gravest  social  problems  of  the 
city.  As  a  people  the  Poles  are  emphatically  pronounced 
to  be  "industrious,  thrifty,  pertinacious,  home-building 
family-founding."  The  more  fortunate  class  among  them 
are  finding  good  opportunities  for  rising  in  life.  They  own 
taxable  property  of  the  assessed  value  of  $5,505,890,  mostly 
in  homes;  and  have  deposits  in  the  savings  banks  to  the  esti- 
mated amount  of  $2,500,000.  Many  important  manufactur- 
ing and  commercial  establishments  are  owned  and  conducted 
by  Poles,  and  a  Polish  physician,  Dr.  Francis  E.  Fronczak, 
now  fills  the  important  office  of  Commissioner  of  Health. 

Necessarily  such  bodies  of  foreign  population  become 
formed  into  quite  distinct  organizations  of  society,  and  this 
has  taken  place  very  markedly  among  the  Poles.   They  have 


94  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

emphasized  their  organization  especially  by  what  may  be 
called  a  social  center,  in  a  large,  well-appointed  building, 
known  as  the  Dom  Polski,  erected  in  1905,  at  the  corner  of 
Broadway  and  Playter  Streets.  Here  many  clubs  and 
societies, — literary,  musical,  benevolent,  patriotic  and  com- 
mercial,— hold  their  meetings.  The  Public  Library  has  one 
of  its  branches  in  the  building,  and  this  is  supplemented  by  a 
distinctly  Polish  library  of  4,000  volumes--  the  Czytelnia 
Polski  —  maintained  independently,  and  in  connection  with 
which  frequent  lectures  are  given.  Teaching,  too,  in  cook- 
ing, sewing,  and  other  practical  matters,  is  carried  on;  and 
the  Dom  Polski,  altogether,  is  a  very  busy  and  useful  institu- 
tion, significant  of  a  spirit  which  makes  for  good  citizenship. 

A  stream  of  immigration  less  swelling  than  the  Polish, 
but  greatly  increasing,  has  poured  in  from  Italy  in  recent 
years,  taking  possession  of  another  quarter  of  the  city,  on 
its  western  and  southwestern  edges,  and  giving  it  another 
and  different  foreign  stamp.  Out  on  its  southern  side,  mostly 
beyond  its  municipal  bounds,  the  great  steel  works  of  recent 
creation  have  been  drawing  colonies  of  Hungarian,  Croa- 
tian, and  other  labor-seeking  peoples  from  southeastern 
Europe,  to  struggle  for  a  footing  in  the  life  of  the  New 
World.  The  industrial  depression  that  came  upon  the  coun- 
try in  the  autumn  of  1907  caused  great  hardship  and  suffer- 
ing among  these,  considerably  beyond  the  general  experi- 
ence of  distress. 

Of  the  total  352,387  inhabitants  found  in  Buffalo  by  the 
census  of  1900,  248,135  were  native-born,  but  only  92,202 
were  of  native  parentage  —  having  both  parents,  that  is,  of 
native  birth.  It  appears,  then,  that  scarcely  more  than  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  of  the  city  at  the  opening  of  the 
twentieth  century  was  of  native  American  stock.  Of  the 
census  of  1910  detailed  statistics  have  not  yet  been  made 
known. 


RECENT  MUNICIPAL  ACHIEVEMENTS  95 

Within  the  last  two  years  (1909-1910)  of  the  period  cov- 
ered by  this  historical  sketch  a  number  of  municipal  projects 
long  contemplated  and  discussed  have  arrived  or  ap- 
proached closely  to  their  realization.  These  include  two 
important  proceedings  for  recovery  of  considerable  parts 
of  the  city's  lost  command  of  its  water  fronts.  By  action  in 
one  case,  through  condemnation  proceedings,  the  munici- 
pality is  taking  possession  of  the  land  lying  between  Georgia 
and  Jersey  Streets,  on  the  Niagara  shore,  for  excursion 
dockage  and  other  uses  that  will  satisfy  a  great  public  need. 
In  the  other  instance,  a  complicated  tangle  of  claims  con- 
cerning the  land  known  as  "the  sea-wall  strip,"  between 
Buffalo  River  and  the  outer  harbor,  and  connected  also  with 
disputed  rights  affecting  the  old  turnpike  road  to  Hamburg, 
is  at  the  point  of  being  straightened  out.  The  old  sea  wall, 
built  in  1841  and  after,  along  the  stretch  of  peninsula  be- 
tween Buffalo  River  and  the  lake,  lost  usefulness  when  the 
great  outside  breakwater  was  built,  but  the  strip  of  land 
which  held  it,  and  to  which  the  city  had  acquired  title,  was 
given  an  important  value  by  the  creation  of  the  outer  har- 
bor, and  by  the  development  of  the  steel  and  iron  industries 
of  Lackawanna,  at  the  extremity  of  the  long  harbor,  on  the 
southern  shore  of  the  lake.  By  legislation  in  1898  the  city's 
use  of  the  strip  appears  to  have  been  limited  to  "highway 
purposes;"  but  it  was  needed  very  greatly  for  that  use,  be- 
cause it  offered,  by  easy  connection  with  the  Hamburg  turn- 
pike road,  the  only  available  direct  highway  between  the 
Lackawanna  industrial  suburb  and  the  central  and  western 
parts  of  the  city.  Grants  of  privilege  to  various  railroad 
companies,  made  carelessly,  without  forethought,  long  be- 
fore, and  affecting  not  only  the  sea  wall  but  the  turnpike, 
interposed  such  obstacles  to  this  opening  of  a  most  important 
communication  that  the  city  has  been  barred  from  it  down 
to  the  present  day.    By  legislation  in  1902,  amending  that 


96  THE  ERA  OF  THE  RAILWAYS 

of  1898,  negotiations  for  an  adjustment  of  the  disputes  in- 
volved were  authorized  and  have  been  in  tedious  progress 
throughout  most  of  the  eight  years  since.  They  may  now 
be  considered  to  have  attained  success.  In  his  message  to  the 
Common  Council  on  the  3d  of  January,  191 1,  Mayor  Fuhr- 
mann  announced  that  agreements  with  all  parties  concerned 
had  been  perfected  and  would  be  signed  in  a  few  days. 

A  third  undertaking,  pressed  on  the  city  by  a  distress- 
ingly urgent  need,  but  held  long  in  suspense  by  conflicts  of 
interest  and  opinion,  has  been  brought  at  last  to  a  promising 
stage,  by  the  adoption  of  a  conclusive  plan  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  upper  stretches  (within  the  city  limits)  of  Buf- 
falo River.  By  having  two  objects  in  contemplation, 
namely,  the  ending  of  floods,  from  which  a  large  section  of 
the  city  suffers  frequently,  and  the  enhancing  of  the  com- 
mercial usefulness  of  this  part  of  the  crooked  stream,  the 
improvement  has  been  hindered  for  years  by  struggling 
differences  of  plan.  These  seem  now  to  have  been  effec- 
tually compromised,  and  the  letting  of  contracts  for  the 
work  has  been  announced  as  a  consummation  to  be  expected 
early  in  191 1. 

Still  another  important  project  of  long  standing  is  to  be 
realized  fully  in  the  coming  spring,  by  widening  the  nar- 
rower part  of  Elmwood  Avenue,  between  North  and  Vir- 
ginia Streets,  and  extending  it  thence  to  a  junction  with 
Morgan  Street,  at  Chippewa  Street,  thus  opening  the 
straight  downtown  communication  which  the  "Elmwood 
District,"  so  called,  has  needed  for  many  years.  The  widen- 
ing work  was  completed  in  the  fall  of  19 10,  and  the  exten- 
sion is  expected  to  be  finished  in  the  coming  spring. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    EVOLUTION 


CHAPTER   I 

THE    MAKING   OF   A   HARBOR 

AS  shown  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  volume,  Buffalo, 
during  the  first  quarter  of  its  existence,  had  no  con- 
nection of  trade  with  any  part  of  the  world  outside 
of  a  small  circle  of  near  neighbors,  more  Indian  than  white. 
The  community  which  bore  the  name  then  derived  no  com- 
mercial benefit  from  its  advantageous  position  at  the  foot  of 
the  navigably  connected  Great  Lakes.  Those  advantages 
went  wholly  to  the  profit  of  the  rival  village,  at  two  or  three 
miles  distance,  which  Buffalo,  after  years  of  hard  struggle, 
overcame  and  absorbed.  Ultimately,  the  commerce  of 
Black  Rock  was  to  be  indistinguishable  from  the  commerce 
of  Buffalo,  but  the  distinction  was  a  very  positive  one  in 
early  days. 

On  the  surrender,  in  1796,  of  the  forts  which  the  British 
had  held  since  the  end  of  the  War  of  Independence,  there 
sprang  up  at  once  a  movement  of  supplies  to  the  American 
garrisons  at  those  posts  in  the  West,  which  gave  an  opening 
to  other  enterprises  in  trade.  In  one  of  the  chapters  of 
Judge  Samuel  Wilkeson's  historical  writings,  to  be  found 
in  the  fifth  volume  of  the  publications  of  the  Buffalo  His- 
torical Society,  this  first  trickling  of  a  little  stream  of  East- 
West  traffic  into  the  channel  of  these  lakes,  and  its  quite 
curiously  roundabout  course,  are  described.  A  prominent 
citizen  of  Pittsburg,  General  James  O'Hara,  entered  into 
contract  with  the  government  to  supplv  Oswego  with  pro- 
visions, which  "could  then  be  furnished  from  Pittsburg," 
wrote  the  Judge,  "cheaper  than  from  the  settlements  on  the 

97 


98  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

Mohawk.  General  O'Hara  was  a  far-sighted  calculator;  he 
had  obtained  correct  information  in  relation  to  the  manu- 
facture of  salt  at  Salina,  and  in  his  contract  for  provisioning 
the  garrison  he  had  in  view  the  supplying  of  the  western 
country  with  salt  from  Onondaga.  This  was  a  project  which 
few  men  would  have  thought  of,  and  fewer  undertaken.  The 
means  of  transportation  hail  to  be  created  on  the  whole  line; 
boats  and  teams  had  to  be  provided  to  get  the  salt  from  the 
works  to  Oswego;  a  vessel  built  to  transport  it  to  the  land- 
ing below  the  Falls;  wagons  procured  to  carry  it  to  Schlos- 
ser;  then  boats  constructed  to  carry  it  to  Black  Rock;  there 
another  vessel  was  required  to  transport  it  to  Erie.  The  road 
to  the  head  of  French  Creek  had  to  be  improved  and  the 
salt  carried  in  wagons  across  the  portage,  ami  finally  boats 
provided  to  float  it  to  Pittsburg.  It  required  no  ordinary 
sagacity  and  perseverance  to  give  success  to  this  speculation. 
General  O'Hara,  however,  could  execute  as  well  as  plan. 
He  packed  his  flour  and  provisions  in  barrels  suitable  for 
salt.  These  were  reserved  in  his  contract.  Arrangements 
were  made  with  the  manufacturers,  and  the  necessary  ad- 
vances paid,  to  secure  a  supply  of  salt.  Two  vessels  were 
built,  one  on  Lake  Erie  and  one  on  Lake  Ontario,  and  the 
means  of  transportation  on  all  the  various  sections  of  the 
line  were  secured.  The  plan  fully  succeeded,  and  salt  of  a 
pretty  fair  quality  was  delivered  at  Pittsburg  and  sold  at 
four  dollars  per  bushel;  just  half  the  price  of  the  salt  ob- 
tained by  packing  across  the  mountains.  In  a 
few  years  Pittsburg  market  was  supplied  with  Onondaga 
salt  at  twelve  dollars  per  barrel  of  five  bushels." 

This  salt  trade  of  Syracuse  with  Pittsburg  appears  to 
have  been  the  mainstay  for  a  good  many  years  of  the  river 
and  lake  shipping  business  which,  for  reasons  already  ex- 
plained, gave  importance  to  Black  Rock.  It  furnished  the 
bulk  of  the  freight  handled  there,  after   [805,  by  Porter, 


BLACK  ROCK  IN    1 8 10  99 

Barton  &  Co.,  the  creators  of  Black.  Rock  as  a  port  of  trade. 
Mr.  Charles  D.  Norton,  in  his  paper  on  "The  Old  Black 
Rock  Ferry,"  describes  the  business  of  "the  Rock"  as  it  was 
witnessed  by  one  who  came  to  the  place  in  1810:  "A  few 
batteaux  were  moving  sluggishly  up  the  stream,  laden  with 
salt.  These  constituted  the  commercial  marine  of  the  river, 
the  principal  business  of  which  was  the  transportation  of 
this  commodity  from  Porter  and  Barton's  dock,  at  old  Fort 
Schlosser,  to  their  warehouse  at  Black  Rock,  or  their  wharf 
under  the  lee  of  Bird  Island,  to  be  conveyed  thence  to  Erie, 
then  the  principal  commercial  port  on  our  lake.  *  *  * 
Four  or  five  vessels  were  engaged  in  this  business  on  the 
river,  each  carrying  from  125  to  150  barrels  of  salt,  owned 
by  Porter,  Barton  &  Co. ;  their  proprietors  residing  at  Black 
Rock  and  Syracuse.  When  the  wind  was  blowing  down  the 
lake,  the  vessels  running  from  Black  Rock  to  Erie  were  fre- 
quently wind-bound  at  the  former  place  for  a  long  time,  and 
then  there  would  grow  an  accumulation  of  five  or  six  thou- 
sand barrels  of  salt,  which  were  piled  in  tiers  upon  the  shore 
of  the  river,  under  the  bank,  and  remained  stored  in  this 
way  till  they  could  be  carried  to  Erie.  'The  Black  Rock' 
was  a  great  salt  exchange;  and  the  witnesses  upon  whose 
statements  I  narrate  these  facts  say  that  it  was  not  a  rare 
occurrence  for  the  Rock  to  be  covered  with  traders  from 
Pittsburg,  captains  of  vessels  and  boatmen,  who  met  there 
to  talk  about  business  and  interchange  views.  The  Black 
Rock  was  a  sort  of  commercial  center  for  the  salt  merchants 
in  those  early  days,  and  the  old  tavern  was  quite  as  distin- 
guished along  the  frontier  as  the  Fifth  Avenue  and  the  St. 
Nicholas  are  in  our  time." 

Porter,  Barton  &  Co.,  however,  were  carriers  of  other 
freight  from  the  East  than  salt.  In  the  Reminiscences  of 
Mr.  James  L.  Barton,  son  of  one  of  the  members  of  the  firm, 
he  tells  of  their  connection  with  lines  of  transportation  that 


IOO  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

reached  to  the  Hudson,  by  way  of  Wood  Creek  and  the 
Mohawk,  from  Oswego.  They  received  merchandise 
brought  by  lake  from  Oswego,  at  Lewiston,  conveying  it 
thence  to  Black  Rock,  "where  they  had  vessels  to  carry  it 
over  the  lake."  The  short  passage  of  vessels  from  Black 
Rock  into  the  lake,  against  the  swift  current  of  the  Niagara, 
could  not  be  made  with  sails,  and  the  office  of  the  modern 
tug  was  performed  for  them  by  long  trains  of  ox  teams, 
eight  to  fourteen  in  number,  which  towed  them  by  hawsers 
attached  to  the  ship's  masthead  and  buoyed  to  shore  by  a 
number  of  boats.  1 1  \\  as  a  dexterous  operation,  which  Cap- 
tain Sheldon  Thompson  superintended  with  great  skill. 

The  small  quantity  of  freight  delivered  to  lake  vessels 
from  the  village  of  Buffalo  in  those  days  was  taken  out  to 
them  on  scows,  as  they  lay  at  anchor  in  the  bay.  But  until 
1 82 1  Buffalo  had  next  to  no  part  or  lot  in  the  handling  of 
whatever  commerce  of  the  lakes  had  come  to  existence  at  that 
time.  The  Buffalo  Creek  (dignified  since  by  much  enlarge- 
ment and  recognized  as  a  river)  offered  no  harborage,  even 
to  the  smaller  shipping  of  the  day,  because  nothing  larger 
than  a  canoe  could  cross  the  bar  at  its  mouth.  During  those 
first  two  decades  of  the  village  its  business  loss  from  this 
cause  cannot  have  been  great,  but  the  undertaking  of  the 
Erie  Canal  opened  a  prospect  of  trade  movements  into  and 
out  of  Lake  Erie  which  gave  seriousness  to  the  situation  at 
once.  Whether  the  western  terminus  of  the  canal  should  be 
at  Black  Rock  or  at  Buffalo  was  a  question  of  great  im- 
portance, for  the  time  being,  to  the  latter  town.  Ultimately 
it  would  make  no  difference;  for  the  final  harbor  and  entre- 
pot, it  is  plain,  would  have  to  be  where  they  are  now;  but 
the  harborage  then  created  and  creatable  at  the  Rock  might 
have  kept  traffic-handling  there,  and  drawn  the  growth  of 
our  city  in  that  direction  for  many  vears. 

From  the  beginning  it  was  apparent  to  intelligent  Buffa- 


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SHELDl  >.\    II  li  IMPS"  >N. 

Born  Derby,  <  'onnecticut,  July  j,  17-  first  am  ■ 

in  the  country  was  Anthonv  Thompson,  who  came  in  11 
and  was  one  of  the  found*  I  ,\  I  laven.    [n  1810;  Shel- 

don Thompson  came  t/q  Lewis  top,  New  York.  .  the 

firm  of  Townsend,  Brons  I  the  earliest 

firms  in  the  forwarding  business  on  the  lakes.     He  man 
Catherine   Barton  at  Lewfetbh1,  April  1  to 

Black  Rock  nd  (6  RnfVal-  Pn   1*40  he  v 

elected  mayor  of  Buffalo,  being  the  rirst  mayor  elected  by 
the  people.  J  le  was  one  of  the  founders  of  St.  Paul's 
Church  in  1817,  and  a  member  of  the  In -t  w  -tr>  .  .lied  at 
Buffalo,   March   i.j.    it 


y/f  f< ,  /  i/t^ -■?  <>  -.  c 


THE  MEN  WHO  WON  THE  CANAL  FOR  BUFFALO        IOI 

lonians  that  the  State  would  not  extend  its  canal  to  their 
creek  unless  they  made  the  creek  serviceable  as  a  port,  and 
demonstrated  their  ability  to  do  the  business  for  which  the 
canal  was  being  built.  This  required  an  expenditure  of 
money  which  the  pockets  of  the  citizens  could  not  supply; 
for  those  were  days  when  the  largest  fortunes  were  exceed- 
ingly small.  At  a  public  meeting  it  was  determined  that  the 
State  should  be  appealed  to  for  a  loan.  This  was  done,  and 
the  Legislature,  in  April,  1819,  responded  favorably  to  the 
appeal,  authorizing  a  loan  of  $12,000  for  twelve  years,  to  be 
secured  by  bond  and  mortgage  in  double  the  amount.  The 
year  1819  was  the  first  of  those  black  years  in  our  financial 
and  commercial  history  to  which  1837  and  1857  belong.  All 
business  was  flat  and  everybody  was  poor.  For  months  it 
seemed  impossible  to  furnish  the  necessary  security  for  the 
loan.  At  length,  in  the  winter  of  1820,  three  public-spirited 
citizens,  Judge  Samuel  Wilkeson,  Judge  Oliver  Forward, 
and  Judge  Charles  Townsend,  took  upon  themselves  the 
entire  responsibility,  becoming  sureties  to  the  State  for 
$8,000  each.  On  this  the  loan  was  procured,  and  a  man  of 
reputed  experience  in  the  work  required  was  engaged  to 
superintend  operations,  at  a  salary  of  $50  per  month.  A  few 
weeks  of  his  service  convinced  the  three  judges  who  had 
so  much  staked  in  the  undertaking  that  their  superintendent 
would  spend  the  $12,000  more  certainly  than  he  would  open 
the  port.  They  discharged  him,  but  found  no  one  to  take  his 
place.  With  great  reluctance,  as  a  matter  of  almost  desper- 
ate necessity,  Judge  Wilkeson  was  induced  to  take  the  direc- 
tion of  the  work.  He  knew  nothing  about  it;  he  had  never 
even  seen  a  harbor;  but  he  had  brains  and  will  and  energy 
far  beyond  common  limits,  and  he  was  a  born  leader  of  men. 
He  was  engaged,  as  he  states,  in  "business  that  required  his 
unremitted  attention,"  but  he  seems  to  have  thrown  it  prac- 
tically aside  during  most  of  the  next  two  years. 


102  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

Then,  in  the  early  spring  of  1820,  this  indomitable  man 
and  his  few  earnest  helpers  began  a  contest  with  winds, 
waves,  currents  and  shifting  sands  which  might  in  older 
times  have  furnished  stuff  for  a  hero-myth. 

On  the  first  morning  after  he  took  the  task  in  hand  the 
Judge  had  his  men  out  by  daylight,  "without  suitable  tools, 
without  boats,  teams  or  scows."  "Neither  the  plan  of  the 
work  nor  its  precise  location  was  settled;  but  the  harbor 
was  commenced."  It  was  determined  to  attempt  the  making 
ol  a  pier  of  hewn  timber,  filled  with  stone,  and  three  cribs 
were  put  down  the  first  day.  During  that  day  and  the  next 
the  lake  was  calm,  but  in  the  course  of  the  second  night  a 
heavy  swell  arose  which  undermined  the  sunken  cribs  and 
threw  them  out  of  line.  Accidentally,  a  part  of  the  work 
was  saved  from  this  disturbance  by  the  drifting  against  it  of 
a  little  tangle  of  brushwood,  which  caught  and  held  a  pro- 
tecting cover  of  sand.  This  hinted  a  lesson  in  engineering 
that  was  seized  at  once.  Thereafter,  every  crib  was  sunk 
upon  a  bed  of  brush,  ami  staved  quite  firmly  in  its  place, 
from  daylight  to  dark,  through  sunshine  and  rain  alike, 
the  superintendent  toiled  daily  with  his  men,  in  every  part 
oi  the  work,  under  water  or  above,  besides  conducting  all 
details  of  contract  and  purchase,  without  clerk  or  assistant, 
and  without  even  a  carpenter  to  lay  out  the  framing  of  the 
cribs  during  the  first  two  months. 

When  autumn  storms  began  the  pier  had  been  carried  to 
a  depth  of  seven  and  a  half  feet  of  water  in  the  lake,  having 
a  length  of  about  fifty  rods.  Work  on  it  was  then  suspended 
till  the  following  spring,  and  attention  turned  to  another 
very  difficult  part  of  the  task.  The  creek  at  that  time  entered 
the  lake  about  a  thousand  feet  north  of  its  present  mouth, 
running  nearly  parallel  with  the  lake  shore.  A  new  channel 
for  it  must  be  opened,  on  the  line  of  the  present  outflow  of 
its  waters,  by  cutting  through  the  intervening  spit  of  sand, 


JUDGE  WILKESON'S  TRIUMPH  103 

which  had  a  width  of  some  twenty  rods.  The  plan  was  to 
dam  the  stream  at  that  point,  scrape  out  a  beginning  of  the 
new  channel  and  trust  that  spring  floods  would  scour  it  to  a 
sufficient  depth.  In  November  the  attempt  was  begun,  by 
volunteer  labor  of  many  citizens,  and  discouraged  very  soon 
by  the  discovery  of  stones  and  gravel  at  a  little  depth  which 
floods  seemed  unlikely  to  carry  to  deep  water  in  the  lake. 
So  the  problem  of  the  new  channel  went  over  to  the  next 
spring. 

On  the  20th  of  May  the  problem  was  attacked ;  the  pier 
meantime  having  stood  the  test  of  winter  storms  and  ice, 
coming  out  unmoved.  The  creek  was  dammed  on  a  line 
with  the  right  bank  of  the  desired  channel,  raising  the  water 
in  it  about  three  feet,  and,  by  opening  one  narrow  sluice- 
way after  another  through  the  bed  to  be  opened,  the  in- 
genious amateur  engineer  of  the  work  did  succeed  in  almost 
accomplishing  the  cut  desired.  Then  nature  played  one  of 
her  mischievous  tricks,  sending,  on  what  had  seemed  to  be  a 
calm  day,  a  sudden  extraordinary  blast  of  wind  across  the 
lake,  which  drove  an  irresistible  wave  down  upon  the 
Judge's  dam  and  reduced  it  to  a  total  wreck.  A  northeast 
storm  of  rain  soon  followed,  with  threatenings  of  a  flood 
that  might  spoil  all  that  had  been  done  if  it  ran  uncon- 
trolled. The  whole  town  was  then  appealed  to  for  help  in 
restoring  the  dam,  and  a  large  number  of  citizens  turned  out 
in  the  downpour  of  rain.  "They  were  distributed  in  parties, 
some  getting  brush,  others  collecting  logs,  some  placing 
materials  in  the  dam,  while  others  aided  in  working  the  pile- 
driver.  Their  labor  was  continued  during  the  day,  except  a 
few  minutes'  relaxation  for  dinner,  which  consisted  of  bread 
and  beer,  and  was  taken  standing  in  the  rain."  Twelve  hours 
of  this  fine  rally  of  public  effort  turned  the  half-disastrous 
storm  into  a  helpful  force,  which  went  beyond  all  that  had 
been  hoped  for  in  cutting  the  new  channel  through,     ft  ere- 


104  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

ated  a  flood  that  swept  no  less  than  20,000  cubic  yards  of 
gravel  from  its  path,  "to  remove  which,"  wrote  Judge 
\\  ilkeson,  "would  have  required  a  greater  amount  of  money 
than  all  the  harbor  fund."  From  that  day,  Buffalo  had  a 
harbor  for  vessels  of  five  feet  draught. 

This,  of  course,  did  not  suffice,  and  much  difficult  work 
remained  to  be  done.  The  pier  must  be  extended  to  deeper 
water,  which  required  additional  funds  to  the  amount  of 
$1,000  to  be  raised.  With  great  difficulty  the  money  was  col- 
lected, and  the  pier  was  lengthened  to  1,300  feet,  reaching 
water  about  twelve  feet  deep.  It  was  now  believed  that  the 
next  spring  freshet  would  so  deepen  and  widen  the  entrance 
that  even  the  Walk-in-the- Water,  the  solitary  steamboat  on 
the  lakes,  could  come  into  the  creek. 

But  the  Walk-in-the-Water  was  not  destined  to  make  a 
trial  of  the  new  port.  Late  that  year  (1821),  on  her  final 
trip  for  the  season,  she  was  driven  ashore,  a  short  distance 
above  Buffalo,  and  was  lost.  Her  New  York  owners  pro- 
ceeded, however,  to  replace  her  at  once.  They  contracted 
with  a  New  York  firm  to  build  a  steamboat  at  Buffalo,  if 
they  could  turn  it  out  there  as  cheaply  as  at  Black  Rock, 
where  the  Walk-in-the-Water  had  been  built;  but  when  the 
chief  contractor  came  on  to  make  his  arrangements  for  the 
work  he  passed  through  Buffalo  to  the  Rock  and  entered 
into  engagements  and  agreements  which  nearly  tied  his 
hands  before  anybody  in  Buffalo  knew  what  was  going  on. 
He  had  been  told  that  the  Buffalo  harbor  was  a  failure,  and 
was  acting  on  that  belief.  Being  caught  that  night  by  the 
enterprising  spirits  of  the  newly  opened  port,  they  con- 
tracted with  him  to  furnish  timber  and  lumber  for  his 
steamboat  at  prices  a  quarter  less  than  the  Black  Rock  offers, 
and  executed  a  judgment  bond  to  pay  the  steamboat  com- 
pany $150  for  every  day's  detention  of  the  boat  in  the  creek 
after  the  1st  of  May.     This  was  a  daring  venture;  for  they 


JUDGE   WILKESON'S   SECOND   VICTORY  105 

were  trusting  the  spring  freshet  to  make  a  sufficient  channel 
for  the  new  boat.  The  freshet  came  in  due  time  and  did  its 
expected  work,  but  a  malicious  grounding  of  ice  outside 
caused  the  washed-out  gravel  to  be  dropped,  most  unfortu- 
nately, just  where  it  created  a  new  bar. 

And  now  came  the  crucial  test  of  spirit  and  power  in  the 
harbor-makers.  The  first  of  May  was  approaching-rapidly, 
and  the  new  steamboat,  the  "Superior,"  was  nearing  com- 
pletion, in  Buffalo  Creek.  A  forfeit  of  $150  a  day,  if  she 
could  not  be  got  out  of  it  when  ready,  would  quickly  impov- 
erish them  all.  They  had  no  dredging  apparatus  of  any 
kind.  What  could  they  do?  Judge  Wilkeson  was  out  of 
town,  but  he  hastened  home  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  situa- 
tion. Next  morning  he  had  twenty-five  men  at  work,  with- 
out waiting  to  know  how  expenses  were  to  be  paid.  He  had 
scrapers  made  of  oak  plank,  with  bevelled  edges  shod  with 
iron.  These  were  loaded  with  iron  to  sink  them,  and 
dragged  to  and  fro  across  the  bar,  by  means  of  ropes  and 
windlasses  on  the  pier  and  on  scows  held  in  place  by  driven 
piles.  The  rude  device  answered  well,  and  all  looked  prom- 
ising for  several  days.  Then  came  a  storm  which  drove 
masses  of  ice  in  from  the  lake,  destroyed  the  scows,  and  so 
nearly  wrecked  the  pile-driver,  on  which  everything  de- 
pended, that  it  was  saved  only  by  great  risk  of  life. 

A  general  meeting  of  citizens  was  now  summoned  by 
Judge  Wilkeson,  who  declined  to  go  further  in  the  under- 
taking unless  funds  for  it  were  raised  at  once.  A  subscrip- 
tion list  was  opened  and  $1,361  was  pledged,  mostly  to  be 
paid  in  labor  or  provisions  or  other  goods.  With  this  pledge 
the  invincible  superintendent  got  his  scrapers  again  at  work, 
and  when  the  1st  of  May  came,  the  pilot  of  the  steamer, 
Captain  Miller,  who  had,  says  Judge  Wilkeson,  "made  him- 
self acquainted  with  what  channel  there  was,"  ran  her  out 
into  the  lake.    Whereupon  the  formidable  bond  was  can- 


106  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

celled,  and  the  triumphant  Buffalonians  could  go  on  with 
easy  minds  to  the  finish  of  their  work. 

In  the  history  of  Buffalo  there  has  been  nothing  since  that 
first  harbor-making  that  matched  it  as  an  exhibit  of  ener- 
getic public  spirit,  or  as  an  illustration  of  what  powerful 
leadership  in  a  community  can  do.  Had  the  same  spirit 
lived  always  in  the  city,  and  equal  leadership  been  always  in 
readiness  for  emergencies  and  opportunities  in  its  career, 
the  rank  and  repute  of  Buffalo  among  American  cities 
would  have  been  higher  than  it  is. 

The  termination  of  the  canal  at  Buffalo  was  now  secured. 
The  canal  commissioners,  meeting  at  Buffalo  in  the  summer 
of  1822,  after  examining  the  situation  and  hearing  all  par- 
ties concerned,  announced  their  decision  to  that  effect.  A 
contract  for  the  extension  was  soon  let,  and  on  the  9th  of 
August  there  was  a  great  celebration  of  the  beginning  of  the 
work.  Judge  Forward,  as  chairman  of  the  board  of  village- 
trustees,  threw  out  the  first  spadeful  of  earth,  and  all  the 
principal  citizens  then  started  the  excavation  with  shovels 
and  plows. 

The  harbor  of  Buffalo,  as  planned  and  constructed  by  its 
citizens,  under  the  lead  and  superintendence  of  Judge 
Wilkeson,  served  the  commerce  of  the  lakes  for  the  next  five 
years.  Then,  in  1826,  it  was  taken  under  the  care  of  the 
Federal  Government,  which  had  done  nothing  for  it  previ- 
ously except  to  establish  a  "primitive  light"  at  the  head  of 
its  pier.  General  Macomb,  the  United  States  Engineer,  took 
possession  of  the  pier  that  year  and  made  it  a  government 
work.  With  an  initial  appropriation  of  $15,000,  the  substi- 
tution of  massive  stone  work  for  the  original  timber  struc- 
ture was  begun.  From  the  records  of  the  United  States 
Engineer's  Office,  one  of  the  recent  successors  of  General 
Macomb,  Major  Thomas  W.  Symons,  has  compiled  the  his- 
tory of  the  construction  and  improvement  of  the  harbor 
down  to  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  it  has  an 


HARBOR  WORK  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT        107 

appropriate  place  in  the  volume  of  the  publications  of  the 
Buffalo  Historical  Society,  which  contains  Judge  Wilke- 
son's  papers.  "It  took  some  years  and  much  experience," 
says  Major  Symons,  "to  demonstrate  that  only  a  structure  of 
tremendous  strength  could  withstand  the  fierce  onslaught  of 
the  lake  when  lashed  into  fury  by  a  southwester.  To  secure 
a  structure  of  adequate  strength  consumed  a  great  part  of 
the  government  appropriations  up  to  1839,  when  the  south 
pier  was  finally  reported  completed.  It  was  in  this  interval 
of  thirteen  years  (i826-'39)  extended,  straightened  and 
strengthened.  The  old  timber  work  gradually  gave  place 
to  stone  work  of  heavy  cut  stone  well  cemented."  "The  pier 
as  thus  built  stood  unchanged,  except  for  repairs  to  the  stone 
sea-slope  and  strengthening  in  weak  places  from  time  to 
time,  from  1839  to  1848,  in  which  year  the  Blackwell  (City) 
Ship  Canal  was  constructed  by  the  city,  commencing  at  the 
government  land  on  the  south  side  of  Buffalo  Creek,  and 
running  in  a  general  southerly  direction  to  the  south  side  of 
the  (proposed)  south  channel."  Meantime  the  north  pier 
was  also  reconstructed;  but,  being  sheltered  by  the  more  im- 
portant south  pier,  "did  not  need  the  care  and  attention 
given  to  the  latter,"  and  "no  records  of  the  work  appear  to 
exist." 

As  for  the  entrance  channel,  it  had  a  depth  of  eight  feet 
in  1826.  Between  1832  and  1835  it  was  deepened  to  ten  feet. 
"Soon  after  this,  nature  favored  lake  commerce  and  its  inter- 
ests by  bringing  on  a  period  of  high  water  level  which  pre- 
vailed from  1838  to  1848."  "By  1850  the  entrance  channel, 
its  piers,  and  the  inner  harbor  had  taken  practically  the 
shape  in  which  we  find  them  to-day."  "The  Erie  Canal  was 
in  full  operation.  The  Erie  Basin  existed  as  it  does  to-day 
(the  stone  breakwater  forming  this  basin  was  built  by  the 
State  shortly  after  the  completion  of  the  canal)  ;  the  Black- 
well  or  City  Ship  Canal  was  in  existence,  but  afterwards 


108  CONSTRUCTIVE    EVOLUTION 

twice  extended  until  it  culminated  in  the  Tifft  Farm  basins, 
in  1884."  Nothing  of  harbor  work  beyond  needed  repairs 
was  done  for  the  next  eighteen  years.  In  1868  the  south  pier 
was  extended  318  feet,  to  check  a  gradual  filling  of  the  chan- 
nel "by  the  littoral  drift,"  and  the  channel  was  deepened  to 
fourteen  or  fifteen  feet  of  water  at  low  stage.  A  little  later 
the  city  took  the  dredging  of  the  channel  in  hand,  and  by 
1890  the  depth  of  water  had  increased  to  eighteen  feet. 
Then  began  the  extraordinary  development  of  size  and 
draught  in  the  lake  shipping,  requiring  deeper  water  in  the 
harbors.  In  1900,  as  Major  Symons  relates,  "the  United 
States  Government  again  assumed  control  of  the  entrance 
channel,  from  the  outer  harbor  to  its  junction  with  the  Buf- 
falo Creek  and  the  City  Ship  Canal,  and  dredged  the  chan- 
nel so  as  to  provide  twenty-two  feet  of  water  at  mean  level, 
and  about  twenty  feet  at  low  water.  This  is  the  channel 
through  which  now  [1002]  annually  ten  thousand  vessels, 
with  ten  millions  of  entering  and  clearing  tonnage,  pass  on 
their  way  to  and  from  the  busy  wharves  and  elevators  in  the 
inner  harbor." 

From  this  allusion  to  the  harbor  of  Buffalo  Creek  as  an 
''inner  harbor'"  readers  unacquainted  with  the  port  would 
learn  that  it  hail  acquired  by  this  time  an  outer  harbor,  as 
well.  The  creation  ol  that  outer  harbor  by  the  construction 
of  what  Major  Symons  characterizes  as  "one  of  the  great 
breakwaters  of  the  world,"  is  the  most  extensive  work  of  its 
kind  on  the  lakes.  Tt  was  begun  in  1868,  plans  for  it  having 
been  under  discussion  many  years.  The  breakwater  was  "so 
located  and  built  as  to  cut  off  a  portion  of  the  lake  in  which 
ships  could  find  safe  anchorage  or  moorings,  and  which 
could  be  reached  under  any  conditions  of  weather."  In  the 
beginning  it  was  constructed  of  timber  cribs,  filled  with 
stone.  Between  1868  and  1872  there  had  been  2,500  feet  of 
this  construction  put  in  place;  the  original  plan  calling  for 


THE  GREAT  OUTER  HARBOR  109 

4,000  feet,  running  southerly  on  a  course  generally  parallel 
with  the  shore  line.  Then  a  storm  occurred  which  threw 
some  315  feet  of  incomplete  crib-work  out  of  place.  On  the 
recommendation  of  a  board  of  engineers  a  larger  plan  was 
then  adopted,  extending  the  breakwater  to  a  length  of  7,600 
feet,  leaving  at  its  southern  end  a  "fine-weather  opening  of 
150  feet,"  and  running  "a  shore  arm,"  "at  an  angle  of  45 
degrees  to  the  shore  line,  until  it  reached  the  sand-catch 
pier  prolonged  to  meet  it."  The  main  structure  was  com- 
pleted on  this  plan  in  1893,  but  a  storm  that  year  wrecked, 
hopelessly,  all  that  had  been  done  on  the  proposed  shore 
arm.  This  consequence  was  due  to  a  soft  clay  bottom  on 
which  it  was  built.  The  seeming  disaster  was  fortunate, 
since  it  brought  about  the  creation  of  a  greater  harbor, 
more  commensurate  with  the  growing  needs  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  lakes.  The  Government  was  persuaded 
to  extend  the  great  breakwater  to  Stony  Point,  and  this 
was  done  on  plans  recommended  by  Major  Symons, 
then  in  charge  of  the  work,  modifying  the  plans  of  a  board 
of  engineers.  They  added  10,000  feet  to  the  length  of  the 
breakwater,  bringing  it  to  a  "south  harbor  entrance  600  feet 
wide."  Beginning  at  the  south  side  of  this  entrance  they 
called  for  a  "timber  crib  breakwater  about  2,800  feet  long, 
to  the  shore  at  Stony  Point."  The  southerly  extremity  of 
the  outer  harbor  was  thus  to  be  fully  enclosed,  except  at  the 
entrance  opening  of  600  feet.  Work  on  these  perfected  plans 
was  begun  in  May,  1897,  and  completed  in  1903. 

This  perfected  for  Buffalo  its  great  outer  harbor  on  the 
lake  front  south  of  the  inner  harbor  entrance,  but  much  of 
the  lake  front  north  of  that  entrance  was  too  exposed  for 
any  commercial  use.  The  State  breakwater,  on  that  side, 
which  formed  the  Erie  Basin,  protected  about  2,400  feet  of 
shore  line,  sufficiently  for  coal  and  lumber  docks,  but  be- 
tween the  northerly  end  of  that  breakwater  and  what  was 


110  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

known  as  Bird  Island  Pier,  there  were  2,300  feet  of  storm- 
beaten  shore.  The  Bird  Island  Pier  was  also  an  old  State 
work,  built  to  extend  the  protection  given  by  Squaw  Island 
to  the  Black  Rock  harbor  that  was  created  in  connection 
with  the  building  of  the  canal,  and  to  shelter  a  short  section 
of  the  canal  itself.  In  1899  Congress  authorized  the  build- 
ing of  a  North  Breakwater  at  Buffalo,  to  make  the  protec- 
tion of  its  lake  front  complete,  and  to  improve  the  Buffalo 
entrance  to  Erie  Basin  ami  Black  Rock  Harbor.  This  was 
done  within  the  next  two  years.  It  was  followed,  in  1902, 
by  an  act  authorizing  the  deepening  to  twenty-two  and 
twenty-three  feet  of  channels  from  the  Buffalo  mam 
entrance  channel  to  Erie  Basin  and  to  Black  Rock  Harbor. 
This  work  was  begun  in  the  spring  of  1903,  and  at  the  time 
of  the  present  writing  is  nearly  complete. 

In  1905  an  appropriation  was  made  by  Congress  for  be- 
ginning a  great  extension  of  the  above  described  deepened 
channel,  the  object  being  to  improve  the  navigation  of 
Niagara  River  from  Lake  Erie  to  Tonawanda,  where  an 
important  commerce  has  grown  up.  The  proposed  channel 
is  "to  extend  westerly  and  northerly,  through  Black  Rock 
Harbor  and  the  Eric  Canal  combined,  to  the  present  lock, 
where  a  ship  lock  of  the  requisite  capacity  is  being  built;  the 
channel  to  extend  from  the  foot  of  the  ship  lock  through  the 
Niagara  River  to  deep  water  above  Tonawanda,  400  feet 
wide  and  23  feet  deep  at  mean  river  level.  The  estimated 
cost  is  $4,500,000." 

This  work  will  create  a  continuous,  well-protected  river 
harbor,  stretching  along  more  than  ten  miles  of  shore,  quite 
at  one  side  of  the  swift  Niagara  current.  Added  to  the  spa- 
cious outer  harbors  on  the  lake  front  of  Buffalo,  and  the  ex- 
tensive inner  harbor  of  the  Buffalo  River  and  its  connected 
basins  and  canals,  the  new  improvement  will  perfect  com- 
mercial facilities  that  can  have  no  enual  on  the  lakes,  and 


FOUR  MILES  OF  BREAKWATER  III 

none  superior  in  the  United  States.  Great  manufacturing 
plants  are  rising  already  along  the  Niagara  shore  between 
the  city  lines  of  Buffalo  and  Tonawanda,  and  not  many 
decades  are  likely  to  pass  before  those  lines  will  be  obliter- 
ated by  the  filling  of  the  intervening  space,  and  one  munici- 
pality will  cover  the  whole. 

As  a  whole,  the  works  of  defense  at  Buffalo  against  the 
storms  of  the  lake  give  it,  according  to  Major  Symons,  "a 
greater  length  of  breakwater  than  any  other  city  in  the 
world.  From  Stony  Point  to  the  end  of  the  North  break- 
water there  are  22,500  feet  of  breakwater,  very  nearly  dou- 
ble that  at  Cherbourg,  France."  The  total  expenditure  of 
the  government  for  the  improvement  of  the  harbor,  from 
1826  to  1901,  was  a  little  in  excess  of  $5,000,000.  As  stated 
in  Bulletin  No.  12,  of  the  "Survey  of  Northern  and  North- 
western Lakes,"  the  resulting  outer  harbor  contains  "about 
605  acres  of  water  with  20  feet  and  over  in  depth,"  and,  ad- 
ditionally, about  700  acres  between  the  breakwater  and  the 
established  harbor  line  which  coincides  generally  with  the 
18-foot  curve,  all  good  anchorage  ground." 

While  Buffalo  is  thus  seen  to  be  possessed  of  the  greatest 
area  of  sheltered  waterfront  on  the  lakes,  behind  works  of 
extraordinary  construction,  the  main  part  of  its  grand  outer 
harbor,  lying  behind  the  long  breakwater  which  breasts 
the  lake,  remains  almost  undeveloped  in  commercial  use 
at  the  time  of  the  closing  of  this  record.  The  unfortunate 
fact  is  resultant  from  complications  of  long  dispute  over 
questions  of  ownership  and  right  of  use  connected  with  a 
narrow  strip  of  land,  between  the  lake  shore  and  Buffalo 
River,  on  which,  in  1841  and  after,  a  stretch  of  old  sea-wall 
was  built.  As  stated  in  the  closing  paragraphs  of  the  pre- 
ceding sketch  of  general  history,  these  disputes  are  at  the 
point  of  settlement,  and  a  proper  development  of  dockage 
on  the  outer  harbor  front  may  be  expected  ere  long. 


CHAPTER     II 
OUTER     COMMUNICATIONS 

AFTER  La  Salle's  little  Griffon  made  her  voyage,  in 
1679,  from  the  .Niagara  River  to  Green  Bay,  ami 
was  lost  in  attempting  to  return,  the  French,  during 
the  period  o!  their  ascendancy,  launched  hut  one  vessel, 
larger  than  their  batteaux,  on  the  lakes  above  Niagara  Falls. 
The  British  were  more  enterprising  when  thc\  took  posses- 
sion of  tin-  lakes,  and  soon  had  a  number  oi  --mall  craft 
afloat.  Mr.  Henry  R.  How  land  has  traced  the  record  of 
these  "First  Successors  of  the  Griffon"  vcr\  carefully,  in  an 
interesting  paper  contributed  to  the  sixth  volume  of  the 
publications  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society. 

The  French  shipbuilder  was  Sieur  de  la  Ronde  Denis, 
who  took  command  of  a  post  on  Lake  Superior  in  1727.  At 
some  time  prior  to  [735  he  constructed  at  his  own  expense 
a  barque  of  4.0  tons  burden,  with  which  he  and  his  eldest  son 
explored  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  lake,  especiallj  search- 
ing for  the  reported  copper  mines.  His  vessel  appears  to 
have  been  lost  about  the  time  of  the  British  conquest  of  New 
France.  In  the  year  of  the  completion  of  that  conquest 
(1760),  Colonel  Henry  Bouquet,  commanding  a  British 
force  at  Presque  Isle  (  Erie),  built  there  what  he  described  as 
a  "tlatt,"  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  large  scow  with 
masts  and  sails,  for  the  carriage  of  military  stores.  In  the 
course  of  the  next  year,  on  the  recommendation  of  Colonel 
Bouquet,  carpenters  and  materials  were  sent  to  Navy  Island, 
in  the  Niagara,  for  the  building  of  two  vessels,  one  of  which, 
the  schooner  Huron,  was  launched  in  August,  that  year. 
The  other,  a  sloop,  named  the  Beaver,  was  not  finished  till 
late  in  1762.  The  Huron  was  to  carry  six  guns,  the  Beaver 
ten.  Both  vessels  bore  a  valiant  part  in  the  defence  of  the 
British  garrison  at  Detroit,  when  beleaguered  by  Pontiac 

112 


EARLY  SHIP-BUILDING  ON  THE  LAKES  I  13 

in  1763.  Both  came  back  to  Schlosser  for  provisions,  and 
the  Huron  returned  safely  with  supplies  to  the  fort;  but  the 
Beaver,  soon  after  she  sailed  out  of  the  river  into  the  lake, 
was  driven  ashore  by  a  storm.  Those  on  board  got  safely 
to  land,  and  fought  off  hostile  Indians,  in  an  improvised 
camp,  behind  a  slight  stockade,  until  boats  and  soldiers  from 
Niagara  came  to  their  aid.  Remains  of  what  must  have 
been  the  stockade,  with  two  cannons  and  other  relics,  were 
found  nearly  half  a  century  afterward  not  far  from  the 
mouth  of  Eighteen  Mile  Creek. 

A  busy  shipyard  was  now  well  established  by  the  British 
military  authorities  on  Navy  Island,  and  it  turned  out  five 
vessels  in  1763  and  1764,  namely,  the  schooner  Victory, 
carrying  six  guns,  the  schooners  Gladwin  and  Boston,  carry- 
ing eight  guns  each,  the  sloop  Royal  Charlotte,  carrying 
ten,  and  another  sloop  of  unknown  name.  The  Royal 
Charlotte,  says  Mr.  Howland,  was  the  last  of  the  King's 
ships  built  on  Navy  Island. 

Of  commercial  vessels  there  were  none  yet  on  the  lakes. 
In  a  communication  to  the  Buffalo  Morning  Express,  Janu- 
ary 22nd,  1864,  Mr.  L.  K.  Haddock  made  the  statement 
that  a  schooner  Betsey,  Captain  Friend,  was  on  Lake  Erie 
in  1775  ;  but  his  authority  was  not  given.  He  also  made  the 
statement  that  "Com.  Grant  [at  Detroit]  controlled  all 
vessels  on  Lake  Erie;"  which  would  indicate  that  they  were 
all  still  connected  with  the  British  military  service. 

Judge  Augustus  Porter,  who  first  visited  Lake  Erie  and 
Niagara  River  in  1795,  wrote  some  reminiscences  that  are 
quoted  by  Mr.  Ketchum  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  his  History 
of  Buffalo,  bearing  on  the  origin  of  American  commerce 
on  the  lakes.  He  remarks  that,  before  the  surrender,  in 
1796,  of  forts  and  military  posts  held  by  the  British  on  the 
frontier,  "boats  had  not  been  permitted  to  pass  Oswego  into 
Lake  Ontario,  and,  as  no  settlements  of  importance  had  been 


I  1 4  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

made  previous  to  that  time  on  the  American  shores  of  the 
lakes,     *  no  vessels  were  required."     The  earliest 

American  shipping  on  the  lakes  above  the  Niagara,  so  far 
as  known  to  Judge  Porter,  were  the  schooner  General  Tracy 
and  the  brig  Adams  built  at  Detroit  (the  last-named  for  the 
government)  some  time  between  1796  and  1800;  the 
schooner  Contractor,  built  at  Black  Rock  in  1802-3  by  ton- 
tractors  for  supplying  the  military  posts;  the  small  sloop 
Niagara,  built  at  Cayuga  Creek  in  1803-4  ror  tne  govern- 
ment; the  Good  Intent,  a  small  vessel  built  at  Presque  Isle 
(Erie)  about  [800;  the  schooner  Mary,  built  at  Erie  in 
1806;  the  schooner  General  Wilkinson,  built  at  Detroit  in 
iSu  ;  the  sloop  Erie,  built  at  Black  Rock  by  Porter,  Barton 
&  Co.  in  1810;  the  schooners  Salina  and  Eleanor,  built 
before  the  War  of  [812,  at  dates  which  the  Judge  did  not 
know,  "ami  probably  others  that  I  do  not  recollect."  he  says; 
but  this  list  represents  substantially,  no  doubt,  the  marine 
of  the  lakes  prior  to  the  war  with  England.  Some  of  these 
vessels  were  bought  by  Porter.  Barton  &  *  or  the  trans- 
portation they  were  then  carrying  on,  making  trans-ship- 
ments at  Black  Rock  as  described  heretofore.  Several,  in- 
cluding the  latter,  were  sold  to  the  United  States  for  naval 
service  in  the  war,  most  of  them  returning  to  commercial 
uses  at  its  close. 

For  years  following,  the  story  of  lake  navigation  can  be 
continued  from  information  given  in  the  papers  of  Captain 
Augustus  Walker,  which  he  deposited  with  the  Buffalo 
Historical  Society  in  1864,  the  year  before  his  death. 
Captain  Walker  came  to  the  lakes  in  the  spring  of  1817, 
when  a  boy  of  seventeen,  eager  for  a  sailor's  life.  He  found 
then  five  vessels  lying  in  their  winter  quarters  at  Black 
Rock;  three  of  them  hauled  into  the  mouth  of  Scajaquada 
Creek.  Two  of  them  were  owned  by  Sill,  Thompson  & 
Co.,  of  Black  Rock,  one  by  Townsend  and  Coit,  of  Buffalo, 


EARLY  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  SHIP-BUILDING  I  1 5 

and  one  by  Jonathan  Sidway.  Three  of  them  had  been 
built  at  Black  Rock  in  the  previous  year.  Captain  Walker 
made  his  first  voyage  on  Mr.  Sidvvay's  brig,  the  Union, 
under  Captain  James  Beard,  father  of  the  artist  of  subse- 
quent fame,  William  H.  Beard. 

According  to  Captain  Walker,  there  were  but  nineteen 
merchant  vessels  on  the  lakes  above  the  Falls  in  1817. 
"Only  eight  of  these  vessels  were  over  50  tons  burden.  In 
1818  the  number  had  increased  to  28,  with  an  aggregate  of 
1,586  tons,  including  the  steamboat  Walk-in-the-Water, 
which  came  out  that  year.  The  number  of  seamen  then 
employed  on  board  these  vessels  did  not  exceed  180,  all  told. 
The  English  at  that  time  had  a  few  vessels  in  commission 
upon  the  lakes,  not  to  exceed  six." 

Captain  Walker  remarks  that  "from  18 17  to  1820  sail 
vessels  greatly  increased  in  numbers,  though  not  in  size. 
These  vessels  varied  from  18  to  65  tons  burden,  mostly  built 
with  slip  keels,  differing  somewhat  from  the  present  style 
of  centerboards.  Each  creek,  river  and  port  along  the  coast 
had  its  representative  vessels."  The  Red  Jacket,  built  at 
Black  Rock  in  1820,  was  the  first  merchant  vessel  built  with 
bulwarks  on  the  lakes.  In  1823  the  first  chain  cables  were 
introduced  on  the  lakes.  "About  the  year  1824  or  '25," 
says  the  Captain,  "there  was  a  marked  improvement  in  the 
models  and  general  construction  of  sail  vessels,  creating  a 
new  era  in  ship-building."  In  1830  Captain  Walker  him- 
self, in  building  the  Great  Western,  made  the  first  trial  of 
an  upper  cabin  structure  on  the  lakes,  and  with  great 
success. 

"In  1832,"  says  this  good  authority,  "the  number  of  our 
vessels  had  increased  to  47,  including  9  steamboats,  with  an 
aggregate  of  7,000  tons.  The  whole  number  of  steamers 
then  afloat  did  not  exceed  in  measurement  the  tonnage  of 
our  present  [1863]  steamer  City  of  Buffalo,  all  combined 


Il6  CONSTRUCTIVE    EVOLUTION 

amounting  to  2,026  tons."'  "From  that  period,"  he  adds, 
"ship-building  greatly  increased,  as  immigration  began  to 
pour  into  the  Western  States  " 

An  unnamed  writer,  quoted  in  an  elaborate  "History  of 
the  Great  Lakes,"  published  at  Chicago  in  [899.  sa\s: 
"About  [850  was  the  height  oi  steamboat  prosperity  on  the 
lakes.  There  was  at  that  time  a  line  of  sixteen  first  class 
steamers  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago,  leaving  each  port  twice 
a  day.  The  boats  were  elegantly  fitted  up,  usually  carried 
a  band  of  music,  and  the  table  was  equal  to  that  of  most 
American  hotels.  They  usually  made  the  voyage  from 
Buffalo  to  Chicago  in  three  or  lour  days,  and  the  charge 
was  about  ten  dollars.  They  went  crowded  with  passen- 
gers, four  or  five  hundred  not  being  an  uncommon  number, 
and  their  profits  were  large.  The  building  of  the  trunk  line- 
railroads  from  east  to  west  soon  took  away  the  passenger 
business,  and  the  propellers  could  carry  freight  at  lower 
rates  than  the  expensive  side-wheel  boats,  so  they  gradually 
disappeared.  In  [860  their  number  was  very  small  com 
pared  with  what  it  was  ten  years  earlier,  while  the  number 
of  S<  rcw  propellers  increased  steadily." 

Among  the  largest  and  finest  "floating  palaces"  of  that 
palim  decade, — as  the  grander  steamboats  were  then  styled, 

were  the  Western  World,  the  Plymouth  Rock  and  the 
Mississippi,  brought  out  in  iS;^;  but,  according  to  the 
above-named  history,  they  plied  but  three  seasons,  and  were 
brought  to  Buffalo  in  1863  to  have  their  machinery  removed 
and  to  be  dismantled  otherwise.  So  quickly  hail  the  rail- 
roads stolen  travel  from  the  steamboats;  for  it  was  not  till 
[853  that  the  rail  connection  of  Buffalo  with  Chicago  was 
completed,  and  not  till  1 8^4  that  the  connected  railways  had 
a  uniform  gauge. 

The  first  of  Ericsson's  screw-propelled  steamers  to  be  put 
afloat  in  the  United  States, — the  Vandalia,  built  at  Oswego 


INCREASING  SIZE  OF  VESSELS  I  17 

in  1 84 1, —came  through  the  Welland  Canal  to  Lake  Erie 
in  the  next  year,  introducing  what  has  now  become  almost 
the  only  kind  of  steamboat  on  the  lakes.  First  in  freighting 
vessels,  the  screw  at  the  stern  superseded  paddle-wheels  on 
the  sides  of  the  lake  steamers;  then,  when  the  railways  had 
skimmed  the  cream  of  travel  from  the  lakes  and  starved 
out  the  side-wheelers,  the  freighting  propellers  began  to  put 
on  upper  cabins  and  offer  comfortable  but  not  gaudy  accom- 
modations to  summer  tourists  and  travellers  who  preferred 
the  water  journey.  Some  thinned  streams  of  lake  travel 
were  kept  coursing  in  this  modest  way  for  a  considerable 
period  of  years. 

Meantime,  several  causes  were  working  together  to  bring 
about  a  great  economic  revolution  in  the  lake  shipping 
business  as  a  whole.  The  cause  of  most  importance  is 
found  in  works  that  were  begun  by  the  national  government 
about  1855  for  the  improvement  of  channels  connecting  the 
upper  lakes.  The  government  had  previously  induced  the 
construction  of  a  ship  canal  around  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
rapids  by  a  grant  of  public  lands  to  the  company  which 
undertook  it,  and  the  canal  was  opened  in  1855.  It  then 
began  deepening  one  of  the  seven  shallow  outlets  of  the 
St.  Clair  River  into  the  lake  of  that  name,  and  by  1858  it 
had  given  eleven  feet  of  water  to  vessels  making  that  pas- 
sage, instead  of  six.  Eight  years  later  it  undertook  the 
opening  of  a  straight  canal  across  the  St.  Clair  flats,  origi- 
nally designed  to  be  thirteen  feet  deep,  but  increased  in  plan 
from  time  to  time  till  the  final  purpose  was  a  depth  of 
twenty  feet;  and  this  was  realized  about  1898.  At  the  same 
time,  the  American  government,  having  acquired  possession 
of  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  Canal  and  made  its  use  free,  pro- 
ceeded to  give  it  two  successive  enlargements,  completed 
respectively  in  1881  and  1896,  duplicating  in  the  latter  in- 
stance its  stupendous  lock;  while  the  Canadian  government, 


1 1 8  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

to  further  satisfy  the  enormous  growth  of  northwestern 
trade  through  Lake  Superior,  built  another  ship  canal 
around  the  rapids  on  the  northern  side. 

As  these  improvements  progressed,  larger  and  larger  ves- 
sels were  brought  into  use;  and  the  enlargement  of  the 
shipping  was  not  only  stimulated  by  the  introduction  of  iron, 
first,  and  then  steel,  as  the  main  structural  material,  but  the 
architectural  development  of  ship-building  was  led  by  the 
use  of  these  materials  into  new  lines.  The  freight-carrier 
was  simplified  in  form  on  economical  principles,  more  and 
more,  until  it  became  in  reality  a  huge  floated  bin  tor 
grain  or  coal  or  ores  or  lumber.  This  is  the  steel  barge  of 
commercial  transportation  on  the  lakes  at  the  present  day; 
sometimes  dignified  with  an  engine  and  screw  of  its  own, 
but  destined  more  often  for  helpless  trailing  behind  the 
superior  towing-barge.  Introduction  of  the  barge  s\stem 
is  said  to  have  begun  in  1861.  "Its  result,"  said  President 
Jewett  M.  Richmond,  of  the  Buffalo  Board  of  Trade,  in 
an  address  to  that  body  some  years  ago,  "has  been  a  won- 
derful reduction  in  the  cost  of  freightage.  It  was  first  used 
in  the  lumber  trade,  where  it  was  highly  successful,  and 
now  nearly  all  the  lumber  brought  to  Buffalo  and  Tona- 
wanda  is  carried  in  barges,  in  lines  of  four,  five  and  six, 
towed  by  propellers  or  steam  tugs.  Thus  a  million  and  a 
half  or  two  million  feet  are  brought  in  one  tow.  It  was 
not  until  1871  that  the  use  of  a  propeller  with  one  barge 
attached  for  the  carriage  of  grain  on  the  Great  Lakes  was 
first  introduced.  It  may  be  said  to  have  revolutionized  the 
business."  The  "whaleback,"  which  justifies  its  name  by 
its  appearance,  is  a  species  of  round-decked,  tube-like  barge 
which  made  its  appearance  about  1889. 

These  changes  in  freight-ship  architecture  broke  up  the 
C(  imbination  of  travel  with  commercial  transportation  which 
had  been  maintained  for  some  vears  bv  the  old-fashioned 


OCEAN-LINERS  RIVALLED  ON  THE  LAKES  I  19 

propellers,  and  forced  a  revival  of  some  separate  provision 
for  lake  travellers,  if  the  latter  had  numbers  enough  for  an 
effective  demand.  Apparently  there  was  growth  rather 
than  decline  in  the  demand.  Increase  in  the  size  of  the 
lake-shipping  added  greatly  to  the  comfort  of  voyaging  on 
these  fresh-water  seas,  and  experiments  in  putting  passenger 
steamers  that  rivalled  ocean-liners  in  magnitude  on  routes 
to  Lake  Superior  and  between  Buffalo,  Cleveland  and  De- 
troit had  excellent  success.  Such  of  these  steamers  as  the 
Northwest,  the  Northland  and  the  City  of  Buffalo  are 
superb,  in  a  style  very  different  from  that  of  the  "floating 
palaces"  of  half  a  century  ago. 

Associations  of  vessel-owners  on  the  lakes  were  formed  at 
as  early  a  time  as  1833,  when  one  was  organized  at  Buffalo, 
of  which  Mr.  James  L.  Barton,  its  secretarv,  gives  some 
account.  Large  incorporated  companies,  consolidat  114 
numbers  of  competing  interests  in  lake  and  canal  transporta- 
tion, were  considerably  later  in  date.  The  first  to  answer 
this  description  at  Buffalo  appears  to  have  been  the  Western 
Transportation  Company  (named  in  after  years  the  Western 
Transit  Company)  which  obtained  its  charter  in  18;;  and 
was  capitalized  at  ^900,000.  It  took  in  a  large  part  of  the 
previous  lines  of  boats  on  the  canal,  together  with  many 
of  the  lake  propeller  lines.  Its  first  president  was  P.  L. 
Sternberg,  with  John  Allen,  Jr.,  for  vice-president,  George 
H.  Bryant  for  secretary,  and  Levi  H.  Rumrill  for  treasurer. 
Later  Mr.  Allen  became  president  and  was  at  the  head  of 
the  company  for  many  years. 

At  present  there  are  not  only  numerous  incorporated  com- 
panies operating  lines  of  steamers  between  different  lake 
ports,  but  a  number  of  associations  of  such  lines. 

Early  in  the  years  when  Black  Rock,  as  a  distinct  village, 
represented  the  Niagara  River  side  of  what  became  the  city 
of  Buffalo,  an  important  share  of  the  lake  ship-building  of 


120  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

the  time  was  located  there,  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  see. 
Later,  after  the  maritime  development  of  the  creek  side  of 
Buffalo  was  begun,  by  the  creation  of  a  harbor,  that,  too, 
secured  and  kept  for  many  years  its  fair  proportion  of  the 
ship-building  industry  of  the  lakes.  The  old  ship-yard  of 
Bidwell  &  Banta  was  a  busy  and  important  place  for  sev- 
eral decades.  The  first  screw-propeller  that  was  built 
on  these  lake  shores  went  into  the  water  from  its  ways;  and 
it  launched  some  of  the  grainiest  of  the  passenger  steamers 
ot  hall  a  centurj  ago.  Iron  ship-building,  too.  as  stated  in 
another  place,  was  introduced  from  Buffalo  to  the  lake 
region  by  David  Bell. 

But  all  that  is  in  the  past.  Buffalo  performs  a  minor 
part  in  the  ship  building  for  the  lakes  at  the  present  day, 
as  shown  in  the  following  remarks  on  the  subject,  con- 
tributed to  this  work  by  Mr.  Edward  (ia>kin,  whose  knowl- 
edge is  bevond  dispute: 

"Compared  with  the  amount  of  tonnage  built  at  other 
ports  on  the  Great  Lakes,  the  ship-building  industry  of 
Buffalo  is  not  oi  much  importance.  The  plants  at  Cleve- 
land, Lorain,  Detroit,  Bay  City,  Toledo  and  Ecorse  (a 
suburb  of  Detroit)  all  do  so  much  more  than  we  that  we  can 
hardly  be  considered  a  factor.  This,  however,  refers  only 
to  the  building  of  new  tonnage.  The  repairing  branch  of 
the  business  assumes  very  large  proportions,  and  liberal 
sums  of  money  are  annually  paid  here  for  wages  in  that  line. 
"The  industry  in  this  city  is  carried  on  principally  by  the 
Buffalo  Dry  Dock  Company,  one  of  the  branches  of  the 
American  Ship-Building  Company,  which  bought  out  the 
Union  Dry  Dock  Company  in  1900.  This  company  does 
some  new  work,  but  most  of  its  energy  is  spent  on  the  repairs 
of  the  lake  fleet. 

"I  suppose  that  many  reasons  might  be  given  to  explain 
why  we  do  so  little  building;  but  one  of  the  best  that  I  know 


IMMEDIATE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  ERIE  CANAL  121 

is  the  fact  that  Buffalo  has  not  been  a  good  labor  town  for 
the  ship-building  business.  All  the  other  plants  are  able 
to  do  better  in  the  matter  of  wages  and  hours  of  labor. 
This  is  a  very  large  item  in  the  cost  of  building  ships.  An- 
other reason  is  the  apathy  with  which  the  banks  of  our  city 
have  regarded  the  matter,  and  the  difficulty  encountered,  in 
the  early  days  of  the  development  of  the  industry,  in  getting 
the  financial  men  of  this  section  interested  in  it. 

"Our  location  was  good;  but  all  the  timber  for  building 
the  old  wooden  ships  was  transported  to  us  from  the  West, 
and  the  business  went  nearer  to  the  source  of  supply.  When 
the  day  of  metal  ships  dawned,  the  western  builders  were 
in  good  shape,  with  experienced  workmen,  established  plants 
and  money  to  control  the  industry.  In  other  words,  they 
could  undersell  us  in  almost  all  the  markets,  and  they  got 
the  business  and  kept  growing." 

The  economic  effects  of  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal 
were  instantly  revolutionary.  Cost  of  transportation  be- 
tween the  Hudson  and  Lake  Erie  was  lowered  from  $100 
per  ton  to  $10,  and  presently  to  $3,  while  the  time  of  the 
movement  dropped  from  an  average  of  twenty  days  to  ten. 
Lines  of  fast  packet-boats  soon  reduced  travel  between 
Albany  and  Buffalo  to  a  journey  of  ten  days.  For  reasons 
that  have  been  discussed  in  a  former  chapter,  this  latter  use 
of  the  canal,  as  a  highway  of  travel,  concerned  Buffalo 
much  more  than  the  commercial  use,  for  a  number  of  years. 
The  westward  movement  of  emigration  in  that  period  was 
far  heavier,  on  the  western  section  of  the  canal,  than  the 
movement  of  trade. 

On  the  eastern  part  of  the  canal,  where  it  traversed  and 
was  connected  with  older  and  more  populous  settlements, 
commerce  was  soon  freighting  it  with  more  than  it  could 
carry  in  a  satisfactory  way.  Before  the  end  of  the  first 
decade  of  its  service,  there  began  to  be  demands  for  an  en- 


122  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

largement  of  capacity  between  Albany  and  Syracuse.  In 
1834  tbe  Legislature  authorized  for  that  section  an  imme- 
diate doubling  of  the  locks.  The  next  year  it  recognized 
the  rapid  coming  of  larger  needs,  and  gave  authority  to  the 
canal  commissioners  to  enlarge  the  whole  prism  of  the  canal, 
throughout  its  length.  The  original  water-channel  had 
been  four  feet  deep  and  forty  feet  wide.  It  was  now  to  be 
widened  to  sevent)  feet  on  the  surface  and  deepened  to 
seven  feet.  That  work  of  enlargement  was  begun  in  1836; 
but  it  was  not  finished  till  [862.  It  was  retarded,  in  the 
first  instance.  In  the  financial  embarrassments  of  [837  and 
the  following  years.  In  1842  it  was  suspended  entirely  by 
what  was  called  "the  stop  law"  of  that  year,  the  State 
treasury  being  empty  and  the  authorities  unwilling  to  in- 
crease the  public  debt.  Works  of  enlargement  were  not  re- 
sumed until  1847,  after  the  constitutional  convention  of  1846 
had  made  provision  for  it,  which  the  people,  by  the  adop- 
tion of  the  revised  constitution,  had  approved.  In  1848  the 
plan  of  the  canal  prism  was  changed,  to  give  a  surface  width 
of  seventy-five  feet  instead  of  seventy  feet.  In  1852  work 
was  again  stopped,  by  a  decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeals 
adverse  to  the  constitutionality  of  an  act  passed  in  the  pre- 
vious year  which  authorized  a  canal  loan.  In  1854  the 
undertaking  was  resumed,  and  in  1862  it  was  declared 
officially  that  the  enlargement  was  complete;  though  much, 
it  is  said,  remained  then  to  be  done. 

During  the  next  thirty  years,  while  the  canal  was  often 
improved  by  lengthening  and  doubling  of  locks,  and  other 
endeavors  to  make  the  most  of  its  capacity,  its  general 
channel  was  unchanged.  Meantime,  the  cheapening  of 
railway  transportation,  consequent,  in  the  main,  upon  the 
cheapening  of  steel,  by  the  Bessemer  process  of  manufacture, 
which  brought  that  durable  metal  into  use  for  rails,  was 
diverting  the  carriage  of  even  the  grosser  commodities  of 


THE  BARGE  CANAL  I  23 

trade  from  the  canal,  more  and  more.  It  lost  its  ability  to 
compete  with  the  railroads  sufficiently  to  put  any  check  on 
their  rates.  There  began  to  be  strenuous  demands  for  such 
a  new  enlargement  as  might  restore  the  economic  usefulness 
of  the  great  waterway  of  New  York.  This  brought,  in  1895, 
proposals  of  a  plan  of  improvement,  estimated  to  cost 
$9,000,000,  and  promising  to  make  the  canal  navigable  by 
barges  of  a  thousand  tons  burden.  Legislative  action  in 
favor  of  the  undertaking  was  approved  by  a  popular  vote 
at  the  election  of  that  year,  and  work  accordingly  was  begun 
in  1896.  A  rapid  exhaustion  of  the  nine-million  appropria- 
tion soon  revealed,  either  a  scandalous  deception  in  the  esti- 
mates or  extravagance  or  fraud  in  the  conduct  of  the  work, 
and  it  was  suspended  in  1898.  Movements  in  the  national 
interest  had  now  led  to  action  in  Congress  on  the  subject, 
and  a  survey  to  ascertain  the  expediency  of  undertaking  a 
ship-canal  connection  of  the  Hudson  River  with  the  Great 
Lakes  was  ordered  to  be  made,  under  the  direction  of  Major 
Thomas  W.  Symons  of  the  U.  S.  Engineers.  The  report  of 
Major  Symons  was  more  favorable  to  a  proper  enlargement 
of  the  existing  canals  of  New  York,  for  navigation  by  large 
barges,  than  to  the  building  of  ship  canals  from  the  Hudson 
to  Lake  Ontario  and  from  that  lake  to  Lake  Erie.  No 
action  to  this  end  was  taken  by  Congress,  but  the  barge-canal 
project,  with  a  proper  conception  of  the  magnitude  it  should 
have,  was  again  taken  up,  in  a  spirit  very  different  from  that 
wakened  in  it  before.  New  plans  and  estimates  were  pre- 
pared in  1900,  and  an  act  authorizing  the  expenditure  of 
$101,000,000,  to  reconstruct  the  Erie,  Oswego  and  Cham- 
plain  canals,  making  them  navigable  by  barges  of  ten  feet 
draft,  twenty-five  feet  width  and  150  feet  length,  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  people  at  the  election  of  1903,  and  approved  by 
a  majority  of  about  250,000  votes.  That  work  is  now  in 
progress.  Its  completion  will  add  immensely  to  the  indus- 
trial and  commercial  advantages  of  Buffalo. 


124  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

Such  account  as  can  be  given  here  of  the  development  of 
the  railway  connections  of  our  city  may  be  introduced  fit- 
tingly by  a  brief  mention  of  the  work  of  William  Wallace, 
the  veteran  engineer,  who  had  something  of  importance  to 
do  with  the  creation  of  nearly  every  line  of  rails  that  entered 
Buffalo  during  the  first  fort)  years  from  their  beginning. 
As  projector,  promoter,  engineer,  superintendent,  or  suc- 
cessively in  all  those  capacities,  Mr.  Wallace  was  in  some 
degree  the  author  of  seven  out  of  the  nine  railroads  first 
named  in  the  subjoined  chronological  list. 

lie  set  in  motion  the  undertaking  of  the  Buffalo  and 
Attica  road,  surveyed  it,  engineered  it,  and  was  its  superin- 
tendent from  the  opening  in  1845  till  [848.  He  was  the 
chief  engineer  of  the  Buffalo  and  Stale  Line  road,  and  0! 
the  extension  of  the  Buffalo  and  Attica  to  Hornellsville,  to 
connect  with  the  New  York  and  Erie.  He  projected,  sur- 
veyed and  engineered  the  building  of  the  Buffalo,  Brantford 
and  Goderich  road,  known  subsequently  as  die  Buffalo  and 
Lake  Huron,  and  finally  as  part  of  the  Grand  Trunk.  Some 
vears  111  advance  of  the  building  of  the  Canada  Southern 
Railway,  he  recommended  and  surveyed  the  line  on  which, 
with  little  change,  it  was  built.  He  surveyed,  for  Lean 
Richmond,  the  line  of  direct  road  from  Buffalo  to  Batavia 
which  became  [nut  of  the  Buffalo  and  Rochester  Railroad, 
and  went  into  the  New  York  Central,  as  consolidated  in 
1853.  Then  Mr.  Wallace  began  his  long  endeavor  to  draw- 
Buffalo  into  an  economic  connection  with  the  coal  fields  of 
Pennsylvania.  Without  any  result  at  the  time,  he  located 
and  urged  the  building  of  a  road  on  substantially  the  line 
adopted,  years  later,  for  the  Buffalo  stem  of  the  Buffalo. 
Rochester  and  Pittsburg  road.  His  last  effort  had  better 
success.  He  roused  and  rallied  the  local  enterprise  which 
enabled  him,  as  chief  engineer,  to  build  what,  originally, 
was  named  the  Buffalo  and  Washington  Railway,  afterward 


THE  RAILWAY  CONNECTIONS  OF   BUFFALO  I  25 

the  Buffalo,  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and  now  has  be- 
come part  of  the  great  Pennsylvania  Railway  system. 
Dying  in  1887,  Mr.  Wallace  left  many  monuments,  which 
Buffalo  should  contemplate  with  grateful  feelings;  but  how 
little  they  have  served  to  keep  his  memory  green ! 

In  the  order  of  their  creation,  the  steam  railroads  now 
entering  Buffalo  date  as  follows: 

1836.  The  Buffalo  and  Niagara  Falls.  Acquired  by 
the  New  York  Central  Railroad  Company  in  1855,  and  ex- 
tended to  Lewiston. 

1843.  The  Buffalo  and  Attica,  which  connected  Buffalo 
with  a  chain  of  railroads  through  the  State  to  Albany.  The 
erroneous  statement  has  often  been  made  that  this  western 
link  in  the  chain  became  part  of  the  New  York  Central 
Railroad,  in  the  consolidation  of  1853.  On  the  contrary, 
the  Buffalo  and  Attica  was  acquired  by  the  Buffalo  and  New 
York  City  Railroad  Company  and  extended  to  Hornells- 
ville,  to  connect  with  the  New  York  and  Erie  Railway,  then 
progressing  toward  Dunkirk. 

1852.  The  New  York  and  Erie  Railway  brought  into 
connection  with  Buffalo,  by  the  completed  extension  of  the 
Buffalo  and  Attica  road  to  Hornellsville,  and  also  by  the 
opening  of  a  second  line  of  connecting  rails,  from  Buffalo 
to  Corning.  Both  of  these  lines  became  integral  parts  of 
the  New  York,  Lake  Erie  and  Western  system,  as  it  now 
exists. 

1852.  The  Buffalo  and  Rochester  Railroad,  completed 
to  Buffalo  by  the  building  of  a  direct  line  of  rails  between 
Buffalo  and  Batavia.  Included  the  next  year  in  the  con- 
solidation of  the  New  York  Central  line. 

1852.  The  Buffalo  and  State  Line  Railroad,  linked  with 
the  chain  of  roads  then  in  formation  along  the  southern 
shore  of  Lake  Erie,  and  thence  to  Chicago,  which,  after 
some  years,  were  to  be  forged  into  the  consolidated  Lake 
Shore  and  Michigan  Southern  Railroad  line. 


126  C0NSTR1  CTIVE    EVOLUTION 

1852.  The  Buffalo  and  Brantford.  Extended  a  Little 
Liter  to  Goderich,  and  name  changed  to  Buffalo  ami  Lake 
Huron  in  [858.  Leased  111  1S70  to  the  Grand  Trunk.  Rail- 
w  aj  Company  ol  Canada,  ol  whose  lines  it  forms  the  Buffalo 
terminus.  Under  the  auspices  ol  the  Grand  Trunk.  Com- 
pany the  Niagara  River  was  bridged  at  Buffalo  by  the 
International  Bridge  Company,  in  1874. 

[853  Organization  of  the  consolidated  New  York  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company .  owning  and  operating  a  continu  >us 
line  from  Buffalo  to  Albany. 

[854.  Establishment  ol  a  uniform  gauge  on  the  con- 
nected roads  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago,  in  the  line  known 
ultimately  as  the  Lake  Shore  and  M    S 

[869.  Consolidation  of  the  New  York  Central  and  the 
Hudson  River  railroad  companies  in  the  X.  Y.  C.  and 
11.  R   R  Company. 

1869  Consolidation  of  several  connected  roads  by  the 
organization  of  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern 
Company.  Since  [898  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson 
River  Railroad  Company  has  held  a  majority  of  its  capital 

.  k  and  controlled  the  management  ot  the  road. 

[870.  The  Buffalo  Creek  Railroad.  From  William 
Street  to  Leek  Slip  and  other  connections  on  the  south  side 
ol  Buffalo  River.  Leased  to  the  Erie  and  the  Lehigh 
Valley  railroad  companies  in  iSSq. 

[873.      The  Canada  Southern  Railway,  from  Buffalo  to 

Amherstburg,  on  the  Detroit  River.     In  1S78  the  ownership 

oi  the  road  underwent  a  change.     Lor  many  years  past    t 

has   been   under   lease   to   the    Michigan   Central    Railroad 

npany  and  is  known  by  the  latter  name. 

[873.  The  Buffalo  and  Washington  Railway.  Built 
from  Buffalo  to  Emporium,  Pa.,  opening  direct  connection 
with  the  sources  of  anthracite  coal  supply,  and  a  shortened 
route  to  Philadelphia  and  Washington.     A  little  later  the 


THE  RAILWAY  CONNECTIONS  OF   BUFF  I  27 

name  was  changed  to  Buffalo,  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
and  that  name,  in  its  turn,  was  extinguished  by  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  road  in  the  great  Pennsylvania  Railroad  system. 
For  several  years  past  it  has  been  operated  under  contract 
as  the  Buffalo  and  Allegheny  Valley  Division  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad. 

1875.  The  Buffalo  and  Jamestown.  Reorganized  in 
1877  under  a  change  of  name,  becoming  the  Buffalo  and 
Southwestern  Railroad.  Leased  to  the  Erie  Railway  Com- 
pany in  1 88 1,  and  now  known  as  the  Buffalo  and  South- 
western Division  of  the  New  York,  Lake  Erie  and  Western 
Railroad. 

1882.  The  New  York,  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  (known 
commonly  as  the  Xickel  Plate),  completed  to  Chicago. 
Reorganized,  after  a  foreclosure  sale,  in  1887.  Large  parts 
of  its  capital  stock  owned  by  the  Lake  Shore  and  M.  S.  Com- 
pany and  by  the  Vanderbilt  interest.  The  road  is  operated 
in  connection  with  what  is  known  as  the  Vanderbilt  system. 

1882.  The  New  York,  Lackawanna  and  Western. 
Chartered  under  this  name  for  the  extension  of  the  Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna  and  Western  from  Binghamton  to 
Buffalo.  Opened  for  freight  in  1882  and  for  passengers  in 
1885.  Leased  in  1882  to  the  Delaware.  Lackawanna  and 
Western  Company  and  operated  under  its  name. 

1883.  The  Buffalo,  Pittsburg  and  Western.  Built  from 
Buffalo  to  Brocton,  connecting  there  with  a  road  to  Oil 
City  and  Franklin.  Constructed  in  the  interest  of  the 
Buffalo,  Xew  York  and  Philadelphia,  with  which  it  was 
soon  consolidated;  passing,  finally,  with  the  latter,  into  the 
Buffalo  and  Allegheny  Valley  Division  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  system. 

1883.  The  Buffalo.  Rochester  and  Pittsburg.  Char- 
tered to  connect  with  the  Rochester  and  Pittsburg  road  at 
Ashford,  X.  Y.     The  company  consolidated  with  that  of 


128  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

the  latter  in  1882.  Opened  to  Buffalo  in  1883,  and  acquired 
extensions  the  same  year  to  Punxutawney,  Pa.  Acquired, 
also,  the  franchises  of  the  East  Buffalo  Terminal  Railroad 
Company,  hut  has  not  used  the  rights  obtained  in  William 
and  Clinton  Streets.  From  the  crossing  of  Buffalo  Creek 
the  trains  of  the  company  come  into  the  city  over  the  tracks 
ol  the  New  York  Central.  In  1885  the  road  was  sold  on  a 
foreclosure,  and  reorganized  under  the  names  of  the  Buffalo, 
Rochester  and  Pittsburg  in  New  York,  and  the  Pittsburg 
and  State  Line  in  Pennsylvania.  The  two  companies  were 
consolidated  under  the  former  name  in  1887. 

1884.  The  Lehigh  Valley.  During  some  years  pre- 
viously the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad  had  been  delivering 
coal  in  its  own  cars  at  Buffalo  l>\  use  of  the  tracks  anil 
engines  oi  the  Erie  Railway  from  its  junction  with  the  latter. 
In  1884  it  arranged  to  run  its  own  coal  trains  on  the  tracks 
oi  tin'  Erie.  It  had  already,  in  1882,  acquired  in  Buffalo  a 
right  of  ua\  from  the  tracks  of  the  Erie  to  a  terminal  of  its 
own,  at  the  corner  of  Scott  and  Washington  Streets.  In 
[885  it  acquired  further  rights  of  way  to  junctions  with  the 
Buffalo  Creek  Railroad  and  the  New  York,  Chicago  and 
St.  Louis  Railway.  In  1890,  by  a  consolidation  of  several 
subsidiary  organizations,  a  corporation  having  the  name  of 
the  Lehigh  Valley  Railway  Company,  distinct  from  the 
Lehigh  Valley  Railroad  Company  was  formed,  which 
opened  a  new  line  of  rails  to  Buffalo  in  September,  1892. 
In  1891  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railway  Company  had  leased 
this  line  to  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad  Company  for  999 
years.  The  organizations  consolidated  in  the  L.  V.  Rv.  Co. 
were  the  Geneva  and  Say  re,  the  Geneva  anil  Van  Ettenville, 
the  Buffalo  and  Geneva,  and  the  Auburn  and  Ithaca.  Long 
before  the  construction  of  its  own  line  to  Buffalo,  while- 
still  reaching  the  city  over  the  tracks  of  the  Erie,  the  Lehigh 
Valley  had  begun  immense  terminal  improvements,  cover- 


THE  RAILWAY  CONNECTIONS  OF  BUFFALO  129 

ing  in  all  about  five  hundred  acres  of  ground,  as  is  indicated 
elsewhere  in  what  is  told  of  the  development  of  the  coal 
trade  of  Buffalo. 

1884.  The  West  Shore,  chartered  and  built  as  the  New 
York,  West  Shore  and  Chicago;  its  line  from  New  York 
City  following  the  western  shore  of  the  Hudson  River 
nearly  to  Albany,  and  running  thence  westward  across  the 
State  on  a  line  contiguous  to  that  of  the  New  York  Central 
throughout  most  of  its  length.  Reorganized  under  the 
name  of  the  West  Shore  Railroad  Company,  and  leased  for 
475  years  to  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River  Rail- 
road Company  in  1885. 

1897.  The  Toronto,  Hamilton  and  Buffalo.  Organized 
in  1892;  opened  through  in  1897.  Successor  to  Brant, 
Waterloo  and  Lake  Erie  Railway.  The  majority  of  stock 
owned  by  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  R.  R.  Co.,  but 
the  road  controlled  jointly  by  the  N.  Y.  C.  and  H.  R.  R.,  the 
Michigan  Central  and  the  Canadian  Pacific  railway 
companies. 

1898.  The  Wabash.  Under  an  operating  agreement 
with  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway  of  Canada,  the  Wabash 
Railway  Company  extended  its  train  service  to  Buffalo, 
using  the  tracks  of  the  Grand  Trunk  from  Detroit  to  Black 
Rock  and  from  Welland  Junction,  Ontario,  to  Suspension 
Bridge. 

1907.  The  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Railroad,  extended 
from  Wellsville,  N.  Y.,  to  Buffalo  between  1904  and  1907, 
represents  a  remarkable  development  of  creative  enterprise 
from  small  beginnings  in  a  Pennsylvania  saw  mill,  dating 
back  to  about  1872.  Some  account  of  the  growth  of  a  pri- 
vate business  which  has  arrived  at  this  culmination  will  be 
given  hereafter,  in  what  is  told  of  our  lumber  trade;  but 
a  few  main  facts  must  be  recited  here  : 

About  1872  Mr.  Frank  H.  Goodyear  began  business  with 


130  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

a  small  saw  mill,  cutting  hemlock  lumber,  at  West  Liberty, 
Mckean  County,  Pa.  The  business  had  such  growth  in 
his  hands  that  he  was  able  in  1885  to  purchase  about  13,000 
acres  of  timber  land  in  Putter  County,  Pa.,  and  to  build  a 
large  mill,  running  two  circular  saws  and  a  gang  saw,  at 
Austin,  now  a  town  of  no  small  size,  but  represented  then 
b\  a  single  house.  In  the  same  year,  for  the  promotion  of 
his  own  business,  he  began  the  construction  of  a  railroad 
called  the  Sinnemahoning  Valley  R.  R.  at  the  time,  which 
connected  him  with  the  Western  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania road  at  Keating  Summit,  and  was  extended  in  the 
other  direction  about  13  miles  to  Costello,  Pa.,  where  a 
large  sole-leather  tannery  had  been  built.  This  road  was 
completed  the  next  year.  In  1887  he  was  joined  by  his 
brother,  and  the  firm  of  F.  H.  and  C.  W.  Goodyear  was 
formed. 

In  the  course  of  the  next  few  years  the  firm  made  large 
additional  purchases  of  timber  lands,  and  extended  its  rail- 
road connections  to  utilize  them.  Between  1891  and  18^4 
the  Sinnemahoning  Valley  R.  R.  was  extended  to  Ansonia, 
Pa.,  connecting  with  the  Fall  Brook  Railway,  and  sending 
out  a  branch  to  Cross  Fork.  The  whole  s\stem  was  then 
consolidated  by  a  new  incorporation  under  the  name  of  the 
Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Railroad  Company.  Meantime, 
the  Goodyear  firm  bought  from  Senator  Thomas  C.  Piatt 
what  was  known  as  the  Addison  and  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
from  Galeton,  Pa.,  to  Addison,  X.  V.,  4;  miles,  connecting 
with  the  Erie  Railway.  In  1895-6  the  Buffalo  and  Susque- 
hanna Railroad  Company  built  an  extension  of  its  road  from 
GaletQn  to  Wellsville,  X.  V.,  37  miles,  and  in  1898  the  com- 
pany took  over  the  Addison  and  Pennsylvania  road.  In 
1901  it  built  an  extension  from  Wharton  to  Sinnemahoning, 
connecting  with  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  and  this  part 
of  its  line  was  extended  still  further,  to  a  point  south  of 


! 


i  H  \.\K    II    GO<  >DYEAR. 


Capitalist    and    coal    operator;    born    Groton,    Tompkins 
unty,  \'™   York,  March  17.  1X40      Was  president  Ruf- 
falo  &  Susquehanna  Railway  Company;  I'.uttalo  &  Susque- 
hanna   Coal    0<    '  impan)      Buffalo   &    Susquehanna 
Steamship  Company;   N  I    Northern  Rail- 
ompan)                 ar    Lumber   Company,   and   Great 
uthern   Lumber  Company;  director  in  above  companies 
and     Marine     National     I'.ank     oi      Buffalo,     1 'nited     States 
Leather  Company,  etc      Member  MufTalo.  ronntrv,  Kllicott. 
and  Transportation  Clubs  of   i'.ut'falo:  Lawyers'  and  Man- 
hattan Chilis  cf   New   York:  Jekyl  Island  Club;  and  many 
othei    $ocla4   argp'pjzationS);     Republican    in    ponies;    died 
Mas    13,    M9Q7- 


THE  RAILWAY  FACILITIES  OF  BUFFALO  131 

Du  Bois,  Pa.,  in  1903-4.  Between  1904  and  1907  the  Buf- 
falo and  Susquehanna  completed  its  present  line,  by  exten- 
sions from  Wellsville  to  Buffalo,  90  miles,  at  one  extremity, 
and  to  a  point  about  50  miles  south  of  Du  Bois  at  the  other. 
Financial  embarrassments  ensued,  which  culminated  in 
1910,  when  the  company  went  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver. 

Buffalo,  as  can  be  seen,  has  become  the  center  of  an  ex- 
traordinary radiation  of  commercial  highways,  by  water  and 
by  rail,  stretching  with  directness  to  every  point  of  the  com- 
pass of  travel  and  trade,  and  furnished  to  perfection  with 
the  vehicles  that  science  and  economic  invention  have  de- 
vised. By  boats  on  the  longest  of  canals,  to  all  the  cities 
that  line  it,  and  to  the  great  port  which  sends  its  shipping 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth;  by  steamers  to  all  harbors  on  the 
great  chain  of  Great  Lakes,  bordered  by  the  most  productive 
region  of  the  continent;  by  trains  over  sixteen  distinct  lines 
of  rail  from  our  own  streets  to  the  market  places  of  all  the 
towns  of  North  America, — we  can  have  easy  dealings  with 
whom  we  will.  Production  and  traffic  are  supplied  with 
facilities  that  can  hardly  be  equalled  in  another  situation, 
and  nowhere  surpassed.  As  stated  in  the  annual  report  of 
the  Buffalo  Chamber  of  Commerce  for  1907,  "The  railroad 
yard  facilities  are  the  greatest  in  the  world.  Buffalo  has, 
within  an  area  of  forty-two  square  miles  (including  the 
yards  of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western,  and  the 
West  Shore  Railroads,  which  adjoin  the  city  limits  on  the 
east) ,  450  miles  of  railroad  tracks,  and  this  will  be  increased 
upwards  of  660  miles  when  the  terminal  improvements  and 
additions  already  planned  by  the  various  roads  are  com- 
pleted. The  railroad  companies  own  over  3,600  acres  of 
land." 

Early  in  the  first  decade  of  the  active  centralizing  of  rail- 
way systems  in  Buffalo,  which  opened,  as  shown  above,  in 


132  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

1852,  the  dangers  to  life  and  the  interruptions  of  city  traffic 
caused  by  the  railway  crossing  of  streets  at  grade  began  to 
receive  attention,  and  the  elevating  of  Michigan  Street  over 
the  tracks  of  the  New  York  Central  was  planned  in  [856 
In  Peter  Emslie,  then  City  Engineer.  Nothing,  however, 
was  done  with  the  plan,  and  nothing  came  from  frequent 
agitations  of  the  subject  thereafter,  until  thirty-one  years 
later,  in  April,  1887.  The  Common  Council  then  adopted 
a  resolution  which  requested  the  Board  of  Railway  Commis- 
sioners of  the  State  to  inspect  the  entire  s\  stem  >  ii  approaches 
to  the  railway  terminals  of  the  city,  "with  a  view  to  securing 
their  recommendation  of  acomprehensiveplan  lor  elevating 
the  tracks  over  the  street  crossings,  or  otherwise  providing 
suitable  remedies." 

Public  interest  in  the  matter  was  now  very  thoroughly 
aroused,  and  many  business  organizations  entered  actively 
into  co-operation  with  the  official  representatives  of  the  city, 
in  pressing  the  movement  thus  begun.  Committees  of  the 
Buffalo  Merchants'  Exchange,  Lumber  Exchange,  Produce 
Exchange  and  Business  Men's  Association  met  with  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Common  Council,  the  City  Engineer  and  the 
Corporation  Counsel,  to  prepare  for  public  bearings  to  be 
given  by  the  Railway  Commissioners,  and  these  were  con- 
solidated in  a  Joint  Committee,  which  conducted  the  whole 
proceeding  thereafter.  The  Joint  Committee  was  organ- 
ized by  the  election  of  Robert  B.  Adam  to  be  its  chairman, 
with  Peter  J.  Ferris  as  secretary.  From  that  time,  for 
sixteen  years,  Mr.  Adam  was  the  quietly  indomitable,  tire- 
less leader  of  a  campaign  which  had  countless  obstacles  and 
oppositions  to  overcome. 

A  full  and  very  interesting  narrative  of  the  proceedings 
in  which  he  bore  a  leading  part  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Adam 
in  the  spring  of  1897  for  the  eighth  volume  of  the  Publica- 
tions of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society.     It  forms  an  im- 


WORK  OF  THE  GRADE-CROSSINGS  COMMISSION  133 

portant  chapter  of  local  history,  which  cannot  even  be 
sketched  in  this  place.  No  more  will  be  attempted  than  an 
exhibit  of  the  results. 

After  nearly  a  year  spent  in  fruitless  endeavors  to  arrive 
at  voluntary  agreements  with  the  railroads,  legislation  was 
obtained  which  created  a  board  of  commissioners,  armed 
with  considerable  powers  of  coercion,  "to  enter  into  con- 
tracts on  behalf  of  the  City  of  Buffalo  with  the  railroad 
companies  for  the  relief  of  the  City."  The  commissioners 
named  in  the  Act,  as  finally  passed  and  signed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor, May  22,  1888,  were  Robert  B.  Adam,  John  B.  Weber, 
Frederick  Kendall,  George  Sandrock,  James  E.  Nunan, 
William  J.  Morgan,  Solomon  Scheu,  Charles  A.  Sweet, 
Edward  H.  Butler.  The  board  was  organized  by  electing 
R.  B.  Adam  chairman  and  W.  J.  Morgan  secretary.  Spen- 
cer Clinton  was  retained  as  attorney  and  George  E.  Mann 
as  engineer. 

The  Grade  Crossings  Commission  now  entered  on  a  con- 
test with  the  railroad  companies  which  was  prolonged  for 
seven  years,  before  actual  work  on  adopted  plans  for  the 
abolition  of  crossings  at  grade  could  be  begun.  The  crucial 
question  that  had  to  be  fought  out  was  that  of  shares  between 
railroad  and  city  in  the  cost  of  the  work  to  be  done,  and  the 
consequential  damages  to  be  paid;  some  of  the  roads  resist- 
ing any  payment  at  all.  In  October,  1889,  a  contract  with 
the  New  York  Central  Company  was  effected,  on  the  basis 
of  payment  of  one-third  of  cost  by  the  city  and  two-thirds 
by  the  company.  But  this  brought  no  beginning  of  work; 
for  the  reason  that  in  the  course  of  the  difficulties  and  delays 
encountered  in  dealing  with  other  companies,  of  which  the 
Erie  Railway  Company  was  the  most  obstinately  obstructive, 
and  the  further  difficulties  with  property  owners,  it  became 
necessary  to  modify  plans,  and  the  contract  with  the  New 
York  Central  was  thereby  annulled.     In  renewing  it  the 


134  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

city  assumed  half  of  the  consequential  damages  to  be  paid. 

In  1890,  and  again  in  1892,  it  became  necessary  to  procure 
more  coercive  legislation,  by  the  pressure  of  which,  and 
with  help  from  the  courts,  the  obstructive  companies  were 
brought  finally  to  terms,  in  1895-6,  when  contracts  with  all 
were  secured,  and  the  work,  still  in  progress,  was  begun, 
nearly  nine  years  alter  the  proceedings  to  secure  it  were 
begun. 

According  to  the  Grade  Crossings  Commission's  report  on 
the  1  st  of  January,  1908,  the  total  cost  of  work  on  this  great 
improvement,  from  the  beginning  to  that  time,  had  been 
$8,037,418,  of  which  the  city  had  expended  $2,907,867,  and 
the  railroads  $5,129,551.  Of  this  total  cost  $3,787,232.22 
had  been  cost  of  structures,  to  which  the  railroad  companies 
had  contributed  $2,964,833.43,  and  the  city  $822,398.79; 
$867,952.68  had  been  land  awards,  the  city  paying  5292,- 
697.82,  and  the  railroads  $575,254^6;  while  $3,382,254.07 
had  been  consequential  damages,  of  which  the  city  paid 
$1,792,770.94,  and  the  railroads  $1,589,463.13.  Some- 
awards  for  consequential  damages  were  made  subsequently 
to  this  report. 

The  estimated  cost  1  structures  necessary  t<>  complete  the 
general  plan  of  the  work  was  reported  to  he  $233,152.36, 
which  would  call  for  a  further  expenditure  of  56o,SS^.-9  by 
the  city,  and  5172,266.;-  by  the  railroad  companies;  no  esti- 
mate of  land  awards  and  consequential  damages  being  made. 

The  recent  membership  and  organization  of  the  Com- 
mission has  been:  Augustus  F.  Scheu,  chairman,  Ed- 
ward H.  Butler,  H.  D.  Kirkover,  Andrew  Langdon, 
William  P.  Northrup,  Henry  Schaefer,  John  J.  McWil- 
liams,  Maurice  B.  Patch,  H.  M.  Gerrans.  Colonel  John 
B.  Weber,  who  resigned  early  in  1908,  had  served  from  the 
first  appointment  of  the  Commission  till  that  time.  Attor- 
ih\  of  the  board,  Spencer  Clinton;  chief  engineer,  Edward 
B.  Guthrie. 


RAILWAY  TERMINAL   IMPROVEMENTS  135 

The  passenger  station  arrangements  of  the  railroads  in 
Buffalo  have  been  most  unsatisfactory  for  many  years  to 
the  city  and  to  the  travelling  public  at  large.  Repeated 
endeavors  have  been  made  to  plan  a  union  of  all  roads  in 
one  central  station  that  would  be  acceptable  to  the  many 
interests  involved,  on  the  side  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city 
and  on  that  of  the  various  railroad  companies;  but  no  prac- 
ticable compromise  of  the  differences  existing  has  yet  been 
found.  In  the  spring  of  1908,  appeal  was  addressed  to 
the  State  Public  Service  Commission,  to  exercise  its 
authority  in  the  matter,  by  ascertaining  a  proper  solution 
of  the  problem  and  requiring  it  to  be  taken  in  hand.  The 
result  has  been  practically  an  abandonment  of  all  thought 
of  a  union  station,  and  a  now  promising  endeavor  to  secure 
satisfactory  terminal  constructions  for  each  road  or  system 
of  roads.  Late  in  1910  plans  came  under  consideration 
from  the  New  York  Central  Company  and  its  system  for 
terminal  improvements  on  Exchange  Street,  extending  up 
to  Main  Street,  and  from  the  Lackawanna  Company  for 
terminal  structures  on  the  Buffalo  River  front,  east  of  Main 
Street,  to  Michigan  Street. 

The  development  of  neighborhood  lines  of  electric  rail- 
way began  early  in  the  last  decade  of  last  century,  and  the 
extension  of  them  has  made  rapid  progress  in  recent  years. 
In  1902,  most  of  the  electric  lines  then  existing  or  f  ranchised 
in  the  region  northward  and  eastward  from  the  city,  on  both 
sides  of  the  Niagara  Frontier,  were  absorbed  or  combined 
by  the  International  Railway  Company,  then  organized, 
which  acquired  the  street  railway  system  of  Buffalo  and 
connected  the  operation  of  the  whole.  The  outer  lines  thus 
combined  were  the  following:  the  Buffalo  and  Niagara 
Falls  Electric  Railway;  the  Buffalo  and  Lockport;  the 
Buffalo,  Bellevue  and  Lancaster;  the  Elmwood  Avenue  and 
Tonawanda;  the  Buffalo,  Tonawanda  and  Niagara  Falls; 


136  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

the  Electric  City  (Niagara  Falls)  system;  the  Lockport  and 
Olcott;  the  Niagara  Falls  and  Suspension  Bridge;  the 
Niagara  halls  Park  and  River.  The  combination  includes 
also  the  Clifton  Suspension  Bridge,  the  Lewiston  Connect- 
ing Bridge  and  the  Queenston  Heights  Bridge;  and  it  has 
taken  in  the  Frontier  Electric  Railway  Company,  incor- 
porated in  [906  to  build  a  line  from  Buffalo  to  connect  with 
a  through  line  to  Toronto. 

To  connect  with  the  International  Railway  Company's 
system  at  Lockport,  a  line  from  Rochester  to  Lockport  is 
being  built  by  the  Buffalo,  Lockport  and  Rochester  Railway 
Company,  incorporated  in  [905. 

Other  electric  lines  running  out  of  Buffalo  are  the 
following: 

The  Buffalo  and  Williamsville,  incorporated  in  iS<;2; 
affiliated  with  which  is  the  Buffalo,  Batavia  and  Rochester 
Electric  Railway  Company,  incorporated  in  1  0"4  to  extend 
the  Williamsville  line  through  Batavia  to  Rochester. 

The  Buffalo  Southern  Railway  Company,  incorporated 
in  \()i  14,  which  purchased  the  property  and  franchises  of 
the  Buffalo,  Hamburg  and  Aurora  and  the  Buffalo,  Garden- 
ville  and  Ebenezer  Railway  companies;  and  which  now 
operates  lines  to  Hamburg  and,  by  branch,  to  ( )rchard  Park, 
as  well  as  a  line  to  Lein's  Park,  and  which  has  a  line  to 
East  Aurora  under  way. 

The  Buffalo  and  Lake  Erie  Traction  Company,  incor- 
porated in  1906  (being  a  consolidation  of  several  former 
companies)  to  complete  a  line  from  Buffalo  to  Erie,  along 
the  lake  shore.  Its  line  was  opened  to  Angola  earlv  in  the 
summer  of  1908  and  has  since  been  completed.  It  is  iden- 
tified in  interest  with  the  Buffalo  and  Lackawanna  Traction 
Company,  incorporated  in  1906  to  build  and  operate  five 
miles  of  track  in  Buffalo  for  connection  with  the  above. 


CHAPTER     III 

INNER     COMMUNICATIONS 

JOSEPH  ELLICOTTS  planning  of  the  Holland  Land 
Company's  settlement  of  New  Amsterdam,  and  the 
features  he  imparted  to  the  future  city  that  grew  up 
on  its  lines,  are  described  somewhat  in  the  first  chapter  of 
this  book.  They  were  discussed  very  graphically  many  years 
ago  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  W.  Hosmer,  the  eloquent  old- 
time  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Buffalo,  who  ad- 
mired the  plan  of  the  city  greatly,  as  many  others  have  done. 
In  a  paper  read  to  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  in  1864, 
and  to  which  he  gave  a  happy  title — "The  Physiognomy  of 
Buffalo"  —  Dr.  Hosmer  imagined  a  picture  of  Ellicott,  in 
1802,  or  '03,  "standing  by  his  compass  in  what  is  now  Main 
Street,  in  front  of  the  churches"  —  now  Shelton  Square.  "So 
confident  is  he  that  commerce  must  come  here  and  pour  out 
her  horn  of  plenty,  that  he  has  resolved  to  lay  out  a  city;  so 
delighted  is  he  with  the  grandeur  of  the  situation,  that  he 
thinks  he  will  make  his  home  here;  he  selects  for  himself  a 
noble  manor,  one  hundred  acres  of  land,  between  Eagle  and 
Swan  Streets,  and  from  Main  nearly  to  Jefferson  Street,  al- 
most enough  for  a  principality  in  Germany,  and  determines 
to  build  upon  the  western  front,  looking  toward  the  lake.  So 
here,  upon  what  is  to  be  the  site  of  his  house,  he  stands  by  his 
compass,  indicating  the  lines  which  are  now  our  streets: 
Main  Street,  running  north  and  south  upon  the  crown  of 
land;  Church  Street,  directly  front  from  his  door  to  the 
water;  Erie  Street,  to  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  where  com- 
merce must  come;  Niagara  Street  to  Black  Rock  Ferry, 
which  was  a  great  institution  in  the  early  day  —  and  so  on, 
to  the  completion  of  the  plan. 

"Mr.  Ellicott,  in  laying  out  our  city,  had  large  ideas,  and 

137 


138  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

worked  upon  a  magnificent  scale.  There  is  originality  in 
the  plan.  He  did  not  bring  a  map  of  New  York  or  Boston 
or  Albany,  and  lay  it  down  here;  he  wrought  upon  the  in- 
spiration of  a  magnificent  hope,  and  we  are  greatly  indebted 
to  him  for  the  open,  handsome  face  of  our  city. 

"It  is  reported  that  Mr.  Ellicott  said,  'God  has  made  Buf- 
falo, and  I  must  try  to  make  Batavia.'  God  did  make  the 
place  and  its  surroundings;  the  wooded  ridge  gently  sloping 
toward  the  sun,  the  lake  stretching  far  away  to  the  west,  and 
pouring  its  unceasing  Hood  along  the  majestic  Niagara,  close 
by — the  Canada  shore,  the  Chautauqua  and  Cattaraugus 
It i lis,  and  the  high  lands  of  Evans,  Aurora  and  Wales,  all  to- 
gether, as  seen  from  the  Reservoir  on  Niagara  [no  longer 
there,  but  on  the  higher  ground  of  Best  Street]  is  a  noble 
panorama.  I  love  to  take  strangers  to  see  it.  God  made 
these  surroundings  and  background  to  relieve  and  set  oft  our 
city's  face,  and  he  gives  the  contour  of  the  physiognomy; 
but  particular  features  are  defined,  and  expression  is  given, 
by  the  streets  and  squares.  Philadelphia,  with  its  checker- 
board arrangement,  looks  set,  precise,  demure.  Boston  Com 
mon  and  the  new  ly  made  parts  of  that  city  are  very  beautiful, 
but  the  most  of  its  features  are  painfull y  contracted  and 
snarled  up.  The  face  of  New  York  is  much  too  long  for  its 
breadth." 

So  the  Reverend  Doctor  went  on  in  his  criticism  of  other 
city  plans,  returning  after  a  little  to  say:  "Our  city  has  no 
neighboring  hills,  like  Albany  and  Cincinnati,  to  heighten 
expression,  but  its  plan  and  streets,  for  beauty,  health  and 
convenience,  1  think,  are  unrivalled.  There  is  enough  ir- 
regularity to  prevent  tiresome  monotony,  and  not  enough  to 
create  confusion.  Mr.  Ellicott,  I  suppose,  intended  Niagara 
Square  should  be  the  center  of  his  city;  from  that  point  the 
streets  run  out  in  all  directions,  eight  broad  avenues;  and  at 
night  when  these  streets  are  lighted,  from  that  point  in  the 


THE  STREETS  OF    1 826  139 

square  where  they  all  center,  they  make  a  grand  show,  dou- 
ble lines  of  light  stretching  off  into  the  surrounding  dark- 
ness. This  square  did  not  become  the  center  of  the  city,  be- 
cause the  State  reserved  a  mile-strip  along  the  Niagara 
River;  and  so  Buffalo  was  thrown  to  the  east  and  south,  in 
a  measure  interrupting  the  perfection  of  Mr.  Ellicott's  plan. 
But  as  it  has  turned  out,  we  have  received  a  largess  of  favor 
from  his  liberal  designing— he  gave  to  the  city  a  good, 
comely  face." 

For  a  little  more  than  a  score  of  years  the  villagers  of 
Buffalo  practiced  their  tongues  and  their  pens  on  the  Dutch 
names  that  Mynheer  Ellicott  had  given  to  their  streets,  and 
custom,  it  is  evident,  could  not  lend  smoothness  or  ease  to  the 
writing  or  the  speech.  In  July,  1826,  they  had  tired  of  the 
effort  and  gave  it  up.  Their  village  trustees,  at  a  meeting  on 
the  13th  of  that  month,  thinking  it  necessary  to  designate  for- 
mally the  then  existing  public  highways  of  the  village,  sub- 
ject to  care  and  regulation  as  such,  determined  at  the  same 
time  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  more  jawbreaking 
of  the  names  which  good  Joseph  Ellicott  had  inflicted  upon 
them.  Accordingly,  after  declaring  them  to  be  public  high- 
ways, they  resolved:  'That  the  streets  in  the  village  of  Buf- 
falo shall  hereafter  be  known  and  distinguished  by  the  fol- 
lowing names."  And  this  is  the  list  —  to  understand  some 
part  of  which  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  mile-long  resi- 
dence lot  which  Mr.  Ellicott  had  reserved  for  himself  occu- 
pied the  space  between  East  Swan  and  East  Eagle  Streets, 
and  no  streets  were  then  running  through  that  space.  Wash- 
ington and  Ellicott  Streets  were  cut  through  soon  afterward. 

Willink  Avenue  and  Van  Stophurst  Avenue  to  be  Main 
Street. 

North  and  South  Oneida  Street  to  be  Ellicott  Street. 

North  and  South  Onondaga  Street  to  be  Washington 
Street. 


140  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

North  and  South  Cayuga  Street  to  be  Pearl  Street. 

Tuscarora  Street  to  be  Franklin  Street. 

Delaware  Street  to  be  Delaware  Street. 

Mississippi  Street  to  be  Morgan  Street. 

Vollenhoven  Avenue  to  be  Erie  Street. 

Schimmelpenninck  Avenue  to  be  Niagara  Street. 

Busti  Avenue  to  be  Genesee  Street. 

Chippewa  Street  to  be  Chippewa  Street. 

Huron  Street  to  be  Huron  Street. 

Mohawk  Street  to  be  Mohawk  Street. 

Cazenovia  Avenue  to  be  Court  Street. 

Eagle  Street  to  be  Eagle  Street. 

Stadnitski  Avenue  to  be  Church  Street. 

Swan  Street  to  be  Swan  Street. 

Seneca  Street  to  be  Seneca  Street. 

Crow  Street  to  be  Crow  Street  (changed  subsequently  to 
Exchange). 

These,  then,  were  all  the  streets  that  had  received  names 
pnor  to  that  13th  of  July,  1826.  But  the  Board  of  Trustees 
proceeded  to  give  names  to  several  other  streets,  four  of 
which,  Canal,  Ohio,  Dock  and  Clinton  Streets  —  have  kept 
their  existence  and  their  names  to  the  present  time;  while- 
two  -  Batavia  (Broadway  and  Lafayette,  its  extension  to 
Mam),  have  survived  under  changed  names,  and  one,  Har- 
bour Street,  has  lost  existence  as  well  as  name. 

This  action  of  that  July  meeting  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
Village  of  Buffalo  in  1826,  is  interesting,  not  only  in  the  old 
and  new  naming  of  familiar  streets,  but  because  it  tells  us 
just  what  there  was  of  Buffalo,  a  quarter  century  after  its 
beginnings  and  thirteen  years  after  it  had  been  struck  down 
and  began  existence  anew.  A  line  through  Ellicott  Street, 
Chippewa,  Morgan,  Niagara  (or  the  Terrace,  perhai 
Erie,  Buffalo  Creek  and  Ohio  Street,  marks  the  boundary 
which  these,  the  streets  of  the  village,  define.   Some  outlving 


THE  EARLIEST  STREET  IMPROVEMENTS  141 

residences  there  were,  to  be  sure;  but,  scattered  as  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  time  were,  they  must  have  stood  with  few  excep- 
tions inside  of  these  bounds. 

The  streets  were  no  more  than  country  roads,  with  some 
sidewalk  construction,  but  it  is  not  probable  that  much  grad- 
ing had  been  done.  This  seems  to  be  indicated  by  an  entry 
of  1825  in  the  records  of  the  Village  Trustees,  which  states 
that  Joseph  Clary  was  "directed  to  ascertain  the  true  surface 
of  the  sidewalks  in  Main  Street  between  Swan  and  Crow 
(Exchange)  Streets."  From  the  same  records  we  learn 
that,  in  1829,  "Main  Street  was  ordered  to  be  flagged  and 
railed  at  the  expense  of  the  owners,"  from  Exchange  Street 
to  Chippewa  on  the  west  side  and  to  Eagle  Street  on  the  east 
side,  "the  flagging  to  be  smooth  stone  or  hard  brick."  In  the 
next  year  the  east  side  flagging  was  ordered  to  be  extended 
to  Genesee  Street. 

After  the  incorporation,  in  1832,  of  the  City  of  Buffalo, 
divided  into  five  wards  and  equipped  with  a  Mayor  and  a 
Common  Council,  the  records  give  evidence  of  a  more  am- 
bitious and  active  improvement  of  streets.  What  relates  to 
streets  in  the  Common  Council  proceedings  has  been  copied 
out  in  separate  manuscript  volumes  of  "Street  Records,"  to 
be  seen  at  the  office  of  the  City  Clerk;  and  this  makes  it  com- 
paratively easy  to  trace  the  progress  of  street  improvement. 
For  some  years  there  is  no  mention  of  paving,  but  "grading 
and  gravelling"  of  the  business  streets  is  proceeding  at  a 
lively  rate.  In  June,  1832,  Main  Street  below  Exchange  is 
graded,  and  in  September,  the  property  owners  on  both  sides 
of  that  lower  part  of  the  street  are  ordered  to  "fill  in,  gradu- 
ate and  gravel  their  sidewalks  to  the  level  of  the  street." 
But,  apparently,  it  was  not  until  1835  that  the  grade  of  Main 
Street  was  established  between  Eagle  and  Court. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Hosmer  came  to  the  city  in  1836,  and  in  his 
paper  on  "The  Physiognomy  of  Buffalo,"  already  quoted 


142  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

from,  he  describes  conditions  of  the  streets  that  he  had  seen 
after  that  time.  "Many  of  us,"  he  wrote,  "can  remember 
when  the  face  of  Buffalo  was  rather  rough,  and  parts  of  the 
year  too  dirty  with  mire  for  washing  to  do  any  good.  Main 
Street  was  as  broad  as  Mr.  Ellicott  laid  it  out,  but  its  mud 
was  said  to  have  no  bottom.  I  have  seen  teams  sloughed  on 
Mohawk  Street,  near  Delaware;  and  one  team  I  remember 
seeing  sunk  so  deep  that  it  seemed  to  be  going  through,  until 
another  team  was  brought  to  drag  out  and  rescue  the  sinkers. 
I  saw  a  young  lady  one  day  sloughed  in  the  middle  of  Pearl 
Street,  near  Tupper,  so  that  she  could  not  step  without  leav- 
ing behind  her  shoes  and  overshoes,  perhaps  the  whole  foot 
apparel,  and  there  she  stood  with  a  patience  peculiar  to  those 
days,  until  I  got  boards  and  made  a  way  for  her  poor  feet." 

The  first  evidence  of  paving  that  the  present  writer  has 
found  appears  in  the  Street  Records  for  1836,  when  assess- 
ment rolls  for  paving  Main  Street  below  Exchange  Street 
and  from  South  Division  Street  to  the  City  Line,  and  for 
paving  Seneca  Street  from  Washington  to  Michigan,  are 
stated  to  have  been  confirmed.  Three  years  later,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1839,  there  is  record  of  a  Common  Council  resolution, 
"that  in  order  to  preserve  that  part  of  Main  Street  which 
has  been  recently  macadamized  from  injury  by  teams  trav- 
elling constantly  in  the  same  ruts  before  the  stone  is  packed," 
therefore  that  practice  is  exhorted  against  and  forbidden. 
Inasmuch  as  all  of  Main  Street  to  the  City  Line  except  the 
part  between  Exchange  and  South  Division  streets  was  to  be 
paved,  apparently,  in  1836,  this  macadamizing  must  have 
been  done  in  that  short  part,  or  else  paving  and  macadamiz- 
ing were  not  technically  distinguishable  terms  in  1836.  It 
would  be  correct  enough  to  call  macadamizing  paving,  and 
this  may  have  been  done  in  the  earlier  record.  A  few  years 
later  there  is  mention  in  the  records  of  an  invitation  for  pro- 
posals to  be  received  "for  paving  and  grading,  or  part  pav- 


THE  EARLIEST  STREET-PAVING  1 43 

ing  and  macadamizing  Washington  Street,  from  Exchange 
to  Swan ;"  showing  a  distinction  then  in  the  use  of  the  terms, 
but  it  may  not  have  been  made  before.  The  outcome  of  these 
proposals  was  a  resolution  authorizing  the  street  commis- 
sioner to  pave  Washington  Street  from  Swan  to  Exchange 
with  cobble  stones. 

The  annual  report  of  the  Department  of  Public  Works  for 
1907  gives  a  list  of  twenty-four  streets  on  some  portions  of 
which  there  were  pavements  of  stone  on  sand  laid  down  in 
1850,  which  still  remain.  This  is  the  oldest  date  assigned  to 
any  part  of  existing  pavements  in  the  city.  In  the  report  of 
the  department  for  1889  the  following  bits  of  pavement  his- 
tory are  given:  "Prior  to  1849  stone  pavement  was  laid  on 
sand  bed ;  an  inferior  shape  of  stone  was  used,  in  some  in- 
stances limestone,  but  most  of  it  was  Medina  sandstone.  We 
have  found,  from  such  records  as  could  be  obtained,  that  up 
to  1849  there  had  been  laid,  under  112  contracts,  27.89 
miles."  "Since  1892  we  have  laid  little  of  the  common 
blocks  in  sand."  "The  first  of  stone  on  concrete  was  laid  in 
Eagle  Street  in  1887."  "Wood  blocks  made  their  appear- 
ance in  1869,  in  a  private  contract,  when  Ohio  Street  was 
laid  with  Nicholson  blocks,  between  Main  and  Washington 
Streets."  Eighteen  contracts  for  different  kinds  of  wood 
pavement  were  executed  in  all,  the  last  one  in  1876.  This 
pavement  began  to  disappear  in  1882,  and  the  last  was  taken 
up  in  1886.  The  first  macadam  was  laid  in  Delaware 
Avenue,  from  Bird  Avenue  to  Forest  Avenue,  in  1877,  but 
not  much  has  been  introduced  outside  of  the  park  system. 
Asphalt  pavement  was  laid  first  in  Delaware  Avenue,  from 
Virginia  Street  to  North,  in  1878.  The  first  surfacing  of 
asphalt  over  stone  was  done  on  Irving  Place  in  1893. 

Excluding  the  park  system,  the  total  pavements  in  the  city 
in  1906,  according  to  a  table  published  in  the  report  of  the 
Department  of   Public  Works   for   1907,  was   as   follows 


144  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

(omitting  fractions  of  miles)  :  Asphalt  on  concrete,  209 
miles,  asphalt  on  stone,  21  ;  stone  on  sand,  80;  block  stone, 
14;  hrick,  18;  macadam,  12.    Total,  355  miles. 

When  the  first  street  railways  were  undertaken  in  Buffalo 
the  city  afforded  less  favorable  conditions  to  the  enterprise 
than  were  found  in  most  others  of  equal  population  at  the 
time.  It  has  not  yet  become  a  compact  city,  and  will  be 
happy  in  its  fortune  if  it  never  does  make  its  people  too 
neighborly  for  their  comfort  and  health;  but  fifty  years  ago 
the  diffuseness  of  its  inhabitation  was  extreme.  Its  eighty 
thousand  residents  were  spread,  certainly,  over  half,  and 
probably  more  than  half,  of  the  ground  now  occupied  by 
four  hundred  thousand.  Practically  every  family  lived  in  a 
separate  house,  and  most  houses  were  built  on  roomy  lots. 
The  hive-life  of  apartment  houses,  rooming  houses  and  fam- 
ily hotels,  was  not  yet  an  imagined  or  conceivably  possible 
life  for  people  in  this  part  of  the  world.  Even  blocks  of 
residences  were  few  and  not  in  favor. 

In  reality,  there  was  much  inconvenience  in  the  excess  of 
the  elbow-room  which  Buffalonians  had  given  themselves 
in  the  make-up  of  their  city;  but  the  habits  of  life  which 
they  conformed  to  it  were  not  easily  changed.  For  mod- 
erate distances  of  city  travel  they  were  accustomed  to  walk- 
ing, and  the  mere  custom  would  resist  street-car  invitations 
to  ride  much  longer  than  thrift  or  parsimony  alone  would 
hold  out  against  half-dime  expenditures  for  the  saving  of 
time  and  legs.  Quite  a  number  of  the  first  years  of  street 
railway  experience  in  Buffalo  were  spent  in  a  somewhat 
costly  demonstration  of  these  facts.  The  lines  built  were 
necessarily  long,  to  gather  possibly  paying  numbers  of  pas- 
sengers from  the  loosely  strung  houses  of  the  best  filled 
streets.  If  they  caught  the  street  car  habit  with  readiness 
the  numbers  might  suffice.  The  success  of  the  first  adven- 
turers in  this  new  field  of  local  enterprise  depended  wholly 


THE  FIRST  STREET  RAILWAYS  1 45 

on  that;  and  it  is  evident  that  the  sufficiency  was  not  found 
for  a  considerable  number  of  years. 

Two  companies  undertook  the  experiment  at  the  same 
time.  One,  the  Buffalo  Street  Railroad  Company,  which 
built  a  line  on  Main  Street,  was  organized  with  a  capital  of 
$100,000,  having  Stephen  V.  R.  Watson  for  its  president, 
G.  R.  Wilson  for  vice-president,  Charles  T.  Coit,  for  secre- 
tary, and  Andrew  J.  Rich  for  treasurer.  The  other,  the  Ni- 
agara Street  Railroad  Company.building  on  Niagara  Street, 
with  a  capital  of  $80,000,  chose  for  president  Edward  S. 
Warren  and  for  secretary  and  treasurer  De  Witt  C.  Weed. 
The  Main  Street  line  was  opened  from  "the  Dock."  as  far  as 
Edward  Street  on  the  nth  of  June,  i860,  and  through  to 
Cold  Spring  on  the  14th  of  the  next  month.  The  Niagara 
Street  Company  ran  their  first  cars  to  Black  Rock  on  the  23d 
of  June.  This  company  did  no  more  than  build  and  operate 
the  one  line.  The  Buffalo  Street  Railroad  built  a  second 
line  on  Genesee  Street,  which  it  opened  in  1864. 

The  lines  of  both  companies  were  operated  with  loss  to  the 
stockholders  for  years.  In  1868  the  Niagara  Street  organi- 
zation succumbed  to  the  adversities  of  the  situation,  and  the 
Buffalo  Street  Railroad  Company  acquired  its  line.  This 
company  was  having,  then  and  long  after,  a  hard  struggle 
for  life;  but  its  president,  Mr.  Watson,  had  inextinguishable 
faith  in  the  future  of  Buffalo  and  in  the  ultimate  profitable- 
ness of  such  a  system  of  street  railways  as  he  wished  to  create. 
That  the  inspiration  of  faith  and  courage  which  carried  his 
company  through  its  trials  came  mostly  from  him  is  the  testi- 
mony of  all  who  knew  the  facts  best. 

At  a  banquet,  given  on  the  occasion  of  the  meeting  in  Buf- 
falo of  the  American  Street  Railway  Association  in  1890, 
the  Hon.  E.  Carlton  Sprague  spoke  on  this  subject,  saying: 
"I  do  not  know  how  much  money  was  originally  invested  in 
either  of  those  enterprises  [of  the  two  street  railroad  com- 


146  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

panies],  nor  am  I  familiar  with  the  financial  operations  of 
the  Niagara  Street  Railroad  Company,  but  so  far  as  the 
Buffalo  Street  Railroad  Company  is  concerned,  I  know  that 
from  i860  to  1867  it  was  constantly  laying  more  tracks  than 
it  had  means  to  pay  for,  and  borrowing  all  the  money  it 
could  on  bonds  and  promissory  notes.  Substantially,  the 
entire  concerns  of  the  company  were  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Watson,  and  so  continued  until  the  year  of  his  death.  He 
also  gave  his  personal  oversight  to  every  detail  of  the  pur- 
chase, construction  and  management  of  the  company's 
property. 

"From  the  start  and  always  he  had  faith  in  the  growth  of 
the  city  and  in  the  ultimate  success  of  its  street  railroads.  He 
was  a  man  of  large  ideas,  looking  far  into  the  future;  of  a 
sanguine  temperament,  public  spirited,  great-hearted,  and 
the  most  indefatigable  and  industrious  man  whom  I  ever 
met.  From  before  sunrise  to  after  sunset  he  was  accustomed 
to  give  his  individual  time  and  labor  to  the  service  of  the 
company.  He  was  always  pushing  the  Buffalo  Street  Rail- 
road and  its  equipments  to  the  utmost,  and  for  that  purpose 
was  .111  enormous  borrower,  and  was  constantly  pledging  his 
individual  credit  to  sustain  the  credit  of  the  company.  No 
dividends  were  declared.  All  the  net  earnings  went  into  the 
roads.  But  in  those  vears  Buffalo  was  a  slow  city.  Its  re- 
covery from  the  panic  of  1857  was  very  gradual.  Almost 
everybody  but  Mr.  Watson  became  discouraged.  He  never 
did." 

Further  on  in  his  remarks  Mr.  Sprague  stated  that  "not 
long  after  1868  Mr.  Watson  became  the  owner  substantially 
of  all  the  stock  of  the  Buffalo  Street  Railroad  Companv." 
and  "in  1870  he  procured  the  incorporation  of  the  Buffalo 
East  Side  Street  Railroad  Company."  "T  remember  talking 
often  with  him  about  this  enterprise,"  said  Mr.  Sprague, 
"and  asking  him  how  he  expected  to  raise  the  money  to  carry 


STEPHEN  V.  R.   WATSON'S  WORK  147 

it  on.  He  said  that  as  long  as  there  was  a  cent  on  this  earth 
which  could  be  borrowed  he  should  borrow  it,  and  that  he 
would  look  to  the  future  for  his  pay.  But  the  future  that 
he  spoke  of  was  much  farther  off  than  he  anticipated.  The 
panic  of  1873  struck  the  city,  and  the  shadow  was  not  en- 
tirely dispelled  much  before  1880,  but  Mr.  Watson  never 
quailed.  His  labors  were  unceasing,  and  income  increased. 
Ultimately,  every  past-due  cent  of  the  company's  debt,  as 
well  as  Mr.  Watson's  own  private  debts,  with  interest  in  full, 
was  paid.  No  man  ever  lost  a  dollar  of  principal  or  interest 
by  trusting  Mr.  Watson  or  the  street  railroad  companies; 
but  Mr.  Watson,  physically  broken  down  by  continual  toil, 
finally  fell  a  victim  to  his  devotion  to  the  Buffalo  street  rail- 
road companies.  At  the  annual  election  on  the  7th  of  June, 
1 880,  he  was  elected  president  of  the  Buffalo  Street  Railroad 
Company  for  the  last  time,  and  on  the  17th  day  of  June, 
1880,  the  board  of  directors  of  that  company  adopted  reso- 
lutions lamenting  his  untimely  death,  which  had  occurred 
between  those  two  dates.  He  never  reaped  the  rewards  of  his 
labors.  He  never  enjoyed  even  the  sight  of  the  promised 
land,  except  through  the  telescope  of  his  imagination." 

On  the  organization  of  the  East  Side  Street  Railroad 
Company,  mentioned  above,  the  late  Joseph  Churchyard 
was  elected  president  and  Mr.  Henry  M.  Watson  was  made 
secretary  and  treasurer.  Mr.  Churchyard  resigned  and  was 
succeeded  by  Mr.  Watson  in  1879.  On  the  death  of  Mr. 
S.  V.  R.  Watson,  Mr.  Henry  M.  Watson  became  president 
of  the  several  companies  under  which  the  general  system  had 
grown  up. 

Meantime  the  Exchange  Street  line  of  railway  was  built, 
in  1873;  the  William  Street  line,  to  East  Buffalo,  and  the 
Michigan  Street  line  from  the  Docks  to  Goodell  Street,  in 
1874,  and  the  latter  line  was  carried  through  to  Main  Street 
in  1875.    The  Main  Street  line  was  extended  to  Delaware 


148  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

Park  in  1879.  Subsequently  lines  were  laid  down  in  Con- 
necticut, in  Allen  and  in  Virginia  Streets  in  1880;  in  Jeffer- 
son and  Emslie  Streets  in  1884;  in  Broadway,  in  Carlton, 
and  in  Ferry  and  Chenango  Streets  in  1885.  In  1886  the 
West  Avenue  line  was  opened.  In  1888  the  Forest  Avenue 
Line  was  opened  to  the  Park,  and  the  Jersey  and  Baynes 
Streets  lines  were  earned  through. 

The  first  electric  service  was  introduced  in  1889,  on  the 
line  to  Delaware  Park.  In  1891  the  electrification  of  the 
entire  system  was  begun  and  completed  rapidly  within  the 
next  few  years. 

Under  .1  new  charter,  obtained  in  1890,  the  several  com- 
panies which  then  divided,  but  little  more  than  nominally, 
the  ownership  and  management  of  the  street  railways  of  the 
city, —  namely,  the  Buffalo  Street  Railroad  Company,  the 
Buffalo  East  Side  Street  Railroad  Company,  and  the  Buf- 
falo West  Side  Street  Railroad  Company,-  were  consoli- 
dated in  the  organization  of  the  Buffalo  Railway  Company, 
which  existed  until  1899.  In  this  period  the  system  of  city 
lines  was  extended  widely. 

In  the  fall  of  1897  a  rival  corporation,  the  Buffalo  Trac- 
tion Company,  which  hail  obtained  a  railway  franchise  in 
numerous  streets  not  occupied  bv  the  Buffalo  Railway  Com- 
pany, including  Frie.  South  Division,  Swan,  Elm,  Best, 
Walden  Avenue.  Chicago,  Perry  and  Hamburg,  opened  a 
line  from  Frie  Street  to  and  through  Walden  Avenue.  In 
the  next  year  this  company  opened  a  line  from  Frie  Street 
to  the  Union  Iron  Works  in  South  Buffalo;  but  its  lines  and 
its  franchises  were  bought  soon  afterwards  bv  the  Buffalo 
Railway  Company. 

In  its  turn,  the  Buffalo  Railway  Company  underwent  ab- 
sorption, in  1902,  by  the  International  Railway,  which  was 
organized  and  incorporated  that  year  for  the  acquisition  and 
combined  operation  of  an  extensive  system  of  urban,  inter- 


THE  TELEPHONE  SERVICE  1 49 

urban  and  suburban  electric  lines,  on  and  near  the  Niagara 
Frontier,  in  both  New  York  and  Canada.  The  neighboring 
electric  lines  thus  connected  in  operation  with  the  street  lines 
of  the  city  have  been  specified  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
Within  the  city  the  street  lines  have  been  much  extended 
and  the  service  improved  in  recent  years,  the  extension  of 
Elmwood  Avenue,  in  1 909-1 910,  to  connect  with  Morgan 
Street  at  Chippewa,  having  opened  a  specially  important 
improvement. 

As  forming  an  important  part  of  the  facilities  provided 
for  movement  within  the  city,  mention  should  be  made  of 
the  Belt  Line  of  track  and  trains  which  the  New  York  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company  established  in  1882,  when  it  obtained 
the  right  to  run  through  The  Terrace  (tunneling  Washing- 
ton and  Main  Streets) ,  and  down  the  Niagara  River  shore  to 
Black  Rock,  to  a  connection  with  its  former  tracks  to 
Niagara  Falls.  On  this  nearly  complete  circuit  of  the  city 
the  running  of  frequent  regular  trains  is  of  great  con- 
venience to  much  business  on  its  outer  rim. 

Buffalo  began  to  enjoy  the  usefulness  of  the  telephone  in 
1879,  when  the  introduction  of  the  great  invention  of  Alex- 
ander Graham  Bell  was  undertaken  by  the  Bell  Telephone 
Company  of  Buffalo,  incorporated  that  year.  Mr.  Edward 
J.  Hall,  now  vice-president  of  the  American  Telephone  and 
Telegraph  Company  —  the  parent  company,  as  it  is  called, 
of  the  Bell  system  in  the  United  States  —  was  the  prime 
mover  in  this  Buffalo  undertaking,  and  the  first  general 
manager  of  the  operations  of  the  company  when  begun.  Its 
license  from  the  parent  company  was  not  for  Buffalo,  only, 
but  covered  a  large  Western  New  York  field,  embracing 
Erie,  Niagara,  Genesee,  Monroe,  Orleans,  Wyoming  and 
Livingston  counties,  taking  in,  as  will  be  seen,  the  cities  of 
Batavia,  Rochester,  Lockport,  Niagara  Falls  and  Tona- 
wanda,  as  well  as  our  own. 


150  CONSTRUCTIVE   EVOLUTION 

It  was  over  this  large  district  that  the  Bell  Telephone 
Company  of  Buffalo  spread  its  wires.  To  reach  its  60,000 
telephones  in  the  many  city,  town  and  village  exchange  sys- 
tems it  organized,  it  had  stretched  no  less  than  1 17,000  miles 
of  wire  in  1907,  exclusive  of  the  connecting  wires  of  its  toll 
plant,  so  called,  which  measure  up  over  18,000  miles  more. 

The  one  exchange  station  with  which  the  company  began 
business  in  Buffalo  was  located,  with  its  offices,  on  the  north- 
east corner  of  Main  and  Eagle  Streets.  Its  offices  and  its  cen- 
tral station  have  been,  since  1885,  in  the  former  bank  and 
office  buildings  on  West  Seneca  Street,  near  Main,  which  it 
purchased  and  fitted  for  its  use.  It  has  now  branch  stations 
in  different  parts  of  the  city.  The  long-distance  Bell  system 
was  extended  to  Buffalo  in  1888,  and  the  affiliated  company 
in  this  city  has  connection  with  all  its  wires.  In  1909,  by  a 
reorganization  of  Bell  Telephone  interests  in  the  State,  the 
company  in  Buffalo  lost  its  former  distinctiveness  of  name, 
becoming  absorbed  in  the  New  York   Telephone  Company. 

To  introduce  competition  in  the  telephone  service,  with  a 
view  to  reductions  in  rates,  a  franchise  of  forty  years'  dura- 
tion was  granted  to  a  second  company,  named  the  Frontier, 
incorporated  in  1901.  A  little  later  the  Frontier  Telephone 
Company  was  placed,  along  with  many  other  independent 
telephone  companies  in  the  State,  under  the  control  of  a 
holding  company,  named  the  Consolidated  Telephone  Com- 
pany of  Buffalo.  A  still  later  organization  gave  it  the  name 
of  the  Federal  Telegraph  and  Telephone  Company,  the 
offices  of  both  companies  being  in  this  city. 

The  construction  of  the  Frontier  Company's  system,  un- 
der the  supervision  of  Mr.  Wilbur  H.  Johnston,  engineer  in 
charge,  was  begun  in  May,  1902,  and  the  first  service  to  sub- 
scribers furnished  in  March,  1903.  At  the  end  of  five  years, 
in  the  spring  of  1908,  the  company  reported  between  16,000 
and  17,000  subscribers  in  Buffalo,  with  long  distance  con- 


THE  TELEPHONE  SERVICE  151 

nections  over  the  wires  of  the  Inter-ocean  Telegraph  and 
Telephone  Company,  as  far  east  as  Utica,  west  as  far  as  De- 
troit, south  to  Pittsburg,  and  widely  through  Western  Penn- 
sylvania and  Western  New  York.  There  is  installed  in  the 
Company's  plant  "approximately  1,100  miles  of  open  wire 
on  pole  lines;  11,944  miles  of  wire  in  overhead  cables; 
40,000  miles  of  wire  in  underground  cables,  and  20  miles  of 
wire  in  submarine  cables. 


CHAPTER     IV 

ELECTRIC  POWER  FROM  NIAGARA  FALLS 

Till',  completion,  in  August,  1895,  °f  tne  first  "power 
plant"  created  at  Niagara  Falls,  for  the  transforma- 
tion into  electric  energj  of  some  part  of  the  stupen- 
dous force  of  gravitation  which  is  spent  in  the  fall  of  the 
mighty  river,  was  an  event  of  great  significance  to  Buffalo. 
Not  yet  so  important,  perhaps,  in  results,  as  it  promised  to 
be,  but  adding,  nevertheless,  a  splendid  gift  from  nature  to 
the  many  which  the  city  had  taken  before  from  her  lavish 
hands.  We  receive  some  distinction  that  has  value  in  it  from 
even  the  simple  fact,  that  a  servant  more  famous  than  any 
other  in  the  world  has  been  brought  into  our  employ,  to 
trundle  our  trolley  cars  and  turn  wheels  in  our  factories  and 
give  us  light. 

The  lirst  to  exploit  the  Falls  of  Niagara  as  a  source  of 
electric  power  were  the  scientists,  engineers  and  capitalists 
organized  in  the  Niagara  halls  Power  Company,  which 
broke  ground  for  its  undertaking  on  the  4th  of  October, 
1890,  and  made  its  first  delivery  of  power  for  industrial  use 
on  the  26th  of  August,  1  895.  Buffalo  had  little  or  no  partici- 
pation in  this  initial  enterprise;  and  it  was  not  until  the  fol- 
lowing year  that  the  transmission  of  power  to  the  city  was 
achieved.  It  came  first  to  the  Buffalo  Railway  Company 
1,000  horsepower,  switched  into  the  company's  power  houses 
at  exactly  midnight  of  November  15-16,  [896,  with  a  sig- 
nalling of  the  event  to  the  city  by  the  firing  of  cannon,  the 
blowing  of  steam  whistles  and  the  ringing  of  bells. 

That  first  thousand  horsepower  ran  a  good  many  street 
cars;  but  the  Railway  Company  now  takes  13,000  of  horse- 
power from  Niagara,  while  16,000  are  applied  to  industrial 
uses,  and  12,000  go  to  the  production  of  light.  These  were 
the  maxima  of  use  in  the  spring  of  1908.    The  total  of  41.000 

152 


ELECTRIC  POWER— NIAGARA  FALLS  I  53 

horsepower  leaves  a  margin  of  9,000  which  can  still  be  sup- 
plied to  Buffalo  under  existing  contracts  with  the  com- 
panies from  which  it  comes.  The  producing  companies  at 
Niagara  deliver  it  to  the  Cataract  Power  and  Conduit  Com- 
pany, which  brings  it  through  cables  to  the  city,  and  this 
latter  company  is  entitled  to  50,000  horsepower,  of  the 
160,000  now  developed  by  the  two  Niagara  companies  with 
which  it  deals.  These  two  companies  are  the  original 
Niagara  Falls  Power  Company,  on  the  American  side  of  the 
Niagara,  and  the  Canadian  Niagara  Power  Company,  on 
the  opposite  bank.  An  alliance  of  interest  exists  between  the 
two.  The  Niagara  power  used  in  Buffalo  is  drawn  from 
both,  and  the  public  interests  of  the  city  are  connected  thus 
with  them,  while  the  companies  are  alien  to  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  third  power  company  at  Niagara,  on 
the  Canadian  side,  is  entirely  Buffalonian  in  every  respect, 
of  conception,  of  invested  capital  and  of  management.  This 
is  the  Ontario  Power  Company,  which  takes  water  at  the 
head  of  the  rapids,  above  the  Horseshoe  Fall,  carries  it  in 
conduits  laid  underground  to  a  power  house,  just  below  the 
Falls,  under  the  cliff,  and  drops  it  to  the  turbines  there.  This 
exactly  reverses  the  method  of  the  two  plants  referred  to 
above.  In  both  of  those  the  water  makes  its  drop  to  the  tur- 
bines in  wheel-pits  sunk  deep  at  the  points  where  it  is  taken 
from  the  river  above  the  Falls,  and  is  discharged  thence 
through  tunnels  into  the  river  below  the  Falls.  The  power 
house  of  the  Ontario  Company,  below  the  Horseshoe 
Fall,  is  a  dignified  structure  of  unobtrusive  design,  so  har- 
monized in  color  with  the  cliff  at  its  back  that  it  cannot  al- 
ways be  distinguished,  through  the  spray,  from  the  cliff  it- 
self. The  whole  conveyance  of  the  water  to  it  is  out  of  sight, 
under  ground,  and  the  other  structures  connected  with  the 
plant  are  not  only  of  pleasing  achitecture,  but  too  far  re- 
moved to  affect  the  scenic  framing  of  the  Falls. 


154  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

The  works  of  the  Ontario  Power  Company  are  planned 
for  an  ultimate  generation  of  200,000  horsepower,  and  the 
head-works  are  completed  for  this  amount.  Other  parts  of 
the  works  are  completed  for  smaller  amounts.  The  genera- 
tors now  installed  have  a  capacity  of  66,000  horsepower, 
normal  rating,  with  a  large  overload  capacity  beyond  that. 
Distribution  in  the  United  States  of  power  from  the  On- 
tario Power  Company  is  conducted  and  controlled  by  the 
Niagara,  Lockport  and  Ontario  Power  Company,  which  has 
brought  into  operation,  since  July,  1906,  a  remarkably  ex- 
tensive system  of  transmission  lines,  stretching  as  far  east- 
ward as  Syracuse.  By  what  seems  a  narrow  view  of  munici- 
pal policy,  it  has  been  prevented  from  coming  into  Buffalo, 
but  has  a  line  circuiting  the  city,  to  West  Seneca  and  the 
Lackawanna  Steel  Plant,  as  well  as  to  Lancaster  and  Depew. 
It  reaches  thus  a  great  manufacturing  district  which  is  a 
part  of  Buffalo  in  all  connections  of  interest,  and  in  every- 
thing except  the  municipal  government  and  name. 

The  officers  of  the  Ontario  Power  Company  are  John  J. 
Albright,    president;    Prancis    V.    Greene,    vice-president; 
Robert  C.   Board,  secretary  and  treasurer.     The  directors 
include,  in  addition  to  the  above,  Edmund  Hayes,  S.   M 
Clement,  and  W.  H.  Grarwick. 

In  closing  a  paper  on  "The  Development  of  the  Ontario 
Power  Company,"  which  he  read  at  the  annual  convention 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers,  in  1905, 
Mr.  P.  X.  Xunn,  one  of  the  company's  engineers,  made  this 
interesting  remark:  "More  than  all  else  in  the  establishment 
of  this  great  and  daring  enterprise  stands  out  the  attitude 
maintained  toward  their  engineers  by  Messrs.  J.  J.  Albright 
and  Edmund  Hayes,  the  originators  and  majority  owners, 
who,  in  strong  contrast  with  the  harassing  interference  bv 
which  uninformed  investors  frequently  spoil  the  best  ef- 
forts of  engineers,  have  in  this  case  given,  not  onlv  absolute 
freedom  of  action,  but  also  steadfast  support." 


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ELECTRIC  POWER — NIAGARA  FALLS  155 

Of  another  power  plant  at  Niagara  which  represents  Buf- 
falo enterprise  and  capital  strictly,  namely  that  of  the 
Niagara  Falls  Hydraulic  Power  and  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, some  account  is  given  in  another  section  of  this  work, 
relating  to  the  flour-milling  interests  of  the  city. 


CHAPTER    V 

WATER   SUPPLY,    FIRE-FIGHTING,    GAS    AND 
ELECTRIC  LIGHTING 

UNTIL  [826-9  the  villages  of  Buffalo  and  Black  Rock 
were  dependent  entirely  upon  wells  for  their  water 
supply,  except  as  the  few  who  lived  near  enough  to 
those  natural  sources  might  draw  from  the  Niagara  River 
or  Buffalo  Creek.  That  dependence  was  lessened  slightly 
in  the  years  named  above,  by  the  undertaking  of  the  Jubilee 
Water  Works  Company,  organized  for  a  distribution  of 
water  from  the  Jubilee  Springs,  which  bubble  to  this  day  on 
the  west  side  of  Delaware  Avenue. 

In  1826  the  company  laid  pump-logs  from  the  springs  to 
Black  Rock;  in  1S20  they  extended  a  second  line  of  wooden 
pipes  down  Main  Street  to  the  canal.  By  1832,  when  Buf- 
falo became  a  chartered  city,  there  were  said  to  be  16  miles 
of  these  pipes,  and  some  considerable  number  of  people 
must  have  been  drinking  the  water  of  the  springs.  The 
company's  charge  for  it  was  seven  dollars  yearly  to  fami- 
lies and  five  dollars  to  offices  and  stores. 

Twenty  years  after  the  laying  of  the  Jubilee  pump-logs 
down  Main  Street,  a  larger  undertaking  to  supply  water  to 
the  40,000  people  then  inhabiting  the  city  was  taken  in  hand. 
The  Buffalo  City  Water  Works  Company,  incorporated  in 
1849,  with  a  capital  of  $200,000,  and  authority  to  increase  it 
to  $500,000,  planned  to  pump  water  from  the  Niagara, 
through  a  tunnel  running  under  the  Erie  Canal  and  Black 
Rock  Harbor,  to  the  outer  side  of  Bird  Island  Pier,  storing 
and  distributing  it  from  a  reservoir  on  Prospect  Hill.  The 
reservoir,  covering  the  block  bounded  by  Niagara,  Connecti- 
cut and  Vermont  Streets,  and  Prospect  Avenue,  and  holding 
eleven  millions  of  gallons,  was  finished  in  November,  1851  ; 

156 


WATER  SUPPLY  157 

the  tunnel,  three  hundred  and  thirty  feet  in  length,  was 
ready  in  the  following  month ;  pumps,  at  a  station  on  the 
margin  of  the  canal,  were  then  put  into  operation,  lifting 
four  millions  of  gallons  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  the  public 
service  of  the  works  was  opened  formally  on  the  2nd  of 
January,  1852. 

In  1868,  the  Water  Works  Company  raised  its  price  to 
the  city  for  public  uses  of  water,  whereupon  the  latter  pro- 
cured legislation  under  which  it  purchased  the  company's 
plant,  paying  $705,000.  The  water  supply  has  been  under 
municipal  management  since  that  date.  With  the  growth  of 
the  city  the  works,  in  every  part,  have  undergone  immense 
enlargement  and  much  change. 

One  of  the  first  new  measures  was  to  answer  the  needs  of 
those  parts  of  the  city,  on  its  higher  ground,  to  which  water 
from  the  reservoir  was  not  carried  with  adequate  force. 
This  was  remedied  by  the  introduction  of  auxiliary  pump- 
ing engines,  of  the  "Holly  system,"  so  called,  which  was 
brought  into  operation  in  January,  185 1. 

Another  early  undertaking  was  to  obtain  purer  water,  by 
constructing  new  tunnels,  to  tap  the  river  far  out,  under  its 
swift  middle  current,  where  an  inlet  pier  was  built,  of  great 
solidity  and  sheathed  with  steel  plates,  to  resist  the  thrust 
and  shock  of  ice  in  the  spring  of  the  year.  In  1907  contracts 
were  let  for  another  inlet  and  another  tunnel  to  the  foot  of 
Porter  Avenue,  where  a  second  pumping  station  would  be 
installed.  In  the  prosecution,  during  the  next  three  years, 
of  the  work  then  undertaken,  the  cost  ran  so  heavily  beyond 
the  original  contracts  and  estimates  that  investigations  were 
undertaken,  at  the  instance  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  in 
1910.  The  two  chambers  of  the  Common  Council  were 
drawn  into  separate  proceedings  of  inquiry,  with  results  that 
gave  no  public  satisfaction.  The  episode  was  one  of  many 
which  have  exhibited  the  mischiefs  of  divided  authority  and 


158  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

responsibility  in  the  city  government,  and  the  success  with 
which  the  powerful  department  of  public  works  can  exercise 
its  own  will.  According  to  a  report  to  the  public,  by  the 
board  of  directors  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  Manu- 
facturers Club,  January  1,  191  1,  "the  new  tunnel  to  the  Em- 
erald Channel  (which  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Works 
estimated  in  his  letter  to  the  mayor,  dated  January  1  1,  1905, 
would  cost  $300,000),  has  cost  to  October  17,  [910,  $1,455,- 
258.20,  with  about  $100,000  yet  to  pay;"  and  the  expenditure 
of  $1,167,041  "for  rebuilding  and  re-equipping  the  old 
[pumping]  station,  making  it  an  entirely  new  station  on  the 
old  site  —  instead  of  the  >;<>,ooo  as  proposed  -  has  rendered 
wholly  unnecessary  the  Porter  Avenue  pumping  station," 
which  is  nevertheless  in  contemplation  at  a  cost  of  $900,000. 
Attempts  to  arrest  the  building  of  the  new  pumping  station 
are  now  under  way. 

The  equipment  of  the  present  pumping  station  is  stated  as 
follows  in  the  report  above  mentioned  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  : 

"Two  new  steam  pumps  each  of  30,000,000  gallons  daily 
capacity. 

"Three  new  electric  pumps  each  of  25,000,000  gallons 
daily  capacity. 

"Two  Lake  Erie  pumps,  installed  in  1896  and  1898,  re- 
spectively, of  30,000,000  gallons  daily  capacity. 

"And  there  are  now  being  installed  two  additional  steam 
pumps  each  of  30,000,000  gallons  daily  capacity,  construc- 
tion being  well  under  way  and  contract  requiring  comple- 
tion by  January  and  June,  191 1.  These  new  pumps  are  to 
replace  two  Holly  steam  pumps  each  of  20, mo, 000  gallons 
dailv  capacity  installed  in  1889  and  1892.  The  present  daily 
capacity  is,  therefore,  235,000,000  gallons,  and  when  the  new 
pumps  above  mentioned  have  been  installed  it  will  be  2;;,- 
000,000  gallons ;  all  modern  and  efficient  machinerv." 


WATER  SUPPLY  .  159 

The  old  reservoir  was  abandoned  in  1894  (its  site  given 
for  the  new  armory  of  the  74th  Regiment,  N.  Y.  S.  N.  G.), 
and  a  new  one,  holding  1 16,000,000  gallons,  was  constructed 
on  the  block,  that  lies  between  Best,  Jefferson,  Dodge  and 
Masten  Streets.  Five  years  —  from  1889  to  1894  —  were 
spent  in  the  construction  of  this,  and  its  cost  was  $554,000, 
exclusive  of  the  cost  of  the  ground. 

The  pipes  of  the  distributing  system  had  been  extended 
to  516  miles  of  length  in  1907.  When  the  city  took  the 
works  in  1868  the  length  of  water  pipes  in  the  streets  was 
about  34  miles.  In  1868  the  average  consumption  of  water 
was  4,000,000  gallons  daily;  in  1906,  it  was  132,000,000.  In 
the  former  year  the  population  was  about  100,000,  against 
400,000,  or  possibly  a  little  more,  at  the  later  date.  Four 
times  as  many  people  had  used  about  thirty-three  times  as 
much  water,  making  an  eightfold  increase  of  consumption, 
which  means  enormous  waste.  The  consumption,  per  capita, 
is  far  in  excess  of  that  of  any  other  city  in  the  country,  and 
is  due  to  the  lack  of  a  system  of  charges  by  which  the  use 
of  meters  would  be  enforced. 

As  manufacturing  industries,  in  late  years,  found  desir- 
able locations  outside  of  the  corporate  limits  of  Buffalo,  but 
within  the  range  of  its  transportation  and  electric  connec- 
tions, there  arose  demands  among  them  for  a  water  supply. 
The  first  response  to  this  demand  was  made  in  May,  1900, 
when  a  company  of  Buffalo  business  men  organized  the 
Depew  and  Lake  Erie  Water  Company.  At  Woodlawn 
Beach,  the  once  popular  summer  resort  on  Lake  Erie,  the 
company  established  a  pumping  station,  connected  with  an 
intake  crib,  which  was  built  about  a  mile  from  shore,  where 
clear  water  and  a  clean  bottom  of  level  rock  were  found. 

The  company  soon  found  that  its  authorized  bond  issue 
was  too  limited  for  the  field  of  enterprise  it  had  opened,  and 
a  new  organization,  styled  the  Western  New  York  Water 


1 60  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

Company,  was  formed  early  in  1902,  to  take  over  the  origi- 
nal company  and  enlarge  its  plant.  The  new  company,  hav- 
ing an  authorized  bond  issue  of  $10,000,000,  has  extended  its 
operations  over  a  much  broadened  territory,  its  mains  now 
entering  the  villages  Blasdell,  Sloan,  Depew,  Lancaster, 
Kenmore,  Gardenville,  Ebenezer,  Eggertville  and  Doyle, 
and  reaching  towns  as  far  as  Hamburg  on  the  south,  Tona- 
wanda  and  Amherst  on  the  north,  and  Alden  at  the  east. 
Not  long  since  it  finished  a  10,000,000  gallon  reservoir  in 
East  Hamburg,  at  a  sufficient  elevation  to  supply  by  gravity 
all  territory  between  Lake  Erie  and  Depew.  It  has  in- 
creased its  intake  capacity,  enlarged  its  Woodlawn  pumping 
station,  and  installed  electrically  driven  pumps,  using 
Niagara  power.  The  officers  of  the  company  are  William 
B.  Cutter,  president;  Frank  S.  McGraw,  vice-president  and 
general  manager;  Walter  P.  Cooke,  secretary;  A.  D.  Bissell, 
treasurer.  Among  the  directors  are  Charles  \Y.  Goodyear, 
Edmund  Hayes.  W.  Caryl  Ely. 

In  the  minutes  of  the  meetings  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
oi  the  Village  of  Buffalo,  -which  have  been  well  preserved 
in  the  office  of  the  City  Clerk,  from  the  first  meeting  held 
after  the  incorporation  of  the  village,  in  1816,  down  to  the 
latest, — nothing  else,  of  the  life  of  that  early  time,  is  shown 
so  plainly  as  the  danger  and  dread  of  fire.  When  almost 
all  houses  were  of  wood,  when  few  of  them  could  be 
near  anv  other  source  of  water  than  a  well,  and  when  the 
appliances  for  using  water  at  a  fire  were  primitive,  this  was 
naturally  a  subject  of  most  anxious  concern;  and  no  other 
subject  engaged  the  attention  of  the  trustees  and  the  citizens 
generally  so  often  as  this. 

The  board  was  organized  on  the  6th  of  May,  1816,  and 
elected  village  officers,  including  three  Fire  Wardens, 
namely:    Reuben  B.  Heacock,  John  Haddock  and  Caleb 


FIRE  FIGHTING  l6l 

Russell.  It  held  its  second  meeting  in  August,  only  for  the 
purpose  of  calling  a  special  meeting  of  "freeholders  and 
inhabitants,"  to  enact  by-laws,  adopt  regulations,  and  lay 
taxes.  It  was  not  until  the  i  ith  of  the  following  November 
that  such  a  public  meeting  was  got  together;  and,  when  con- 
vened, its  principal  business,  after  ordering  a  general  tax 
levy  of  $1,400,  related  to  precautions  against  and  prepara- 
tions for  dealing  with  fire.  It  directed  the  trustees  to  adopt 
measures  for  securing  a  supply  of  water  for  fire  purposes, 
"by  means,"  said  the  resolution,  "of  water  courses,  aque- 
ducts, reservoirs  or  otherwise,"  and  to  use  for  this  purpose 
any  moneys  in  the  village  treasury  "not  otherwise  appro- 
priated." What  was  done  in  obedience  to  this  resolution 
is  not  subsequently  reported,  and  one  has  curiosity  to  know 
what  could  have  been  done  with  funds  "not  otherwise 
appropriated"  from  a  total  tax  levy  of  $1,400,  made  six 
months  before. 

By  other  resolutions  of  the  same  meeting,  the  trustees 
were  directed  to  "procure  to  be  made"  twenty  ladders  and 
two  fire  hooks;  every  occupant  of  a  house  was  required  to 
provide  himself  with  a  good  leathern  fire  bucket,  and  all 
chimneys  were  required  to  be  cleaned  every  two  weeks. 

Four  months  passed  before  another  meeting  of  trustees 
and  inhabitants  was  held,  and  at  this,  on  the  7th  of  March, 
1817,  a  fire  company  was  organized,  its  members  being  duly 
appointed  by  the  meeting.  In  an  "Illustrated  Sketch  of  the 
Fire  Department  of  Buffalo,"  published  in  1890,  the  origin 
of  the  department  is  dated  erroneously  in  1824.  The  com- 
pany formed  in  that  later  year  was  the  second  ;  this,  of  1 8 1 7, 
was  the  first. 

Besides  organizing  its  second  fire  company,  in  1824,  the 
same  village  meeting  gave  authority  to  the  trustees  "to  bring 
water  into  the  village  if  the  same  can  be  done  for  $600." 
But  again  we  are  left  with  no  subsequent  information  as  to 


1 62  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

what  came  from  this  action.  Probably  the  trustees  found 
that  water  could  not  be  brought  into  the  village  for  $600, 
but  we  shall  never  know.  At  a  later  meeting,  in  August, 
1824,  a  tax  of  $800  was  levied  for  the  purchase  of  a  fire  en- 
gine, and  the  substantial  equipment  of  a  fire  department  be- 
gan in  that  action. 

The  next  important  provision  for  emergencies  of  fire  came 
seven  years  later,  in  [831,  when  a  tax  to  raise  $3,000  for  con- 
structing wells  and  reservoirs  and  for  buving  fire  engines 
was  levied,  and  four  reservoirs,  holding  to,O0O  gallons  each, 
were  constructed  on  Main  Street,  at  the  corners  of  Seneca, 
Swan,  Eagle  and  Court.  These  reservoirs,  with  others  pro- 
vided later,  at  the  junction  of  Niagara  and  Main  Streets  and 
elsewhere,  were  in  use  until  quite  recent  years. 

A  third  engine  company  and  a  hook  and  ladder  companv 
were  organized  in  1831,  and  a  second  hook  and  ladder  com- 
pany in  the  following  year.  This  brings  us  to  the  end  of 
the  village  annals  of  volunteer  fire  service,  and  it  is  needless 
to  trace  with  detail  the  growth  of  the  department  under  the 
municipal  government  of  the  then  chartered  City  of  Buf- 
falo. That  it  assumed  a  new  dignity  at  once  appears  in  the 
fact  that  the  first  Chief  Engineer,  Isaac  S.  Smith,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  new  Common  Council  in  this  year,  1832. 

The  office  of  the  fire  wardens  was  continued  under  the 
City  Charter,  two  being  appointed  in  each  of  the  five  city 
wards.  Among  the  powers  given  to  the  Common  Council 
was  that  of  regulating  "the  construction  of  chimneys,  si 
to  admit  sweeps."  and  of  compelling  the  sweeping  and  clean- 
ing of  chimneys.  It  could  also  prohibit  the  employment  of 
unlicensed  chimney  sweeps.  In  those  days  of  wood  fires, 
depositing  their  combustible  soot  in  the  chimney,  the  sweep 
was  a  functionary  of  no  small  importance.  The  coming  in 
of  fire  engines  had  not  yet  put  the  old  "bucket  brigades''  out 
of  service;  for  the  Council,  in  its  fire  regulations,  was  au- 


FIRE  FIGHTING  1 63 

thorized  "to  require  inhabitants  to  provide  so  many  fire- 
buckets,  in  such  manner  and  time,  as  they  shall  prescribe." 
Fire  alarm  bells  are  said  to  have  been  placed  in  1837  on 
the  two  city  markets  of  that  time, — one  on  the  Terrace, 
where  the  Liberty  Pole  stands,  and  one  at  the  corner  of 
Mohawk  and  Pearl  Streets,  where  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  erected 
its  first  building  in  after  years. 

According  to  the  "Illustrated  Sketch  of  the  Fire  Depart- 
ment," edited  by  Byron  R.  Newton  and  F.  W.  B.  Spencer, 
the  first  hose  cart  was  added  to  the  equipment  of  the  fire 
department  and  the  first  hose  company  (Taylor's)  was  or- 
ganized in  18150.  At  this  time,  if  not  earlier,  the  fire  com- 
panies were  taking  on  the  character  of  social  clubs,  and  were 
much  enjoyed  as  such  by  the  young  men  of  all  circles  in  the 
city.  Some  of  the  companies,  especially  of  the  hose  com- 
panies, were  notably  select  in  their  membership,  and  vied 
with  each  other  in  the  fitting  and  furnishing  of  apartments 
in  their  houses  for  social  use.  The  exchange  of  visits  with 
companies  in  other  cities  became  a  frequent  occasion  of 
much  social  excitement  and  entertainment,  and  contributed 
an  important  feature  to  the  life  of  the  time.  In  many  ways 
the  volunteer  fire  department  was  an  interesting  and  in- 
fluential institution,  quite  aside  from  its  protective  service  to 
life  and  property,  for  two  or  three  of  the  first  decades  in  the 
last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  1 852  a  fire  bell-tower  was  built  at  the  corner  of  Batavia 
(Broadway)  and  Ellicott  Streets,  and  a  1,000  pound  bell 
hung  in  it,  for  alarms.  Subsequently  the  tower  and  bell 
were  removed  to  Staats  Street,  near  Niagara, — about  where 
the  headquarters  of  the  Fire  Department  have  been  for 
many  years  past, — and  district  numbers  were  struck,  to  in- 
dicate the  location  of  fires. 

An  attempt  made  by  the  department  chief  in  1854  to  ob- 
tain a  steam  fire  engine  was  unsuccessful,  and  it  was  not  un- 


164  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

til  1859  that  the  first  of  those  engines  came  to  use  in  the 
city.  "The  incoming  of  this  first  steamer  into  the  city,"  say 
the  writers  of  the  "Illustrated  Sketch,1'  "is  of  importance 
from  a  historical  point  of  view,  in  that  it  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  the  long  series  of  reluctant  but  steady  disband- 
ments  of  the  old  volunteer  companies,  that  worked  their 
final  extinction  in  the  spring  of  1880."  "In  May,  1862,  the 
volunteer  companies  had  dwindled  numerically  to  a  total  of 
200  men,  and  but  one  hand  engine,  Hydraulics  9,  remained 
to  the  front.  Five  years  later  it  was  changed  to  a  hose  com- 
pany." In  1865  the  clamorous  alarm  bells  were  beginning 
to  be  superseded  and  silenced  by  tbe  introduction  of  the 
system  of  telegraphic  alarms. 

The  paid  Fire  Department  was  organized  on  the  1st  of 
July,  1880,  under  a  board  of  three  Fire  Commissioners,  ap- 
pointed by  the  Mayor.  The  first  board  consisted  of  George 
R.  Potter,  John  M.  Hutchinson,  Nelson  K.  Hopkins.  Com- 
missioners Potter  and  Hutchinson  served  until  their  deaths, 
the  former  in  1S88,  the  latter  in  1886.  Thomas  B.  French, 
who  had  been  at  the  head  of  the  Volunteer  Department  for 
many  previous  terms,  was  appointed  Chief.  The  force  that 
year  numbered  187  men,  equipped  with  14  steam  fire  engines 
having  a  hose  cart  attached  to  each,  5  chemical  engines,  3 
hook  and  ladder  trucks,  81  horses.  In  the  quarter  century 
and  more  that  has  gone  by  since,  the  force  and  the  equipment 
have  grown  to  601  men,  29  steam  fire  engines,  3  fire  boats  in 
the  harbor,  10  hook  and  ladder  trucks,  30  hose  wagons,  6 
chemical  engines,  1  water  tower,  246  horses. 

The  first  fire  boat  was  introduced  in  1887,  the  second  in 
1892,  the  third  in  1900.  In  1897  the  powerful  engines  of  the 
fire  boats  were  brought  into  use  upon  uptown  fires,  within 
a  certain  range,  by  laying  a  pipe  in  Washington  Street,  from 
its  foot  to  Huron  Street,  through  which  water  is  driven  to 
hose  that  mav  be  connected  with  it  at  many  points  on  the 


GAS  AND  ELECTRIC  LIGHTING  165 

line.  In  1905,  a  second  pipe  line  was  branched  from  the 
first  one,  through  Exchange  Street  to  Pearl,  and  up  Pearl 
to  Huron.  In  1906  and  1907,  the  pipe  lines  were  extended 
through  Carroll  Street  to  Michigan  and  through  Ohio 
Street  to  the  Clark  and  Skinner  Canal.  The  portable  water 
tower,  to  which  a  special  company  is  attached,  was  intro- 
duced in  1890. 

Buffalo  received  the  luxury  of  gas  light  in  1848,  and  owed 
it  in  a  large  measure  to  the  progressive  spirit  and  energy  of 
Oliver  G.  Steele,  who  took  a  leading  part  in  the  organization 
of  the  Buffalo  Gas  Light  Company,  and  was  its  secretary 
and  general  manager  till  his  death.  The  original  company 
had  no  competitor  until  1870,  when  the  Buffalo  Mutual  Gas 
Light  Company  was  formed  and  received  a  franchise  from 
the  city.  This  was  followed  in  the  next  year  by  a  third 
franchise,  given  to  the  Buffalo  Oxygen  and  Hydrogen  Gas 
Company,  which  was  reorganized  in  1873  as  the  Citizens' 
Gas  Company,  and,  again,  as  the  Buffalo  City  Gas  Com- 
pany, in  1897. 

In  1899  the  Buffalo  Gas  Light  Company  and  the  Buffalo 
City  Gas  Company  were  consolidated  in  the  organization  of 
the  Buffalo  Gas  Company,  which  has  controlled  the  supply 
of  artificial  gas  to  the  city  since  that  time,  having  acquired 
the  capital  stock  of  the  Buffalo  Mutual  Gas  Light  Com- 
pany, and  most  of  the  stock  of  a  fourth  corporation,  the 
People's  Gas  Light  and  Coke  Company,  which  had  come 
into  existence  at  a  later  day.  The  franchises  under 
which  the  consolidated  company  operates  are  reported  as 
perpetual. 

Under  a  contract  with  the  company  effected  by  Mayor 
Adam  in  1907,  the  gas-lighting  of  streets  is  now  entirely  by 
means  of  sixty  candle-power  incandescent  Welsbach  lamps, 
at  a  price  per  lamp  per  year  of  $10.95. 

Natural  gas  was  piped  to  Buffalo  from  its  Pennsylvania 


1 66  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

sources  in  1886,  by  the  Buffalo  Natural  Gas  Fuel  Company, 
which  holds  the  only  franchise  for  its  distribution.  The  sup- 
ply from  Pennsylvania  had  been  supplemented  by  another 
from  Canadian  sources,  brought  through  pipes  laid  down 
in  the  bed  of  the  Niagara  River,  but  that  tapping  of  Cana- 
dian resources  is  no  longer  permitted.  Other  gas  wells, 
nearer  to  Buffalo,  have  contributed  a  little  to  the  supply,  and 
yet  it  is  far  less  than  the  citv  would  use  if  its  whole  de- 
mand could  be  met.  It  would  be  the  preferred  fuel  for 
most  heating  purposes,  if  everybody  could  always  depend 
upon  having  it  in  sufficiency  for  the  coldest  turns  of  winter 
weather,  but  there  has  not  been  that  certainty  for  an  un- 
limited use.  To  a  considerable  extent  the  natural  gas  is 
used,  in  connection  with  the  Welsbach  mantles,  for  illumina- 
tion as  well  as  for  heating. 

Of  the  power  now  coming  into  Buffalo  from  the  electric 
development  at  Niagara  Falls,  1  2,000  horse-power  go  to  the 
production  of  light.  The  sale  oi  this  part  of  it  is  controlled 
entirely  by  the  Buffalo  General  Electric  Company,  incor- 
porated in  [892,  as  a  consolidation  of  some  previous  electric 
light  companies.  The  authorized  capital  stock  of  the  com- 
pany is  $5,000,000;  issued,  $2,979,500;  bonds,  £2, 37;. 000. 
Its  franchise  is  reported  as  perpetual.  In  1907,  it  had  in- 
stalled about  475  miles  of  mains  and  6,754  meters. 

Business  use  of  electric  lighting  is  extensive;  the  private 
use  is  more  limited  than  in  most  other  cities,  and  even  less 
than  in  multitudes  of  small  towns.  The  fact  is  ascribed  to 
high  rates,  maintained  by  the  substantial  monopoly  which 
the  company  has  secured.  For  large  institutions  and  indus- 
trial establishments  there  are  many  private  installations  of 
electric  light  plants. 

The  chief  officers  of  the  company  are  Charles  R.  Hunt- 
ley, president;  George  Urban  and  Andrew  Langdon,  vice- 
presidents.    It  has  purchased  recently  the  fine  site,  on  Wash- 


I) 


1    Pennsylvania,  in  1677      In 
business.     In  trie 

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GAS  AND  ELECTRIC  LIGHTING  167 

ington,  Genesee  and  Huron  streets,  which  had  been  occu- 
pied for  many  years  by  the  Gruener  Hotel,  and  is  under- 
stood to  be  preparing  to  erect  there  one  of  the  finest  business 
buildings  of  the  city. 


CHAPTER    VI 

SEWERAGE  AND  SANITATION 

SINCE  Buffalo  was  incorporated  as  a  city  it  has  always 
been  provided,  under  its  charter,  with  a  board  of 
health,  but  its  conception  of  the  need  and  the  func- 
tions of  such  an  institution  was  limited  at  the  beginning  and 
has  had  a  slow  growth.  Its  early  ordinances,  as  published 
in  1839,  set  forth  that  the  board  of  health  "shall  exercise  the 
authority  granted  by  the  laws  of  the  State  providing  against 
infectious  and  pestilential  diseases  within  this  city,  and  for 
that  purpose  shall  assemble  at  such  times  and  places  and  as 
often  as  they  may  deem  necessary,  for  the  purpose  of  inquir- 
ing into  the  existence  of  such  nuisances  and  causes  of  sick- 
ness and  iliseases  as  may  be  found  in  said  city."  Further  it 
is  ordained  that  the  board  shall  appoint  a  health  physician, 
"whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  visit  every  sick  person  who  may  be 
reported  to  the  board  of  health."  and  to  "report  with  all 
convenient  speed  his  opinion  of  the  sickness."  Also  to  visit 
and  inspect,  at  the  request  of  the  president  of  the  board,  all 
boats  and  vessels  suspected  of  having  on  board  any  pesti- 
lential or  infectious  disease,  and  all  stores  or  buildings  which 
are  suspected  of  containing  unsound  provisions  or  damaged 
hides,  etc. 

Evidently  the  health  board  and  the  health  physician  were 
provided  for  emergencies  of  pestilence,  such  as  that  of  the 
visitation  of  cholera  in  1832,  which  called  Mayor  Johnson, 
Roswell  W.  Haskins,  Lewis  F.  Allen,  Dyre  Tillinghast  and 
Dr.  John  E.  Marshall  into  heroic  service,  as  told  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter;  and  not  much  continuous  work  of  preventive 
sanitation  was  expected,  or  seen  to  be  a  serious  need. 

We  could  learn  very  little  of  sanitary  conditions  in  the 
early  years  of  the  young  city  if  we  had  nothing  to  inform  us 

168 


SEWERAGE  AND  SANITATION  1 69 

but  the  records  that  have  come  down.  "Drains  or  sewers" 
are  mentioned  in  the  "Street  Records"  preserved  at  the  City 
Clerk's  office,  and  in  the  earliest  ordinances,  but  nothing 
there  could  tell  us  how  much  they  served  for  drainage  and 
how  much  for  sewerage,  and  where  their  sewage  went  to,  if 
they  carried  any.  Fortunately,  among  the  manuscripts  in 
the  possession  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society,  there  is  a 
paper  on  "Buffalo  City  Sewerage  and  Sanitary  Science," 
written  in  1866,  by  Oliver  G.  Steele,  which  sketches  the 
work  that  had  been  done  on  these  lines  before  that  time. 
From  a  memoir  of  Mr.  Steele,  written  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Hosmer,  we  know  that  he  was  recognized  as  the  leading 
spirit  in  what  had  been  done  toward  the  instituting  of  a 
system  of  sewerage,  and  the  source  of  information  is  there- 
fore the  best  we  could  have. 

In  1847  Mr.  Steele  was  an  alderman  of  the  Common 
Council,  and  he  tells  us  that  previous  to  that  year  "the  sub- 
ject of  underground  drainage  had  attracted  little  attention." 
He  speaks  of  "sewers  or  drains  as  they  were  called"  that  had 
been  constructed  as  early  as  1834-5,  in  Ellicott  and  Oak 
Streets,  and  describes  them  as  follows:  "They  were  but  five 
or  six  feet  deep,  constructed  of  dry  brick,  with  a  board  bot- 
tom, the  bricks  laid  up  projecting  inward  till  they  met  at  the 
top,  and  held  in  place  as  soon  as  laid  by  the  soil  thrown 
upon  them."  "Even  these  wretched  sewers,"  he  remarks, 
"did  good  service  for  many  years." 

But  in  1847,  under  the  mayoralty  of  Hon.  E.  G.  Spauld- 
ing,  "the  progress  of  local  improvement  had  been  such," 
Mr.  Steele  writes,  "that  special  attention  was  drawn  to  the 
subject  of  sewerage."  Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  Board 
of  Aldermen  appointed  a  committee  on  paving,  sewers  and 
light.  The  committee  consisted  of  O.  G.  Steele,  Orlando 
Allen  and  Luman  K.  Plimpton, — all  energetic  men, — and 
they  found  an  abundance  of  work  waiting  to  be  taken  in 


170  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

hand.  "The  call  for  paving  was  pressing,  city  lights  there 
were  none,  and  sewerage  was  so  little  known  as  to  be  scarcely 
recognized  among  city  improvements."  The  little  drainage 
of  streets  that  had  been  provided  for  was  all  below  Eagle 
Street.  Above  that  line  in  the  city  there  was  none.  "All  the 
water  which  fell  upon  the  surface,"  Mr.  Steele  tells  us,  "re- 
mained until  taken  up  by  evaporation.  No  cellar  or  vault 
could  be  made  available,  as  the  first  hard  rain  would  fill 
them  with  water." 

The  first  work  planned  and  carried  by  the  new  committee 
was  a  receiving  sewer  in  Michigan  Street,  from  the  canal 
to  Batavia  Street.  It  was  carried  against  bitter  opposition 
from  the  owners  of  the  property  benefited.  The  $12,500 
which  it  cost  was  deemed  enormous  extravagance,  and  the 
principle  then  first  propounded,  that  property  on  parallel 
and  cross  streets  which  must  drain  into  it  should  be  taxed 
for  its  share  of  the  cost,  was  hotly  contested.  But  the  project 
was  driven  through;  the  results  from  it  were  instructive; 
and  when,  in  the  next  year,  the  committee  planned  and 
recommended  a  general  system  of  sewerage,  a  good  deal  of 
public  opinion  appears  to  have  been  prepared  for  its  consid- 
eration, with  thoughtfulness,  at  least.  It  was  nut  adopted  at 
the  time,  but  Mr.  Steele  could  say,  eighteen  years  later,  that 
its  recommendations  had  all  been  carried  out. 

The  territory  sewered  by  the  system  then  planned  ex- 
tended "from  Carolina  Street  on  the  west  to  the  'big  ravine,' 
as  it  was  termed,  in  the  old  Fourth  Ward,  near  Spring  and 
Pratt  streets,  and  northerly  as  far  as  Goodell  and  Virginia 
streets,  then  substantially  the  limits  of  population.  All  the 
receiving  sewers  named  in  the  report  were  constructed  in  a 
few  years,  including  the  proposed  large  sewer  in  the  'big 
ravine'  before  referred  to,  and  the  sewer  through  the  great 
ravine  which  cut  through  the  westerly  end  of  what  is  now 
Johnson  Park,  passing  between  Georgia  and  Carolina 
streets  to  the  canal." 


SEWERAGE  AND  SANITATION  \J\ 

Before  the  time  of  Mr.  Steele's  writing  on  the  subject 
(1866),  the  system  had  been  extended  much  beyond  the  ter- 
ritory for  which  his  committee  had  planned  it  in  1848;  and 
he  makes  particular  mention  of  the  Emslie  Street  sewer, 
which  had  brought  "a  large  and  almost  deserted  territory 
into  use." 

For  seventeen  more  years  the  sewering  of  Buffalo  was  ex- 
tended on  the  lines  planned  in  1848,  and  they  were,  of 
course,  the  only  practicable  lines  for  that  period.  The  sys- 
tem developed  was  a  systematic  emptying  of  the  sewage  of 
Buffalo  into  the  Hamburg  and  Erie  Canals,  to  deposit  filthy 
sediment  in  their  sluggish  waters,  or  drift  through  Buffalo 
Creek  into  the  lake  and  down  Niagara  River,  near  shore, 
washing  the  Bird  Island  Pier,  close  to  which  our  water 
works  sucked  into  their  tunnel  the  stream  that  ran  to  our 
lips  through  the  city  pipes. 

This  bad  old  system  was  superseded  in  1883  by  the  con- 
struction of  a  long  intercepting  sewer,  eight  feet  in  diameter 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  its  length,  which  starts  from 
the  "mill-race  sewer"  in  Swan  Street  (at  what  used  to  be 
known  as  "the  Hydraulics"),  and  runs  through  Swan  Street, 
the  Terrace,  Court  Street,  and  Fourth  Street,  to  Porter 
Avenue;  thence  along  the  slope  of  The  Front  to  the  bank  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  and  along  that  bank  to  a  point  near  Albany 
Street,  whence  it  is  carried  under  the  canal  and  Black  Rock 
Harbor  to  an  outlet  in  Niagara  River,  some  distance  below 
the  inlet  of  the  city  water  works.  We  are  now  drawing  near 
the  time  when  some  wholly  different  system  of  sewage  dis- 
posal will  have  to  be  adopted,  avoiding  all  discharge  of  pol- 
luting matter  into  the  river,  in  justice  to  the  people  who  take 
water  from  the  Niagara  below  us,  at  Tonawanda  and  the 
Falls. 

It  can  be  said  with  entire  assurance,  that  no  real  concep- 
tion of  the  dependence  of  health  and  life  in  a  city  on  ade- 


172  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

quate  sanitary  regulations  and  their  rigorous  enforcement 
ever  began  to  take  form  in  our  public  mind,  or  in  many  in- 
dividual minds,  until  after  the  remodelling  of  the  Health 
Department,  under  the  revised  charter  of  1891.  That  char- 
ter created  a  Board  of  Health  made  up  of  the  Mayor,  the 
president  of  the  Common  Council  (this  latter  giving  place 
in  a  few  years  to  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Works),  and  a 
Health  Commissioner,  appointed  by  the  Mayor;  but  the 
Health  Commissioner  was  the  executive  and  responsible 
official  of  what  was  now  a  recognized  department  of  the  city 
government.  He  was  to  act  under  the  "advice  and  supervi- 
sion" of  the  hoard,  hut  he  had  considerably  independent 
powers,  and  the  then  Mayor,  Charles  F.  Bishop,  appointed 
to  the  office  a  physician  who  would  not  minimize  its  powers 
or  let  them  go  to  waste. 

Dr.  Ernest  Wende,  the  first  responsible  and  effectiveh 
authorized  health  officer  of  Buffalo,  found  a  great  oppor- 
tunity for  showing  what  sanitary  science,  backed  by  resolute 
authority,  could  do  for  the  protection  of  health  and  life  in  a 
community,  and  he  made  the  most  of  it.  He  had  bigoted 
ignorance,  bigoted  tradition,  bigoted  habit,  and  long- 
indulged  recklessness  of  neglect,  to  contend  with.  He  fought 
in  the  first  years  of  his  service  for  every  measure  he  carried 
through,  and  he  was  one  who  would  not  and  could  not  be 
beaten  in  the  fight.  He  had  to  win  public  belief  in  the 
science  he  championed,  and  he  did  win  it,  widening  the 
circle  of  belief  at  a  rate  which  soon  made  rapid  gains,  until 
the  ciryr  at  large  was  quite  solidly  with  him,  in  hearty  appre- 
ciation of  his  work,  before  the  ten  years  of  his  first  service 
closed. 

Results  were  not  slow  in  coming  to  plain  sight.  In  1891, 
the  last  year  of  the  old  sanitary  conditions,  there  were  6,001 
deaths  in  the  city,  out  of  a  population  of  255,000.  In  1892, 
the  first  year  of  scientific  attention  to  unsanitary  conditions 


SEWERAGE  AND  SANITATION  1 73 

and  practices,  the  deaths  fell  in  number  to  5,697,  though 
population  had  increased  by  10,000  or  15,000  at  the  least. 
And  the  decrease  went  on,  while  population  as  steadily 
grew.  In  1894  there  were  5,280  deaths;  in  1896,  4,452;  and 
in  1900,  when  the  decennial  census  showed  97,000  more 
inhabitants  than  in  1891,  the  deaths  among  them  were  but 
4,998,  against  the  6,001  of  ten  years  before.  There  was  no 
gainsaying  such  evidence  as  this.  A  death  rate  reckoned 
from  an  estimated  population  might  be  questioned,  but  a 
diminishing  total  of  deaths  in  a  manifestly  growing  city 
could  mean  but  one  thing.  And  the  record  of  deaths  is  one 
particular  of  our  municipal  statistics  that  is  open  to  no 
dispute.  Other  items  of  record  may  be  questionable,  but 
the  dead  cannot  be  buried  without  a  permit  from  the 
Department  of  Health,  and  its  catalogue  of  them  is  neces- 
sarily correct.  So  the  life-saving  effect  of  Dr.  Wende's 
sanitary  measures  had  absolute  proof. 

One  of  his  first  movements  was  to  secure  a  bacteriological 
laboratory,  and  he  led  the  health  officials  of  the  country  in 
contending  for  that  as  a  municipal  need.  Two  years  of 
argument  and  pleading  were  spent  in  the  effort  before  his 
laboratory  was  equipped,  but  after  the  spring  of  1893  tnat 
great  detective  agency  was  in  his  hands.  How  it  helped 
him  in  his  vigorous  defense  of  the  city  against  polluted 
water  and  infected  milk  can  readily  be  understood.  These 
were  the  deadliest  enemies  that  his  department  had  to  fight 
with,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  lives  saved  in  its  warfare 
were  snatched  from  them.  Its  systematic  inspection,  regis- 
tration and  record  soon  made  it  nearly  impossible  for  an 
infected  source  in  the  milk  supply  to  go  undetected  very 
long. 

The  extermination  of  the  long-tubed  nursing  bottle  was 
the  achievement  which  had  most  to  do,  perhaps,  with  the 
remarkable  reduction  of  infant  mortality  which  Dr.  Wende 


174  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

brought  about.  To  obtain  ordinances  for  the  suppression  of 
the  sale  of  these  bottles,  and  then  to  convince  courts  that  the 
ordinances  should  be  enforced,  was  no  easy  task,  but  the 
health  commissioner  contrived  scientific  exhibitions  of  proof 
against  the  deadly  tubes  which  silenced  all  defence  of  them, 
and  they  were  driven  out  of  use. 

In  the  crusade  against  polluted  water  there  occurred  a 
dramatic  episode,  in  which  the  health  commissioner  played 
somewhat  the  part  of  a  scientific  Sherlock  Holmes.  A  sud- 
den epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  appeared  in  February,  1894, 
the  cause  of  which  was  not  traceable  for  a  time.  The  com- 
missioner suspected  some  sewer  pollution  of  the  water  sup- 
ply, supposed  to  be  pumped  through  a  tunnel  from  an  inlet 
far  out  in  the  Niagara  River;  and  finally,  with  great  diffi- 
culty, lie  brought  to  light  the  fact  that,  because  of  troubles 
at  the  proper  inlet,  produced  by  ice,  an  old  inlet,  close  to  the 
Bird  Island  Pier,  had  been  opened,  and  this  explained  the 
typhoid.  He  demanded  an  instant  closing  of  the  old  inlet, 
and  he  compelled  submission  to  his  authority  as  the  guar- 
dian of  life  and  health  in  the  city,  though  the  pinched 
supply  of  water  that  ensued  brought  a  grave  exposure  to 
dangerous  fires,  and  roused  fierce  denunciations  from  many 
powerful  interests,  which  had  more  solicitude  for  the  safety 
of  property  than  for  the  safety  of  life. 

Public  opinion  and  law  were  co-operative  in  strengthen- 
ing the  commissioner's  hands.  After  obtaining  effective  or- 
dinances from  the  Common  Council,  he  procured  an  act  of 
the  Legislature  which  required  his  approval  of  any  change. 
He  magnified  his  office  by  making  its  importance  seen  and 
felt,  and  established  a  public  appreciation  of  science  and 
rigorous  system  in  the  sanitation  of  a  city  which  no  ordinary 
administration  of  the  Health  Department  would  ever  have 
done.  This  was  seen  when  a  change  of  party  in  the  city 
government  led  to  the  dropping  of  Dr.  Wende  from  the 


SEWERAGE  AND  SANITATION  175 

office,  as  happened  in  1901.    The  public  protest  was  vehe- 
ment to  a  remarkable  degree. 

Dr.  Wende  was  succeeded,  however,  by  his  own  assistant, 
Dr.  Walter  D.  Greene,  and  the  department  staff  underwent 
little  change.  The  system  which  the  former  commissioner 
had  organized  was  maintained,  and  much  of  the  energy  he 
had  infused  into  the  administration  of  the  department  was 
active  in  the  following  years.  One  of  the  early  acts  of 
Mayor  Adam,  when  he  assumed  office  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1906,  was  to  announce  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Wende,  as 
Health  Commissioner,  to  take  effect  on  the  expiration  of  Dr. 
Greene's  term,  in  1908.  Dr.  Wende  re-entered  the  office, 
accordingly,  but  was  stricken  soon  afterward  by  a  mortal 
disease,  and  the  city  sustained  a  great  loss  in  his  death.  His 
place  at  the  head  of  the  Health  Department  is  now  filled 
efficiently  by  Dr.  Francis  E.  Fronczak,  who  had  been  Dr. 
Wende's  deputy  for  some  time  before  the  latter's  death. 


CHAPTER     VII 
PARKS  AND  PUBLIC  GROUNDS 

PRIOR  to  1870  Buffalo  had  an  abundance  of  the  beauty 
of  grass  and  foliage  in  its  tree-lined  streets  and  well- 
kept  private  grounds,  with  no  lack  of  air  space,  fur- 
nished by  unoccupied  lots.  Two  of  the  three  functions  of  a 
park  system,  ventilation  and  adornment,  were  thus  fairly 
performed  without  it;  but  would  cease  to  be,  as  the  city 
thickened  its  population  in  the  course  of  the  coming  years. 
As  for  the  third  function,  of  healthful  recreation  for  the 
public,  in  free  fields  and  groves,  it  had  been  neglected  alto- 
gether. There  was  nothing  to  offer  it  but  a  few  small  bits 
of  ground  dedicated  to  public  use,  such  as  the  fragment  of 
old  Dr.  Johnson's  estate,  which  bears  the  name  of  Johnson 
Park;  anil  these  were  so  neglected  as  to  offer  very  little  in- 
vitation, even  to  the  neighborhood  strollers  of  a  summer  eve. 
In  the  summer  of  [858  William  Dorsheimer,  afterwards 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State,  began  to  incite  a  few 
public-spirited  gentlemen  to  act  with  him  in  starting  a 
movement  toward  the  creation  of  a  proper  system  of  public 
parks,  before  the  further  growth  of  the  city  should  make  it 
more  difficult  and  costly  to  secure  desirable  lands.  The  re- 
sult was  a  meeting  held  at  the  residence  of  Sherman  S. 
Jewett,  on  the  25th  of  August,  that  year,  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee,  consisting  of  William  Dorsheimer, 
Joseph  Warren,  Pascal  P.  Pratt,  Sherman  S.  Jewett  and 
Richard  Flach,  to  take  preliminary  steps.  At  private  ex- 
pense, Mr.  Frederick  Law  Olmsted,  the  architect-in-chief 
of  Central  Park,  New  York,  was  engaged  to  examine  the 
situation  and  recommend  a  desirable  park  scheme.  He  came 
to  Buffalo,  and,  after  carefully  surveying  the  city  and  its 
suburbs,  submitted  a  report  from  his  firm,  of  Olmsted,  Yaux 


PARKS  AND  PUBLIC  GROUNDS  177 

&  Co.,  suggesting  the  features  of  a  plan  that  has  been  real- 
ized exactly  in  all  that  part  of  our  existing  park  system 
which  lies  in  the  northern  part  of  the  city, — extending  from 
The  Front,  on  the  Niagara  River,  by  wide  boulevards  and 
through  the  main  Delaware  Park,  to  The  Parade,  on  the 
high  ground  of  the  northeast. 

This  report  was  transmitted  to  the  Mayor,  General  Wil- 
liam F.  Rogers,  on  the  16th  of  November,  and  by  him  to 
the  Common  Council  the  following  week,  with  the  recom- 
mendation that  a  committee  of  five  members  of  the  Council 
be  appointed  to  co-operate  with  the  citizens'  committee, 
in  securing  legislation  to  authorize  the  necessary  purchase 
of  lands  by  an  issue  of  the  city's  bonds.  Meantime,  in  the 
press  and  otherwise,  the  project  was  receiving  earnest  sup- 
port, and  a  decisive  public  opinion  in  its  favor  was  being 
evoked.  The  required  act  of  the  Legislature  was  passed  in 
April,  1869.  It  provided  for  the  appointment  of  a  Board 
of  Park  Commissioners,  twelve  in  number,  who  should  have 
power  to  select  and  locate  not  more  than  five  hundred  acres 
of  land,  which  the  city,  in  the  exercise  of  its  rights,  should 
take,  and  they  should  be  public  places,  for  use  as  a  public 
park  or  parks.  It  authorized  an  issue  of  the  city's  bonds,  to 
an  amount  not  exceeding  $500,000,  for  the  purchase  of  such 
lands;  and  further  issues,  within  prescribed  limits,  for  the 
laying  out  and  improving  of  the  parks;  and  it  provided  for 
annual  appropriations  of  money  to  be  expended  by  the  com- 
missioners in  the  maintenance  of  the  parks,  over  the  "use, 
regulation,  protection  and  government"  of  which  it  gave 
them  full  control. 

The  Park  Commissioners  first  appointed  were  Pascal  P. 
Pratt,  Sherman  S.  Jewett,  Dexter  P.  Rumsey,  William  Dor- 
sheimer,  Joseph  Warren,  Dennis  Bowen,  Edwin  T.  Evans, 
James  Mooney,  Richard  Flach,  John  Greiner,  Jr.,  John 
Cronyn,   Lewis  P.   Dayton,   and   the   Mayor,  William   F. 


178  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

Rogers,  ex  officio.  It  was  a  remarkably  strong  board,  and 
did  remarkably  effective  work.  It  was  organized  on  the 
first  Monday  of  .May,  1869,  by  the  election  of  Mr.  Pratt  to 
be  president  and  General  Rogers  to  be  secretary  and  treas- 
urer. Olmsted,  Vaux  &  Co.  were  appointed  landscape 
architects,  George  Kent  Radford,  engineer  in  charge,  and 
William  McMillan,  superintendent  of  planting.  The  board 
was  as  fortunate  in  securing  Mr.  McMillan  for  its  superin- 
tendent as  in  having  Olmsted  and  Vaux  to  direct  the  whole 
constructive  work.  Mr.  McMillan  and  Mr.  Radford  were 
recommended  by  the  responsible  architects,  and  were  care- 
fully picked  men.  In  a  service  of  nearly  thirty  years,  Mr. 
McMillan  created  the  remarkable  arboreal  beauty  which 
distinguishes  our  parks. 

In  their  fust  annual  report,  made  to  the  Common  Council 
in  January,  [871,  the  commissioners  announced  the  taking  of 
propert)  to  the  value,  as  awarded,  of  $247,785,  for  lands 
(averaging  about  $600  per  acre) ,  and  $46,3X1  for  buildings. 
Extensive  works  of  clearing,  draining,  grading,  ploughing, 
and  of  excavating  the  marsh  which  was  to  undergo  transfor- 
mation into  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  lakes,  were  al reads 
well  advanced.  The  end  of  the  next  year  found  the  lake 
nearly  finished,  about  two  miles  of  roadway  in  the  park  al- 
ready in  considerable  use  by  the  public,  and  some  40,000 
planted  trees,  shrubs  and  vines  started  in  their  growth.  How 
rapidly  the  work  went  on,  and  how  soon  our  new  parks  be- 
gan to  assume  a  face  of  beauty,  is  within  the  recollection  of 
many  who  enjoy  the  perfect  beauty  of  them  to-day. 

In  1873  Mr.  Radford,  the  special  engineer,  retired,  and 
Mr.  McMillan  was  made  general  superintendent  of  all 
work  in  the  park.  In  the  next  year  lands  were  taken  for  the 
opening  of  Fillmore  Avenue  from  The  Parade  southerly,  to 
Seneca  Street.  In  that  year  the  commissioners  were  able  to 
saw  when  they  made  their  fourth  report:    "A  practicable 


PARKS  AND  PUBLIC  GROUNDS  1 79 

drive  of  over  six  miles,  connecting  The  Front  with  The 
Parade,  through  the  main  Park,  has  been  opened  and 
graded,"  "affording  a  much  greater  stretch  of  pleasure  travel 
than  the  public  have  ever  before  enjoyed  within  the  limits  of 
the  city;  which,  together  with  the  attractions  afforded  by 
the  pleasure  rowboats  on  the  Lake,  have  largely  increased 
the  number  of  visitors  during  the  year."  What  this  opening 
of  six  miles  of  a  continuous  pleasure  drive  within  the  city 
meant,  can  be  realized  better  if  we  recall  some  remarks  that 
were  made  a  little  later  by  the  park  architect,  Olmsted,  in  a 
description  he  wrote  of  the  park  system  of  Buffalo,  in  its 
relation  to  the  general  city  plan  and  topographical  situation. 
After  showing  how  unfortunately  the  views  of  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Niagara  had  been  shut  out  of  sight,  and  what  "cheer- 
less landscape  conditions"  prevailed  generally  in  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  town,  he  said:  "It  came  about,  finally,  that 
while  the  city  remained  notable  for  public  and  private 
wealth,  its  poverty  of  rural  recreation  was  deplorable.  In  no 
other  town  of  equal  population  was  so  little  pleasure  to  be 
had  in  a  ride  or  walk  to  the  outskirts."  This  was  much 
truer  thirty  years  ago  than  now. 

Until  1877  works  of  improvement  on  the  then  planned 
system  of  three  newly  created  parks,  with  connecting  park- 
ways and  broad  avenues,  and  with  the  incidental  features  of 
The  Circle,  Soldiers'  Place,  etc.,  were  carried  on  energet- 
ically, with  fairly  liberal  appropriations  for  it  by  the  Com- 
mon Council.  At  that  date,  however,  appropriations  were 
cut  down  abruptly  to  sums  which  sufficed  barely  for  a  de- 
cent maintenance  of  what  had  been  done  in  the  previous 
seven  years;  and  this  parsimonious  treatment  of  the  parks 
was  pursued  until  1884.  ^n  tnat  interval  of  eight  years  the 
total  sum  which  the  Park  Commission  could  apply  to  work 
in  the  nature  of  improvement  was  about  $30,000 — an  aver- 
age of  less  than  $4,000  per  year.    With  its  maintenance  fund, 


180  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

however,  a  little  was  being  done  slowly  to  better  the  appear- 
ance of  the  older  pieces  of  public  ground,  which  had  come 
under  its  care,  as  well  as  to  improve  the  state  of  the  park 
roads.  And  trees,  shrubs,  flowers  and  grass  were  growing  in 
beauty  all  the  time. 

In  1879  Sherman  S.  Jewett  succeeded  Pascal  P.  Pratt  in 
the  presidency  of  the  Commission,  which  he  retained  until 
his  death,  in  1897. 

The  privilege  of  using  a  part  of  the  grounds  of  the  (Tnited 
States  military  post  at  Fort  Porter  for  park  purposes,  in 
connection  with  the  adjoining  park  grounds,  called  The 
Front,  had  been  obtained  by  resolution  of  Congress  in  187(1. 
In  1880  an  arrangement  for  making  certain  improvements 
in  the  fort  grounds  was  effected  with  the  War  Department, 
and  plans  to  that  end  were  carried  out  during  the  next  few 
years. 

A  very  important  improvement  at  The  Front  was  con- 
sented to  by  the  Common  Council  in  18S4.  when  proceed- 
ings were  begun  for  taking  the  lake  shore  lands,  which  The 
Front  overlooks,  between  the  Frie  Canal  and  the  Lake. 
Resisting  litigation  delayed  the  acquisition  for  several  years. 
Other  proceedings  were  begun  at  the  same  time  which  re- 
sulted in  a  prompt  addition  of  twelve  acres  of  fine  grove  to 
the  picnic  grounds  of  Delaware  Park,  east  of  Lincoln  Park- 
way,  on  the  southerly  side  of  the  lake. 

By  1887  there  had  come  to  be  a  considerable  growth  of 
desire  for  additions  to  the  park  system,  in  parts  of  the  city 
most  remote  from  the  existing  pleasure  grounds.  South 
Buffalo  had  dire  need  of  some  touch  of  nature-beauty,  if 
any  could  be  given  to  it,  and  Mr.  Olmsted  came  to  see  what 
could  be  done.  He  worked  out  a  fascinating  plan  of  a  park, 
to  lie  along  the  lake  shore,  to  be  near  and  accessible  to  the 
South  Buffalo  population,  and  inviting,  at  the  same  time,  to 
boating  excursions,  through  the  outer  harbor,  from  all  parts 


PARKS  AND  PUBLIC  GROUNDS  l8l 

of  the  west  side.  It  was  tempting  in  every  feature  except 
the  difficulties  and  the  cost  involved.  They  forbade  the 
undertaking  decisively,  and  it  was  laid  gently,  with  regret- 
ful sighs,  on  the  shelf. 

A  small  addition  to  the  public  recreation  grounds  of  the 
city  was  made  that  year  by  the  acquisition  of  the  property, 
on  Clinton  and  Pine  Streets,  known  since  as  Bennett  Place. 

During  a  part  of  1887  and  1888  David  Gray  served  as 
secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Board,  in  succession  to  Gen- 
eral Rogers,  but  failing  health  compelled  him  to  take  a  leave 
of  absence  in  the  spring  of  1888,  and  he  died  soon  after  from 
the  shock  of  a  railway  accident,  which  he  suffered  in  the 
course  of  a  journey  to  New  York.  The  office  was  then  filled 
by  Colonel  George  H.  Selkirk,  who  holds  it  still. 

The  South  Park  question  had  not  been  shelved  with  Mr. 
Olmsted's  too  costly  plan  for  it,  but  received  careful  consid- 
eration and  discussion  until,  finally,  in  1890,  a  site  for  it  was 
selected  and  the  land  acquired.  At  the  same  time  ground 
was  chosen  and  purchased  for  another  park,  in  the  south- 
eastern quarter,  on  Buffalo  Creek,  or  River,  contiguous  to 
Seneca  Street,  and  not  far  from  the  city  line.  South  Park 
and  Cazenovia  Park  were  thus  added  to  the  system. 

A  few  buffalo  and  elk  obtained  in  1892  and  yarded  in  The 
Meadow  at  Delaware  Park  were  the  small  beginnings  of  the 
present  "Zoo." 

The  Botanic  Garden  at  South  Park  was  established  in 
1894,  with  Mr.  John  F.  Cowell  as  director.  In  the  same 
year  about  twenty  acres  from  the  northerly  edge  of  the 
grounds  of  the  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane  were  acquired, 
for  the  purpose  of  opening  a  Scajaquada  Parkway,  along  the 
south  bank  of  Scajaquada  Creek,  connecting  with  Grant 
Street  at  the  west. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1896,  a  large  boulder  monument,  in 
the  Delaware  Park  Meadow,  was  dedicated  to  the  memory 


1 82  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

of  soldiers  of  the  War  of  1812,  who  had  been  buried  near 
its  site.  In  that  year  the  name  of  the  park  known  formerly 
as  The  Parade  was  changed  to  Humboldt  Park. 

The  next  addition  to  the  park  system  was  made  in  1897, 
when  two  pieces  of  privately  opened  pleasure  grounds, 
called  Riverside  Park  and  Union  Park,  on  the  Niagara 
River,  near  the  northern  city  line,  were  acquired,  for  the 
making  of  a  free  public  Riverside  Park,  covering  about 
twenty- two  acres  of  land. 

To  the  regret  of  everybody,  the  long  service  of  Mr. 
McMillan,  as  general  superintendent  of  everything  done 
in  the  creation  and  maintenance  of  the  park  system,  came 
now  to  an  end.  He  was  succeeded  by  General  John  C. 
Graves,  who  served  until  1902,  when  John  L.  Brothers, 
formerly  auditor  and  paymaster  of  the  Board,  was  appointed 
superintendent. 

Provision  for  the  introduction  of  two  nobly  impressive 
architectural  adornments  of  Delaware  Park  was  made  in 
the  year  1900,  by  the  ceding  of  sites  for  the  Albright  Art 
Gallery  and  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  Building,  the 
latter  of  which  was  to  be  temporarily  the  New  York  State 
Building  for  the  Pan-American  Exposition  of  the  follow- 
ing vear.  A  portion  of  Delaware  Park  was  granted  for  use 
during  the  Exposition,  in  connection  with  the  contiguous 
Exposition  grounds,  and  considerable  changes  of  arrange- 
ment and  feature  were  made  temporarily,  for  that  use. 

By  a  charter  amendment  in  1902  the  Board  of  Park  Com- 
missioners was  reduced  to  five  members,  additional  to  the 
Mayor,  ex-officio. 

In  the  fall  of  1903  a  bronze  copy  of  Michael  Angelo's 
"David,"  presented  to  the  Park  Department  by  Mr. 
Andrew  Langdon,  was  erected  on  The  Concourse  in  Dela- 
ware Park. 

On  Chapin  Place,  at  the  entrance  to  Chapin  Parkway 


/^ 


DEXTER  P.  RUlvlSEY. 

Manufacturer  ami  capitalist;  born  \\  estticld.  Chautauqua 
Count)-,  Xew  York.  April  2j,  1827;  removed  to  Buffalo  at 
an  early  age;  educated  in  public  schools  qi  Westfield  and 
Huffalo.     Wa  d  in  extensive  tanning  business  with 

his    father,   Aarnn   Rumsey,   and  hier,    Bronson   C. 

Rumsey,  under  the  firm  name  of  Aaron  Rumsey  &  Com- 
pany. At  middle  age  withdrew  from  active  business  and 
became  a  landowner  and  capitalist.  Was  director  Erie 
County  Savings  Bank  and  other  corporations ;  Republican 
in  politics;  member,  and  for  a  time,  president  of  Buffalo 
Club;  member  Country  Club  of  Buffalo,  and  other  civic  and 
social  institutions;  died  April  g,  tqoC 


PARKS  AND  PUBLIC  GROUNDS  1 83 

from  Delaware  Avenue,  a  beautiful  fountain,  with  a  mas- 
sive basin  of  granite,  was  erected  in  1904  and  presented  to 
the  Park  Commission  on  the  14th  of  June  by  Mrs.  Charles 
W.  Pardee.  Chapin  Place  was  then  named  Gates  Circle, 
in  memory  of  the  parents  of  Mrs.  Pardee. 

On  a  miraculously  perfect  day  of  May — the  last  of  the 
month — in  1906,  some  thousands  of  people,  assembled  and 
seated  in  the  open  park,  on  the  border  of  the  lake  and  on 
the  marble  stairways  rising  from  the  lake  to  the  beautiful 
Albright  Art  Gallery,  were  participants  in  as  memorably 
impressive  and  flawlessly  satisfying  a  ceremony  as  was  ever 
performed.  It  was  dedicatory  of  the  Art  Gallery,  opened 
to  the  public  that  day. 

In  memory  of  the  late  Dexter  P.  Rumsey,  his  widow  and 
daughter,  Mrs.  Susan  Fiske  Rumsey  and  Mrs.  Grace 
Rumsey  Wilcox,  presented  to  the  city  through  its  Park  De- 
partment, in  May,  1906,  a  block  of  land  covered  with  fine 
old  trees,  cornering  into  Delaware  Park  at  its  principal 
entrance,  which  makes  a  much  needed  addition  to  the  grove 
at  that  part.  The  piece  of  ground  had  been  known  as 
Rumsey  Wood,  and  is  to  keep  that  name. 

This  completes  the  tale  of  public  park-lands  acquired 
by  the  city,  up  to  the  year  1907.  Its  whole  possession  of 
"parks,  parkways  and  minor  places,"  as  set  forth  in  the 
thirty-eighth  annual  report  of  the  Buffalo  Park  Commis- 
sioners, made  July,  1907,  is  as  follows:  Delaware  Park,  365 
acres  (of  which  122  are  in  The  Meadow  and  46^  in  the 
Park  Lake  or  Gala  Water);  Humboldt  Park,  56  acres; 
The  Front,  48  acres;  South  Park,  155  acres;  Cazenovia 
Park,  106  acres;  Riverside  Park,  22  acres;  total  of  main 
parks,  752  acres.  Park  Approaches,  being  seven  park- 
ways (Humboldt,  Lincoln,  Bidwell,  Chapin,  Scajaquada, 
Southside,  and  Red  Jacket)  and  six  avenues  (Fillmore, 
Richmond,  Porter,  Jewett,  Front  and  Massachusetts),  224 


I  84  CONSTRUCTIVE  EVOLUTION 

acres.  Minor  places,  including  Prospect  Place  (two 
squares),  Bidwell  Place,  Chapin  Place,  Soldiers'  Place, 
Agassiz  Place,  The  Circle,  Niagara  Square,  The  Terrace, 
Johnson  Park,  Day's  Park,  Arlington  Place,  Lafayette 
Square,  Masten  Place,  Bennett  Place,  and  several  lesser 
squares  and  circles,  besides  twenty-seven  "triangles," — 74 
acres.     Total.  [,052  acres  of  ground. 


GOVERNMENTAL     EVOLUTION 


CHAPTER    I 

MUNICIPAL  CONSTITUTION  AND  POLICE 
ADMINISTRATION 

IT  was  the  intention  of  the  Legislature  of  New  York  that 
Buffalo  should  become  an  incorporated  village  in  the 
year  1813,  and  it  passed  an  act  to  that  effect,  naming 
five  village  trustees  for  the  first  year,  whose  successors  in 
the  years  following  should  be  elected  by  the  people  on  the 
first  Monday  of  every  May.  But  the  appointed  board  of 
trustees  was  not  organized,  and  their  successors  were  not 
chosen  at  the  appointed  time.  Thereupon  the  Legislature, 
in  181 5,  revised  and  re-enacted  the  act  of  1813,  naming  new 
trustees  for  the  first  year  and  providing  for  subsequent  elec- 
tions, as  before;  but  again  there  was  no  organization  of  the 
village;  and  once  more  the  Legislature  was  called  on  to 
give  fresh  life  to  its  act. 

Of  course  it  was  the  war  disturbances  of  1813,  and  the 
destruction  of  the  village  at  the  end  of  that  year,  which 
frustrated  the  legislative  intent;  though  it  is  said,  in  some 
items  of  historical  information  prefixed  to  the  Buffalo 
Directory  of  1836,  that  the  inhabitants,  in  1815,  were  not 
"informed  of  the  passing  of  the  act  of  incorporation  until 
the  time  of  the  first  election  had  elapsed." 

At  all  events,  the  village  incorporation  of  Buffalo  was 
not  actualized  until  the  6th  of  May,  18 16,  when  four  of 
the  five  appointed  trustees  met  "at  the  house  of  Gaius 
Kibbe,  innkeeper,"  and  organized  their  board.  The  four 
in  attendance  were  Samuel  Wilkeson,  Oliver  Forward, 
Charles  Townsend  and  Jonas  Harrison.     Ebenezer  Walden 

185 


1 86  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

was  the  absentee.  The  board  seems  to  have  done  nothing 
at  this  meeting  beyond  the  election  of  a  clerk,  a  treasurer, 
a  collector,  and  three  fire-wardens.  No  second  meeting 
occurred  until  the  16th  of  August,  and  then  only  for  the 
calling  of  a  special  meeting  of  "freeholders  and  inhab- 
itants," to  lay  taxes,  enact  by-laws  and  adopt  regulations. 
The  trustees,  it  will  be  seen,  were  very  limited  in  their 
powers,  and  a  general  village  meeting  was  necessary  when 
business  of  any  importance  was  to  be  done.  The  first  call 
for  such  meeting  brought  an  insufficient  attendance,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  i  ith  of  November  that  the  freeholders 
and  inhabitants  were  assembled  and  business  taken  in  hand. 
At  this  meeting  a  tax  of  $1,400  was  levied  for  village 
expenditure,  and  various  ordinances  or  regulations  adopted, 
relating  mostly  to  measures  of  protection  from  fire. 

The  next  meeting  recorded  in  the  minutes  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  which  are  preserved  in  the  office  of  our  city 
clerk,  was  held  on  the  7th  of  March,  1817.  This  was  a 
general  meeting  of  inhabitants,  and  it  resolved  that  "a  tax 
of  three  mills  on  the  dollar  (computed  to  amount  to  $400) 
be  laid  and  collected  on  the  property  of  the  taxable  inhab- 
itants." From  the  computation  thus  given  we  learn  that 
the  taxable  property  oi  Buffalo  in  1817  was  valued  at  about 
$134,000.  Hence  the  tax  of  5 1.400  in  the  previous  vear, 
— the  first  tax  levied  in  Buffalo, — exceeded  one  per  cent. 
of  its  valuation. 

On  the  first  Monday  of  May,  1817,  the  first  popular  elec- 
tion of  village  trustees  was  held.  Samuel  Wilkeson, 
Ebenezer  Walden  and  Jonas  Harrison  were  returned  to 
the  board,  and  with  them  E.  Ransom  and  John  G.  Camp. 
There  is  no  record  of  another  meeting  till  the  next  annual 
election,  of  May,  1818.  Judge  Clinton,  who  once  went 
through  the  village  records  for  some  items  of  earlv  history 
which  he  contributed  to  the   Buffalo  Directory  of    1S48, 


THE  FIRST  CITY  CHARTER  1 87 

found  this  in  the  minutes  of  1818 :  "Eli  Efner  being  elected 
treasurer,  his  predecessor,  who  had  served  for  two  years, 
having  a  balance  of  $56.20  on  hand,  modestly  suggested 
that  it  might  be,  in  the  judgment  of  the  trustees,  subject  to 
a  deduction  for  his  services;  but  the  trustees  inexorably 
resolved  'that  no  compensation  be  allowed  to  the  late  treas- 
urer, as  his  duties  were  represented  to  have  been  attended 
with  no  unusual  trouble  or  loss  of  time.'  " 

In  1822  a  new  act  of  incorporation  was  procured,  and 
this,  again,  was  amended  in  1826,  somewhat  enlarging  the 
powers  of  the  trustees.  The  amendment  conveyed  to  them 
land  under  such  water  in  Lake  Erie  as  was  or  should  be 
occupied  by  wharves  and  piers.  This  was  consequent  on 
the  entry  of  the  village  into  a  commercial  career,  after  the 
heroic  opening  of  its  harbor  and  the  recent  completion  of 
the  Erie  Canal. 

In  April,  1832,  Buffalo  passed  from  the  Village  to  the 
City  organization  of  local  government,  under  a  new  act 
of  incorporation,  which  divided  it  into  five  wards  and 
directed  the  election  of  two  aldermen  and  an  assessor  from 
each.  These  were  the  only  officials  of  the  municipality 
to  be  chosen  by  the  popular  vote.  A  mayor  and  other 
functionaries  were  elected  by  the  representative  aldermen, 
who  formed  the  Common  Council  of  the  City.  The  first 
mayor  thus  elected,  as  mentioned  heretofore,  was  Dr.  Eben- 
ezer  Johnson,  who  had  retired  from  medical  practice  to 
become  a  banker  of  high  standing  in  business  and  of  sub- 
stantial wealth.  The  mayor's  salary  was  restricted  by  the 
original  charter  to  $250  per  year.  The  money  scale  of 
everything  in  the  young  municipality  was  commensurate 
with  this.  The  Common  Council  was  empowered  to  raise 
not  more  than  $8,000  each  year  for  lighting  streets,  main- 
taining a  night  watch,  making  and  repairing  roads  and 
bridges,  and  for  other  expenses  of  the  town. 


1 88  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

Amending  the  City  charter  began  in  the  first  year  of  its 
operation,  and  has  proceeded  with  consistent  regularity 
ever  since.  There  have  been  few  years  since  1832  in  which 
nothing  was  done  at  Albany  to  alter  in  some  way,  impor- 
tantly or  unimportantly,  the  State  prescription  of  local  gov- 
ernment for  Buffalo.  By  1835  it  was  found  necessary  to 
expand  the  limit  set  on  municipal  expenditures  from  $8,000 
to  $14,000.  In  1837  the  young  city  must  needs  enter  on  the 
making  of  a  debt,  and  was  empowered  by  one  act  to  borrow 
$20,000,  to  be  repaid  in  annual  instalments  of  $5,000,  and 
by  a  second  act  to  borrow  $10,000  more;  both  of  which 
loans  the  State  Comptroller  was  authorized  to  make  to  it 
from  the  Common  School  Fund. 

This  early  need  of  borrowing  was  consequent,  undoubt- 
edly, on  the  overdoing  of  municipal  enterprise  in  the  Hush 
times  of  speculation  that  preceded  the  financial  crash  of 
1837.  The  minutes  of  the  Common  Council  in  the  last 
months  of  1836  and  a  considerable  part  of  1837  give  abun- 
dant evidence  of  the  stress  that  the  young  municipality  was 
going  through.  The  main  business  of  the  Common  Coun- 
cil at  most  of  its  meetings  for  a  long  period  was  to  order 
legal  proceedings  for  the  sale  of  property  on  account  of 
unpaid  taxes  assessed  for  local  improvements.  On  the  7th 
ol  April,  1837,  the  street  committee  was  directed  to  report 
a  list  of  local  improvements  formerly  ordered  but  not  yet 
commenced,  with  "their  opinion  upon  the  expediencj  oi 
abandoning  each  of  such  improvements  in  the  present  state 
of  the  finances  and  of  the  money  market."  A  week  later 
it  was  resolved  that  no  local  improvement  should  be  begun 
thereafter  "until  the  assessment  for  the  same  shall  be  fully 
collected  and  paid  into  the  hands  of  the  treasurer."  At 
the  meeting  of  the  next  week  an  order  was  directed  to  be 
drawn  for  $2,650.59,  for  ''sums  paid  out  of  the  loan  of  1837 
on  judgments  and  decrees  against  the  city;"  and  at  the  fol- 


THE  FIRST  CHARTER  REVISION  1 89 

lowing  meeting,  April  24,  the  Mayor  was  instructed  to  dis- 
miss all  watchmen  from  the  city  employ. 

It  is  easy  to  see  why  the  city  came  to  borrowing  and  debt- 
making  in  the  first  five  years  of  its  existence.  It  had  started 
in  its  career  at  too  racing  a  speed,  and  was  halted  with  a 
shock. 

By  the  charter  amendments  of  1837  the  city  was  author- 
ized, in  one  corrective  direction,  to  appoint  a  police  justice 
and  to  establish  a  workhouse;  in  another  and  more  impor- 
tant one,  to  appoint  a  superintendent  of  schools.  At  the 
same  time  it  received  more  adequate  power  to  raise  funds 
for  building  and  maintaining  schoolhouses  and  schools. 
Two  years  later  it  received  permission  to  make  its  schools 
free. 

A  general  revision  of  the  charter  by  legislative  re-enact- 
ment in  1843  took  the  election  of  the  Mayor  and  justices 
of  the  peace  from  the  Common  Council  and  gave  it  to  the 
people  at  large.  The  municipal  election  was  appointed 
to  be  held  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  March  in  each  year,  and 
the  term  of  most  offices  was  a  single  year.  The  mayor's 
salary  was  still  kept  at  the  modest  $250  mark.  This 
revised  charter  authorized  an  annual  expenditure  of 
$10,000  for  the  support  of  free  schools,  and  of  $16,000  for 
all  contingent  and  other  expenses  of  the  city.  Here  we  see 
the  early  spirit  that  went  into  the  undertaking  of  public 
education.  More  than  a  third  of  all  intended  expenditure 
from  the  public  purse  was  assigned  to  schools. 

Something  of  a  systematic  policing  of  the  city  was  now 
in  contemplation,  for  which  purpose  the  Common  Council 
was  empowered  to  establish  one  or  more  watch-houses;  to 
maintain  a  watch  by  night,  with  captains  of  the  watch,  and 
to  appoint  a  watch-house  justice.  Stricter  safeguarding  of 
the  city  from  fires  was  provided,  by  authority  in  the  Coun- 
cil to  prescribe  fire  limits,  within  which  wooden  buildings 


190  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

might  not  be  erected.  To  the  same  end,  fire-wardens  and 
aldermen  were  given  authority  to  inspect  private  premises 
and  require  dangerous  conditions  to  be  changed. 

The  next  general  revision  of  the  charter  occurred  in  1853, 
when  the  limits  of  the  incorporated  City  of  Buffalo  were 
expanded  by  the  annexation  of  the  Town  of  Black  Rock. 
The  enlarged  City  was  then  divided  into  thirteen  wards, 
each  electing  two  aldermen  to  the  Common  Council.  The 
municipal  officers  to  be  elected  by  general  ticket  were 
increased  in  number,  and  were  as  follows:  mayor,  recorder, 
comptroller,  city  attorney,  street  commissioner,  city  treas- 
urer, receiver  of  taxes,  cm  surveyor,  superintendent  of 
schools,  police  justice,  chief  of  police,  overseer  of  the  poor, 
three  assessors.  The  term  fixed  for  these  offices  was  now 
two  vears,  except  in  the  case  of  the  recorder  and  the  police 
justice,  each  of  whom  should  serve  tour  years,  and  that  of 
the  assessors,  who  should  serve  three  years.  The  mayor 
was  declared  ineligible  to  election  for  two  consecutive 
terms.  The  office  of  recorder  was  abolished  by  an  act  of 
the  next  Legislature  (1854),  or  superseded,  to  speak  more 
strictly,  by  the  creation  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Buffalo, 
composed  of  three  justices,  which  remained  in  existence 
until  abolished  by  the  State  Constitution  of  1894. 

The  strange  provision  in  this  charter  of  1853  which  filled 
the  office  of  chief  of  police  by  popular  election  was  re- 
scinded in  1857.  By  the  amendment  then  enacted  the 
whole  police  force,  consisting  of  a  chief,  four  captains,  forty 
policemen  and  ten  police  constables,  was  to  be  selected  and 
appointed  by  the  Mayor  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  Common  Council. 

The  cutting  and  patching  of  municipal  charters  bv  polit- 
ical parties  in  power  at  Albany,  to  thwart  adverse  local 
elections,  has  been  a  common  vicious  practice  in  American 
politics;  but  a  more  vicious  example  of  it  can  hardlv  be 


THE  FRONTIER  POLICE  SCHEME  191 

found  than  one  which  came  into  our  local  experience  in 
1866.  The  party  then  dominant  in  the  State,  being  less 
secure  in  the  possession  of  power  at  Buffalo,  passed  an  act 
which  deprived  our  city  of  the  control  of  its  own  police. 
This  was  accomplished  by  the  creation  of  a  Frontier  Police 
District,  embracing  the  towns  of  Tonawanda  and  Wheat- 
field,  with  Buffalo,  such  district  to  be  "constituted  and  ter- 
ritorially united  for  purposes  of  police  government  and 
police  discipline  therein."  By  placing  the  police  of  this 
district  under  a  board  of  commissioners  appointed  by  the 
governor  of  the  State,  the  party  which  contrived  the  scheme 
held  the  management  of  police  affairs  during  two  years  of 
an  opposition  mayor. 

The  Frontier  Police  District  had  an  existence  of  five 
years.  It  was  abolished  by  an  act  of  1871,  which  recon- 
stituted Buffalo  as  "a  separate  police  district"  and  re-estab- 
lished its  police  department,  under  a  board  of  commission- 
ers composed  of  the  Mayor,  ex-officio,  and  two  others,  ap- 
pointed by  himself,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Com- 
mon Council. 

Meantime,  in  1870,  the  charter  had  undergone  a  fresh 
revision  and  re-enactment,  which  produced  some  changes  of 
importance.  The  superintendent  of  schools  was  now  enti- 
tled Superintendent  of  Education,  and  he  was  no  longer 
described  as  "the  executive  of  the  Common  Council"  in 
school  matters,  but  as  "the  head  of  the  School  Department." 
He  was  given  more  freedom  of  initiative  in  that  depart- 
ment and  made  a  more  responsible  functionary.  The 
Board  of  Health,  formerly  composed  of  three  commission- 
ers appointed  by  the  Common  Council,  was  now  made  up 
of  the  comptroller,  the  city  engineer,  and  the  president  of 
the  Common  Council. 

The  next  legislation  that  affected  the  city  government 
importantly  was  in  1880,  when  the  Municipal  Court  was 


192  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

created  and  the  Police  Department  was  reconstructed  anew. 
The  Municipal  Court,  of  two  judges,  was  given  a  civil  jur- 
isdiction in  suits  involving  sums  of  money  that  range  from 
$300  to  $600,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  claim.  The 
Department  of  Police  was  reorganized  by  another  act  of 
that  year,  under  a  board  consisting  of  the  Mayor,  the  super- 
intendent of  police,  and  one  commissioner,  the  latter  to  be 
appointed  by  the  Mayor  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  Common  Council.  Inasmuch  as  the  mayor  and  the 
commissioner  were  to  appoint  the  superintendent,  the  ar- 
rangement was  a  peculiar  one,  to  say  the  least.  It  was 
in  force  for  only  three  years. 

The  spring  of  1883  brought  two  rapidly  succeeding 
amendments  from  the  Legislature,  each  abruptly  revolu- 
tionizing the  police  board.  The  first,  which  came  into 
effect  on  the  12th  of  April,  gave  the  Mayor  two  commis- 
sioners as  his  colleagues  on  the  board,  both  appointed  by 
himself,  but  not  to  be  of  the  same  political  party.  The 
second,  signed  by  the  Governor  on  the  20th  of  April, 
required  the  comptroller  of  the  City  of  Buffalo,  within  ten 
days  after  the  passage  of  the  act,  to  appoint  three  commis- 
sioners of  police,  for  terms  of  four,  five  and  six  years,  who 
should  at  once  take  the  place  of  those  who  had  previously 
constituted  the  police  board.  In  the  next  year  these  com- 
missioners were  legislated  out  of  office  by  an  amendatory 
act,  which  again  made  the  Mayor  a  member  of  the  police 
board,  ex-officio,  with  two  commissioners  appointed  by 
himself. 

That  year,  1884,  brought  the  beginning  of  reform  in 
appointments  to  the  civil  service,  which  has  done  more 
than  aught  else  to  put  an  end  to  partisan  political  tamper- 
ing with  the  police  of  the  city,  such  as  appears  scandalously 
in  the  record  above.  Especially  in  that  effect,  but  mark- 
edly in  the  whole  character  and  working  of  the  city  gov- 


CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM  193 

ernment,  the  reform  started  in  1884  has  proved  to  be  the 
most  important  political  event  in  our  city  life.  The  move- 
ment of  public  agitation  which  led  to  it  was  opened  in  1881, 
— at  about  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  National 
Civil  Service  Reform  League,  with  George  W.  Curtis  at 
its  head, — when  fifteen  citizens  came  together  and  organ- 
ized the  Civil  Service  Reform  Association  of  Buffalo, 
which  has  been  in  active  existence  from  that  year  to  this. 
Those  original  members  of  the  Association  were  the  fol- 
lowing: William  F.  Kip,  Henry  W.  Sprague,  Henry  A. 
Richmond,  Wilson  S.  Bissell,  John  G.  Milburn,  Robert  H. 
Worthington,  Sheldon  T.  Viele,  William  C.  Bryant,  F.  A. 
Crandall,  Matthias  Rohr,  John  P.  Einsfeld,  Hiram  Extein, 
Charles  A.  Sweet,  Samuel  M.  Welch,  Jr.,  J.  N.  Larned. 
They  were  soon  joined  by  many  earnest  and  steadfast  work- 
ers in  the  cause,  and  public  opinion  was  rallied  rapidly  to  its 
support.  Legislation  which  created  the  New  York  State 
Civil  Service  Commission,  and  which  authorized  similar 
city  commissions,  was  won  in  May,  1883.  Henry  A.  Rich- 
mond, of  the  Buffalo  Association,  was  then  appointed  on  the 
State  Commission,  with  the  Hon.  John  Jay  and  the  Hon.  A. 
Schoonmaker  for  his  colleagues. 

Effect  was  given  to  the  Civil  Service  Act  in  Buffalo  the 
next  year,  when  the  then  Mayor,  Jonathan  Scoville,  pre- 
scribed rules  for  competitive  and  non-competitive  examina- 
tions of  applicants  for  many  of  the  municipal  offices  and 
employments,  and  for  filling  such  offices  and  places  in 
accord  with  the  relative  merits  of  the  candidates,  so 
ascertained. 

In  this  first  instance  there  was  but  a  limited  application 
of  the  law.  All  positions  in  the  police,  health,  fire,  educa- 
tion and  law  departments  were  excepted  from  the  rules,  and 
numerous  other  exceptions  were  made.  But  the  system,  to 
the  extent  of  its  working,  proved  its  practicality  and  the 


194  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

wholesomeness  of  its  effects;  and  under  steady  pressure 
from  the  Civil  Service  Reform  Association,  supported  by 
public  opinion,  it  won  extensions,  step  by  step,  until  the 
police  and  all  other  departments  have  come  under  the  rules, 
and  next  to  nothing  of  the  municipal  civil  service  is  now  in 
the  category  of  political  spoils.  The  late  Sherman  S. 
Rogers  was  the  efficient  president  of  the  local  Civil  Service 
Reform  Association,  and  his  successor,  Mr.  Ansley  Wilcox, 
has  kept  the  watchful  spirit  of  the  organization  fully  alive. 

The  last  general  revision  that  the  charter  has  received 
thus  far  (to  1908),  and  the  most  radical,  was  the  work  of 
a  commission  of  citizens  appointed  for  the  purpose,  whose 
recommendations  were  submitted  to  the  Legislature  and 
embodied  in  an  entire  re-enactment  of  the  charter  of  the 
City  of  Buffalo,  in  1891.  This  divided  the  city  into 
twenty-five  wards,  instead  of  the  historically  ancient  thir- 
teen, and  it  radically  reconstituted  the  Common  Council, 
making  it  a  bi-cameral  body,  having  twenty-five  aldermen, 
elected  by  wards,  in  one  board,  and  nine  councilmen, 
elected  by  the  city  at  large,  in  the  other. 

The  whole  power  of  initiative  in  legislation  was  left  in 
the  Board  of  Aldermen,  no  action  of  the  Common  Council 
having  force  unless  it  originated  in  that  board  and  was 
approved  by  the  other;  but,  by  exercising  a  right  to  amend 
measures  passed  up  to  it  from  the  aldermanic  board,  and 
return  them  for  reconsideration,  the  Board  of  Councilmen 
was  given  a  part  of  importance  to  perform.  The  alder- 
men's term  of  service  was  fixed  at  two  years;  that  of  the 
councilmen  at  three.  By  amendment  in  1895  the  term  of 
the  councilmen  was  extended  to  four  years;  five  and  four 
of  their  number  to  be  elected  alternately  in  each  odd- 
numbered  year.  The  term  for  which  mayors  were  to  be 
elected  was  fixed  at  three  years  in  1891  and  lengthened  to 
four  in  1895. 


; 


d   undt 

LI   ■    WILD  »\. 

Law  nnmervill  ia,  Janu  858'; 

I, ,1m  Willcocl  ;  the  or«giriail  settles 

Miuriuut.   n>.v:  educated   llopkin, 

m! 

•-.Midx-dthe 

-,  d  rteti  "' 

,r  jury  reform,  and 

the  death  ot  President  McKinlev.     Now  mernbei 


tlit-  death  ot  I 

..fWilo.vX   Rnll 


1  nm 


<fL^-(/? 


THE  CITY  CHARTER  OF   1 89 1  195 

This  charter  of  1891  created  ten  departments  in  the  city 
government,  several  of  them  changed  materially  in  their 
structure  from  what  had  corresponded  to  them  before.  The 
Department  of  Finance  was  organized  under  two  officials, 
the  Comptroller  and  the  Treasurer,  each  elected  for  three 
years;  but  this  term  was  extended  to  four  years  by  amend- 
ment in  1895.*  For  that  of  Assessment  a  board  of  five 
assessors  was  created,  serving  five  years  each.  This  term, 
also,  was  extended  in  1895,  to  six  years.  At  the  head  of 
the  Law  Department  was  a  Corporation  Counsel,  elected 
for  three  years  (made  four  years  in  1895),  Wltn  an  attorney 
and  an  assistant  attorney  of  his  appointment. 

The  Department  of  Police  and  Excise  kept  its  latest  form 
of  organization,  under  a  board  composed  of  the  Mayor,  ex- 
officio  (to  be  its  president),  and  two  commissioners,  of  his 
appointment,  for  terms  of  six  years,  one  of  whom  should  be 
designated  as  the  Acting  Commissioner  and  president  of 
the  board  in  the  absence  of  the  Mayor;  the  two  commis- 
sioners to  be  chosen  from  the  two  principal  parties  in  the 
latest  election.  The  excise  functions  of  this  department 
were  annulled  in  1896  by  the  act  known  as  the  Raines 
Liquor-tax  Law. 

A  responsible  Health  Commissioner,  appointed  for  five 
years  by  the  Mayor,  was  provided  for  the  head  of  the 
Health  Department,  to  act  under  the  "advice  and  super- 
vision" of  a  Board  of  Health,  composed  of  the  Mayor,  the 
president  of  the  Common  Council  and  himself,  but  exercis- 
ing large  powers.  By  an  amendment  in  1900,  the  commis- 
sioner of  public  works  was  substituted  for  the  president  of 
the  Common  Council  in  the  membership  of  this  Board  of 
Health. 

The  Fire  Department  was  to  be  presided  over,  as  hith- 

*By  an  amendatory  act  in  1902  the  treasurer  was  made  ineligible  to  re-election. 


196  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

erto,  by  three  commissioners,  appointed  by  the  Mayor,  for 
six  years  each. 

The  important  Department  of  Public  Works,  now  first 
instituted,  was  placed  under  three  commissioners,  one  of 
whom  should  be  elected,  the  other  two  appointed  by  the 
Mayor,  from  different  political  parties,  and  each  to  serve 
for  three  years.  The  extensive  duties  of  the  department 
were  divided  between  four  bureaus,  ol  Engineering,  Water, 
Streets,  and  Public  Buildings.  By  amendment  in  1901  the 
two  appointed  commissioners  were  dropped,  and  the  de- 
partment was  placed  under  a  single  commissioner,  elected 
for  four  years.  The  heads  of  bureaus  in  the  department 
received  the  title  of  deputy-commissioners. 

In  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction  the  most  im- 
portant change  was  the  institution  of  a  Board  of  School 
Examiners,  to  test  and  determine  the  qualifications  of  all 
applicants  for  appointment  as  teachers  in  the  public  schools, 
and  to  prepare  "eligible  lists"  from  which  the  appointees  of 
the  superintendent  must  be  drawn.  The  five  examiners  of 
the  board,  appointed  by  the  mayor  for  five  years  each,  were 
charged  with  the  further  duty  of  visiting  and  inspecting  the 
schools.  The  term  for  which  the  Superintendent  of  Edu- 
cation should  be  elected  was  fixed  at  three  years  by  this 
charter  revision,  but  extended  to  four  by  amendment  in 
1895.  Until  1891  all  expenditures  for  school-grounds  and 
buildings  were  assessed  upon  the  property  within  the  school 
district  for  which  such  expenditure  was  made.  The  re- 
vised charter,  without  abolishing  the  old  school-district 
divisions,  directed  that  all  expenditures  of  the  school  de- 
partment should  thereafter  be  included  in  and  paid  out  of 
the  general  fund. 

The  Park  Department  was  continued  by  the  revised  char- 
ter of  1891  under  a  board  of  fifteen  commissioners,  ap- 
pointed by  the  Mayor  for  six  years  each,  but  an  amendment 
in  1902  reduced  the  number  to  five. 


MAYORS  OF  THE  PAST  197 

By  amendment  in  1895  the  term  of  election  fixed  at  three 
years  for  the  Overseer  of  the  Poor,  the  Police  Justice  and 
the  Justices  of  the  Peace,  was  extended  to  four. 

A  most  important  new  feature  brought  into  the  revised 
charter  of  1891  was  the  power  it  gave  the  mayor  to  reduce 
or  strike  out  items  in  the  annual  estimates  of  the  city  comp- 
troller, as  they  came  to  him  after  revision  by  the  Common 
Council. 

An  important  reform  in  police  court  administration,  by 
more  recent  legislation,  is  the  creation  of  a  Juvenile  Court, 
with  probation  officers,  and  the  placing  of  the  probation 
system  under  the  supervision  of  a  State  commission,  by  an 
act  passed  in  1907. 

Of  the  thirty-six  gentlemen  who  have  presided,  as  mayors, 
in  the  administration  of  the  municipal  government  of  Buf- 
falo, within  the  period  of  time  since  it  became  an  incor- 
porated city,  a  considerable  number  have  been  men  of  the 
highest  distinction  in  its  citizenship.  Its  first  mayor,  Dr. 
Ebenezer  Johnson,  who  filled  the  office  twice,  was  a  con- 
spicuous figure  in  the  life  of  his  period.  Judge  Samuel 
Wilkeson,  who  served  as  mayor  in  1836,  was  one  of  the  most 
commandingly  strong  characters  that  has  ever  appeared  in 
this  community  to  take  part  in  its  upbuilding.  Judge 
George  W.  Clinton,  who  was  elected  in  1842,  has  never,  in 
some  fine  and  beautiful  qualities  of  genius  and  temper,  had 
his  peer  among  our  people.  Judge  Joseph  G.  Masten,  who 
succeeded  him  in  1843  and  who  was  elected  again  in  1845; 
the  Hon.  Solomon  G.  Haven,  the  long-time  partner  of 
Millard  Fillmore  in  law  practice,  and  afterwards  repre- 
sentative of  this  district  in  Congress;  the  Hon.  Elbridge  G. 
Spaulding,  who  acted  subsequently  a  part  of  much  impor- 
tance in  the  congressional  and  financial  history  of  the  Civil 
War;  the  Hon.  H.  K.  Smith  and  the  Hon.  Eli  Cook,  both 
famously  brilliant  representatives  of  the  Bar; — these  gen- 


198  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

tlemen,  who  occupied  the  mayor's  seat  during  a  majority 
of  the  years  between  1842  and  1855,  were  of  the  best  in 
talent  and  position  that  the  city  could  choose  from. 

William  G.  Fargo,  founder  and  head  of  the  American 
Express  Company  and  of  the  Wells,  Fargo  &  Company 
Express, — one  of  the  notably  great  organizers  of  business  in 
his  day, — was  our  mayor  in  the  four  years  of  war-time, 
1862-5,  a,Kl  gave  strength  to  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  city, 
though  politically  opposed  to  the  national  party  in  power. 
Grover  Cleveland,  as  Mayor  of  Buffalo  in  1882,  made  the 
showing  in  that  office  of  character  and  executive  capacity 
which  opened  his  subsequent  career.  In  its  recent  Mayor, 
James  N.  Adam,  the  city  chose  not  merely  one  of  eminence 
among  its  merchants,  the  founder  of  an  important  business, 
but  chose  him  as  an  exemplar  of  good  citizenship  among 
men  of  business,  manifested  in  a  life-long  attentiveness  to 
public  affairs. 


CHAPTER     II 
COURTS —BENCH  AND  BAR 

IN  the  first  chapter  of  this  book  mention  has  been  made 
of  the  creation,  in  1808,  of  Niagara  County,  which  in- 
cluded what  is  now  Erie  County,  and  the  organization 
of  its  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  with  Augustus  Porter  as 
First  Judge,  and  Erastus  Granger  and  Samuel  Tupper  of 
Buffalo  for  two  of  his  four  Associate  Justices.  Justice 
Tupper  became  Firstjudge  of  the  court  in  1812,  and 
Samuel  Wilkeson,  of  Buffalo,  received  the  seat  in  1820. 
In  the  next  year  Erie  County  was  set  off  from  Niagara 
County  and  acquired  its  own  Court  of  Common  Pleas. 
The  presiding  judges  in  the  remaining  years  of  the  ex- 
istence of  that  court  were  Ebenezer  Walden,  1823-28; 
Thomas  C.  Love,  1828-29;  Philander  Bennett,  1829-37; 
James  Stryker,  1837-40;  Joseph  Clary,  1841  ;  Nathan  K. 
Hall,  1841-45;  Frederick  P.  Stevens,  1845-47. 

The  new  constitution  of  1846  abolished  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas  and  substituted  the  County  Court,  the  judges 
of  which,  elected  by  the  people,  have  been:  Frederick  P. 
Stevens,  1847-51;  Jesse  Walker,  1852;  James  Sheldon, 
1852-64;  Stephen  Lockwood,  1865-68;  Roswell  L.  Burrows, 
1869-72;  Albert  Haight,  1873-76;  George  W.  Cothran, 
1877;  William  W.  Hammond,  1878-90;  Joseph  V.  Seaver, 
1890-95;  Edward  K.  Emery,  1896- 1906;  Harry  L.  Taylor, 
1908- 

Since  the  reconstitution  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State,  in  1846,  the  justices  elected  from  Erie  County,  for 
periods  as  follows,  have  been:  Seth  E.  Sill,  1847-51  ;  Ben- 
jamin F.  Green,  1854-60;  James  G.  Hoyt,  1860-63;  Charles 
Daniels,  1863-91  ;  Albert  Haight,  1874-94;  Loran  L.  Lewis, 
1883-95;  Manly  C.  Green,  1893-1905;  Edward  W.  Hatch, 

199 


200  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

1 896- 1 909;  Robert  C.  Titus,  1896-99;  Truman  C.  White, 
1897-1910;  Daniel  J.  Kenefick,  1899-1913 ;  Louis  W.  Mar- 
cus, 1907-20;  Edward  K.  Emery,  1907-20;  Charles  B. 
Wheeler,  1908-21. 

On  the  bench  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  Buffalo  has  been 
represented  by  Albert  Haight  since  1894,  ms  term  expiring 
in  1908,  when  he  was  re-elected. 

A  Recorder's  Court  in  the  City  of  Buffalo  was  created  in 
1839,  and  its  bench  was  occupied  by  Horatio  J.  Stow, 
1840-44;  Henry  K.  Smith,  1 S44-4H ;  Joseph  G.  Masten, 
1K4S-52;  George  W,  Houghton,  1852-54.  The  court  was 
then  merged  in  the  Superior  Court  of  Buffalo,  with  three 
judges,  and  those  who  served  in  the  latter  during  the  forty 
years  of  its  existence  were  the  following:  George  W. 
Houghton,  1854-55;  Isaac  A.  Verplanck,  1854-73;  George 
W.  Clinton,  1854-77 ;  Joseph  G.  Masten,  1856-71  ;  James  M. 
Humphrey,  1871;  James  Sheldon,  1872-85;  James  M. 
Smith,  1873-86;  Charles  Beckwith,  1878-91  ;  Robert  C. 
Titus,  1886-94;  Edward  W.  Hatch,  1887-94;  Truman  C. 
White.  [892-94.  In  1894  the  Superior  Court  was  abolished 
by  a  constitutional  amendment  and  its  powers  vested  in  the 
Supreme  Court. 

Meantime  the  Municipal  Court  of  the  City  of  Buffalo 
had  been  created  by  legislation  in  May,  1880,  with  a  bench 
of  two  judges,  filled  in  the  period  since  by  the  following 
named  persons:  George  S.  Wardwell,  1880-92;  George  A. 
Lewis,  1880-91;  Louis  Braunlein,  1892-1903;  Charles  W. 
Hinson,  1893-99;  Otto  W.  Yolger,  1900-05;  Clark  H.  Ham- 
mond, 1904-,  Devoe  P.  Hodson,  1906-. 

The  early  Bar  of  Buffalo  and  Erie  County  was  charac- 
terized manifestly  by  an  abundance  of  talent,  beyond  the 
common  proportion;  and  this  was  due,  of  course,  to  the 
reasons  which  have  always,  in  the  westward  widening  of 
settlement  of   the   country,   drawn   young  men   of   brains, 


THE  EARLY  BAR  201 

energy  and  ambition  to  the  newer  communities  as  they  arose. 
To  this  day  the  traditions  of  eloquence,  wit,  humor,  bril- 
liancy and  solidity  of  mind  in  the  legal  profession  of  our 
Western  New  York  circle  are  singularly  full  of  early  names. 

Many  of  the  old  time  Nestors  and  luminaries  of  the  local 
Bar  have  appeared  in  former  chapters  of  this  history,  in 
such  leadership  of  action,  organization  and  government,  in 
all  directions  of  progress,  as  more  than  suffices  to  show  the 
importance  of  their  part  in  the  development  of  the  rising 
village  and  city,  quite  apart  from  the  professional  functions 
they  performed.  Ebenezer  Walden,  the  first  regularly 
commissioned  attorney  who  opened  practice  in  this  com- 
munity, to  which  he  came  in  1806,  served  it  in  the  Legisla- 
ture and  as  mayor  and  judge.  Heman  B.  Potter,  who 
seems  to  have  been  the  next  of  the  trained  young  lawyers 
to  arrive,  which  he  did  in  181 1,  evaded  political  office 
(unless  that  of  district  attorney,  which  he  held  from  18 19  to 
1829,  can  be  called  so)  ;  but  his  great  value  as  a  citizen  is 
indicated  in  Ketchum's  History  by  the  remark,  that  he 
"became  early  identified  with  all  the  interests  of  Buffalo, 
especially  with  the  moral,  religious  and  educational  in- 
terests of  society,"  in  respect  of  which  "he  was  more  con- 
sulted than  any  other  man." 

Albert  H.  Tracy,  who  came  in  181 5  to  the  new  village, 
then  rising  from  the  ashes  of  the  destruction  of  18 13,  has 
probably  had  few  peers  among  our  people  in  sheer  intel- 
lectual power.  He  ran  a  brilliant  career  in  public  life,  as 
state  senator  and  congressman,  for  a  number  of  years,  but 
withdrew  from  it  in  1837,  and  seemed,  unfortunately,  in  his 
later  life  to  have  no  ambition  beyond  the  acquisition  of 
wealth.  Thomas  C.  Love  was  a  veteran  of  the  Buffalo  Bar 
whose  memory  as  lawyer,  judge,  surrogate  and  congressman 
was  long  preserved.  Dyre  Tillinghast  had  less  distinction 
as  a  lawyer,  perhaps,  than  as  a  most  excellent  citizen,  full 


202  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

of  kindliness  and  readiness  to  serve.  Thomas  T.  Sherwood 
was  a  man  of  notability  in  his  day,  and  much  talked  of  long 
afterwards,  on  account,  to  a  large  extent,  of  peculiarities 
that  cannot  have  been  pleasing.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Lord  once 
characterized  him  as  "an  irrepressible  man,  who  never 
stopped  talking;"  and  Judge  Loran  L.  Lewis,  who  remem- 
bers him,  has  reported  that  he  was  in  ''a  constant  wrangle 
with  the  court  and  not  on  good  terms  with  the  jury." 

George  R.  Babcock,  who  came  to  Buffalo  in  1824  and 
was  in  the  front  rank  of  its  citizenship  until  1876,  does  not 
seem  so  remote  to  the  older  members  of  the  present  genera- 
tion as  do  most  of  his  early  contemporaries.  A  fine  and 
true  tribute  to  the  rare  dignity  of  his  character  was  rendered 
in  a  few  words  by  the  late  James  ().  Putnam,  when  he  spoke 
of  Mr.  Babcock  as  "a  man  who  might  easily  be  taken  for  a 
Roman  Senator  in  the  last  days  of  Republican  Rome,  when 
none  were  for  party  and  all  were  for  the  state." 

The  quiet  way  in  which  the  profession  of  law  may  be 
practiced  with  little  show  to  the  public,  but  much  useful- 
ness and  success,  was  illustrated  in  the  life  of  Orsamus  H. 
Marshall,  the  trusted  custodian  of  many  estates  and  the 
adviser  of  a  large  clientage.  More  importantly,  he  illus- 
trated the  flavor  that  can  be  given  to  a  life  of  business  by 
scholarly  tastes  and  recreative  studies,  such  as  he  pursued 
in  local  history.  For  his  interest  in  two,  at  least,  of  its  most 
valued  institutions  of  culture, — its  Historical  Society  and 
its  Grosvenor  Library, — the  city  owes  a  great  debt  to  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Marshall. 

At  no  period  has  there  been  a  lack  of  eloquence  in  the 
Bar  of  Buffalo;  but  it  has  never  had  the  equal  of  George 
P.  Barker  as  an  orator,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  enthusiasm 
of  admiration  that  his  speaking  evoked  and  the  long-lasting 
impression  that  it  left.  He  ran  a  sadly  brief  career,  ad- 
mitted to  practice  in  1830  and  dying  in  1848,  at  the  age  of 


EMINENT  LAW  FIRMS  203 

forty-one.  Among  his  contemporaries  were  two,  Henry 
K.  Smith  and  Eli  Cook,  who  had  brilliant  gifts  of  speech, 
but  not  to  the  remarkable  mastery  of  audiences  which 
Barker  seems  to  have  wielded. 

With  less  of  those  qualities  in  his  speaking  which  have 
emotional  effects,  Solomon  G.  Haven  was  undoubtedly  an 
abler  man,  a  stronger  advocate,  and  much  more  broadly 
influential  as  a  citizen  than  either  of  these.  Speaking  of 
Mr.  Haven  in  1876,  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the 
City  and  County  Hall,  the  late  E.  Carleton  Sprague  said: 
"He  was  the  prince  of  jury  lawyers,  and  it  is  no  disparage- 
ment to  others  to  say  that  in  my  judgment  I  have  never  seen 
his  equal  in  this  department  of  the  profession,  at  this  or  at 
any  other  Bar.  To  him,  too,  more  than  to  any  other  man, 
I  think,  we  owe  the  courtesy  and  good  temper  with  which 
the  contests  in  our  courts  have  been  conducted  by  the  pro- 
fession since  I  have  known  it." 

In  the  same  connection,  on  the  same  occasion,  Mr. 
Sprague  spoke  of  Mr.  Haven's  distinguished  preceptor  in 
law  and  his  subsequent  senior  partner  in  the  famous  firm  of 
Fillmore,  Hall  &  Haven.  Mr.  Sprague  had  entered  as  a 
young  man  upon  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  Fill- 
more &  Haven,  and  he  wished  to  bear  testimony  to  Mr.  Fill- 
more's "great  learning,  his  profound  investigations,  his  ex- 
cellent sense,  and  his  unwearied  industry  as  a  lawyer,"  "I 
have  not  known,"  he  said,  "his  superior,  upon  the  whole, 
as  a  professional  man."  In  these  respects  there  was  much 
resemblance,  no  doubt,  between  Mr.  Fillmore  and  the  third 
partner  of  the  celebrated  firm — Judge  Nathan  K.  Hall. 
Judge  Hall  was  especially  notable  for  the  rare  power  of 
concentration  that  he  exercised  in  the  performance  of  his 
work.  It  was  a  remark  of  the  late  Thomas  J.  Sizer  that 
the  judge,  "if  pressed  for  time,  could  do  more  work  in  an 
hour,  and  do  it  well,  than  most  others  could  do  in  a  day." 


204  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

Between  1836  and  1872  Henry  W.  Rogers  was  one  of  the 
leaders  in  the  profession,  and  he  was  the  founder  of  a  legal 
firm  which  has  had,  we  may  say,  more  historical  continuity 
of  weight  and  importance  in  the  law  business  of  the  city 
than  any  other  that  can  be  named.  The  original  association 
of  Mr.  Rogers  was  with  Dennis  Bowen,  who  was  preemi- 
nently a  counsellor,  and  whose  clientage  as  such  was  very 
large.  Then  Sherman  S.  Rogers,  nephew  of  the  senior 
partner,  was  taken  into  the  lirm,  and  acquired  very  rapidly 
an  eminent  standing  in  the  community,  not  professionally, 
alone,  but  as  a  citizen  of  high  example  and  leading  influ- 
ence. Somewhat  later  the  lirm  was  reinforced,  after  a 
careful  inspection  of  quality  and  force  among  the  younger 
men  of  the  profession,  by  calling  into  it  the  junior  member 
who  is  now  its  senior,  Franklin  D.  Lock.  By  another  rein- 
forcement, alter  both  of  the  original  heads  of  the  office  had 
passed  out  of  it,  John  CJ.  Milburn  came  in,  to  find,  in  the 
large  affairs  it  handled,  his  opportunity  for  winning  the 
reputation  which  has  carried  him,  by  a  final  bound,  to  the 
very  top  of  his  profession,  at  the  larger  center  of  larger 
affairs,  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

Another  law  office  of  historical  continuity  and  importance 
was  founded  by  that  accomplished  and  most  admirable  gen- 
tleman, E.  Carleton  Sprague,  of  whom,  for  the  praising  of 
the  city,  it  can  be  said  that  his  eminence  among  us  in  the 
finer  attributes  of  character,  and  the  value  to  us  of  his 
exemplary  refinement  of  mind  ami  motive,  were  appreciated 
more  and  more  in  the  course  of  his  useful  life.  In  and  out 
of  his  profession,  he  has  the  good  fortune  to  be  represented 
worthily  by  his  sons,  and  by  the  firm  of  Moot.  Sprague, 
Brownell  &  Marcy,  in  which  a  son  continues  the  name. 

Mr.  Adelbert  Moot  came  into  this  strong  firm  from 
another  of  old  standing,  founded  by  Judge  Loran  L.  Lewis, 
now  retired  from  practice,  but  succeeded  worthily  by  a  son 
of  the  same  name. 


-o'A  ,jho'/   v/s'/. 

aril  oJ  bsttinibB 
.^dbocrg;:* 


■msv 
i  i&d 


5li    313llw    ,Ol 


ebaaV.  le 


okfii  xJrrwm  ;  noiaaalcnq 

Tjdrnarn   .  nim-J/    \o    ^)9Jdo2 

ie.'3   nfiohanr/. 
.nB-;iIdrjq-)M   ;  noi 


AI.JI.IU..KI    M<»«  »1 

l-Mver;  born  Allen,    Ulejjanv  J   \  ork. 

uiida  Academy,  <  .enesee 
Nuniial  School,  and  Albany  Law  School;  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  e  with  <  j«.< ji  j^c  .V  dby, 

do,    win- re    he 
has  since   resided,  active  ed   in   the   practici 

profes^i.Mi.  member  of   !  Initial,. 

Society  <>t    Natural  and   various  gRibs :   member 

\meii  an  I..11    -\>y  cuiti'iii  and  .New   York  State  Bar    \ 

he  same 


^^Jtx^-A 


NOTABLE  MEN  OF  THE  BAR  205 

In  their  later  years  there  were  three  men  of  the  same  gen- 
eration who  were  more  likely  than  others  to  be  thought  of 
or  spoken  of  as  the  most  eminent  citizens  of  Buffalo,  if  the 
question  of  precedence  arose.  Mr.  Sprague  was  one,  Sher- 
man S.  Rogers  another,  and  James  O.  Putnam  the  third. 
The  activity  of  Mr.  Putnam  in  the  life  of  the  city  had  been 
less  than  that  of  Mr.  Sprague  and  Mr.  Rogers,  because  of 
frail  health  and  long  absences,  but  he  had  won  distinction 
earlier  and  by  gifts  of  more  brilliance  than  their  quieter 
powers.  He  was  the  man  of  eloquence,  of  quick  and  fertile 
imagination,  of  sparkling  speech,  in  oratory  or  conversation, 
whose  talk  was  always  a  stimulation  and  delight.  Deprived 
as  he  was  by  disabilities  in  health  of  the  career  that  he  must 
otherwise  have  achieved,  at  the  Bar  and  in  public  life,  he 
has  an  honored  name,  nevertheless,  in  the  diplomatic  history 
of  the  nation,  as  well  as  in  the  legislative  annals  of  his  own 
State. 

Of  Judge  George  W.  Clinton,  son  of  the  great  Governor, 
DeWitt  Clinton,  there  have  been  several  occasions  for  speak- 
ing already,  and  there  will  be  more,  when  other  relations 
of  his  life  and  his  influence  to  the  life  of  the  city  are  touched. 
He  was  so  many-sided  in  his  nature,  and  it  was  a  nature  so 
charming  on  every  side!  "He  is  our  universal  educator," 
exclaimed  Mr.  Putnam,  speaking  of  him  while  he  was  yet 
in  life.  "Not  to  speak  of  his  eminent  professional  career, 
he  has  taught  us  the  sweet  humanities  and  that  unbought 
grace  of  life  which  are  the  highest  and  purest  social  charm." 
In  his  own  profession  Judge  Clinton  has  left  two  sons. 

Another  of  the  men  of  law  whose  importance  to  the  city 
was  much  more  than  professional,  inhering  in  personal 
qualities  and  in  the  force  of  their  influence,  was  Charles  D. 
Norton;  and  he,  too,  has  left  worthy  representatives  of  his 
name.  Still  another  was  John  Ganson,  than  whom  no  one 
of  his  time  had  a  higher  standing  at  the  Bar,  and  of  whom 


206  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

it  can  be  said  also  that  he  was,  in  one  view,  the  most  impor- 
tant representative  ever  sent  from  this  district  to  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States.  He  was  elected  as  a  Democrat, 
at  the  most  critical  period  of  the  Civil  War,  and,  being  one 
of  the  broadest-minded  of  his  party,  least  capable  of  petti- 
ness or  malice  in  partisan  opposition,  whole-hearted  and 
clear-sighted  in  his  patriotism,  he  rendered  more  effectual 
support  to  the  government  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war 
than  any  Republican  could  have  done  in  his  place. 

Judge  James  M.  Smith,  the  long-time  partner  of  Mr. 
Ganson  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  stayed  more  in  the  local 
field  of  public  service;  but  Buffalo  has  had  few  citizens 
whose  service  was  sought  so  often,  in  the  promotion  of  so 
many  interests,  and  whose  judgment  was  trusted  so  entirely. 

Buffalo  has  given  no  small  number  of  jurists  to  the  Bench 
who  were  models  of  qualification,  in  character,  intellect  and 
learning,  for  that  highest  of  all  functions  of  government — 
the  interpretation  and  administration  of  law.  Preeminent 
among  them  was  Charles  Daniels,  nearly  thirty  years  of 
whose  professional  life  was  devoted  laboriously  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State;  whose  mind  was  immersed 
almost  wholly  in  the  study  of  the  law,  ami  whose  reverence 
for  its  principles  was  too  great  for  any  possible  influence 
to  swerve  him  from  the  lines  of  justice  and  right. 

Xo  finer  gifts  of  mind  or  finer  culture  of  them  have  ever 
graced  a  member  of  the  Buffalo  Bar  than  those  which  were 
brought  to  it  by  William  Dorsheimer,  who  attained,  in  a 
life  that  was  not  of  due  length,  two  offices  of  distinction, 
namely,  that  of  a  District  Attorney  of  the  United  States 
and  that  of  a  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  Nor  has  Buffalo,  in  its  higher  enterprises,  re- 
ceived more  valuable  service  from  any  citizen  than  was 
given  by  Mr.  Dorsheimer,  in  connection  with  the  initiative 
of  the  Fine  Arts  Academv  and  the  Park  Svstem. 


LATER  NOTABILITIES  207 

In  the  years  immediately  following  the  Civil  War,  two 
young  citizens  were  climbing  the  first  steps  of  a  remarkably 
quick  rise  to  eminence  at  the  Bar  and  in  public  life,  starting 
in  the  race  as  close  friends,  but  as  rivals,  so  far  as  differ- 
ences in  politics  could  make  them  so.  Lyman  K.  Bass,  the 
Republican,  and  Grover  Cleveland,  the  Democrat,  were  the 
opposed  candidates  of  their  respective  parties  for  the  office 
of  District  Attorney,  in  1866,  and  it  was  won  by  Bass,  who 
held  it  for  two  terms.  He  was  then  elected  to  Congress, 
where  he  served  for  four  years,  passing  from  that  to  the 
office  of  Assistant  Secretary  of  State.  That  he  did  not  rise 
to  higher  honors  was  due  plainly  to  the  failure  of  health 
which  brought  his  life  to  an  early  end. 

Meantime  Grover  Cleveland  had  entered  official  life  only 
as  Sheriff  of  Erie  County  for  a  term;  but  Bass  and  Cleve- 
land had  become  partners  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  had 
subsequently  associated  with  themselves  a  third  friend  and 
intellectual  mate,  Wilson  S.  Bissell,  forming  the  very  nota- 
ble firm  of  Bass,  Cleveland  &  Bissell.  Then  came  the  be- 
ginning of  the  extraordinary  career  of  Grover  Cleveland 
in  public  life;  his  election  to  be  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Buf- 
falo, and  the  speedy  exhibition  by  him  of  qualities  and 
forces  of  character  which  caused  the  State  to  demand  him 
for  its  Governor  and  the  Nation  to  call  him  to  its  Presi- 
dency, not  once,  only,  but  twice.  As  President  Fillmore 
had  called  Nathan  K.  Hall,  the  able  partner  of  his  law 
practice,  to  be  his  Postmaster-General,  so  President  Cleve- 
land called  Wilson  S.  Bissell  to  the  same  office,  and  history 
was  paralleled  curiously  in  the  relations  of  two  notable  legal 
firms  in  Buffalo  to  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

A  name  of  prominence  in  the  legal  profession  of  a  gen- 
eration ago  was  that  of  A.  F.  Laning,  associated  first  in 
partnership  with  William  F.  Miller,  and  later  with  a 
number  of  younger  lawyers.     As  the  long-time  local  seat 


208  GOVERNMENTAL  EVOLUTION 

of  the  legal  business  of  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson 
River  Railroad  Company,  the  Laning  offices  have  been 
succeeded  by  those  of  Messrs.  Hoyt  &  Spratt. 

It  is  the  Buffalo  Bar  of  the  past  that  this  sketch  is  in- 
tended to  review;  there  would  be  doubtful  propriety  in 
carrying  it  farther  than  into  touch  with  the  unfinished  and 
the  opening  careers  of  the  present  day.  The  endeavor  in 
it  has  been  to  name  and  simply  characterize  the  men  of  a 
great  profession  who  have  given  the  most  distinction  to  it 
or  borne  the  most  important  parts  in  the  general  life  of  the 
city.  The  selection  has  been  difficult,  and  the  omissions 
from  it  will  be  open  to  criticism,  no  doubt;  but  it  has  not 
been  made  thoughtlessly,  nor  with  any  prejudices  of  mind. 


mot!  bah 

- 


yf 


i 
River  Railroad   Compan 
succeedc  Hoyt  &  Spratt. 

It  is  the  Buffalo  B;.  tst  that  this  in- 

tent1 .Id   be  doubtfr. 

;to  touch  with  the  unfinished  and 
the  opening  c:.  i  the  present  day.     The  endeavor  in 

i'een  to  nam;  :rize  th 

the  m  to  it 

serai  life  of  the 
ions 
WIl.l.lWl    B    HOVT! 

Born  East  Aurora,  New  York.  April  20,  1858; 
educated  Aurora  Vcademy,  Buffalo  1 1  i^h  School,  and  Cor- 
nell uated  from  Cornell,  r88i  .  admitted  to 
bar  e  in  Buffalo,  the  firm  name 
being  Humphrey,  Lockwood  and  Hoyt;  assistant  United 
States  District  Attorne)  for  northern  district  of  New  York, 
[88  tunsel  to  United  States  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  for  State  of  New  York,  with  official  title  of 
istant  Attorney-General,  being  appointed  bj  \ttorney- 
•  neral  <  >lne\  ;  is  a  1  temoci 


COMMERCIAL   EVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  I 

COMMERCIAL  ORGANIZATION.— THE  GRAIN 

TRADE,  ETC. 

UNTIL  some  years  beyond  the  seventh  decade  of  last 
century,  the  larger  business  interests  of  Buffalo  were 
so  much  in  transportation  and  the  grain  trade  that 
all  really  dignified  ideas  of  "business"  were  associated, 
habitually,  with  the  line  of  wharves,  on  the  north  side  of 
Buffalo  Creek,  extending  about  a  half-mile  in  length,  which 
were  spoken  of  always  as  "The  Dock."  There,  in  the 
storage  and  transfer  elevators,  in  the  offices  of  grain  mer- 
chants and  brokers,  lake  and  canal  shippers,  and  marine  in- 
surance agencies,  were  the  principal  operations  of  capital, 
the  chief  sources  of  wealth,  the  most  readily  recognized 
positions  of  commercial  and  financial  importance  in  the 
town.  This  primacy  of  The  Dock,  and  of  "Central  Wharf" 
as  the  forum — the  foyer — the  focus  of  The  Dock,  was  a 
business  fact  as  distinct  in  the  Buffalo  of  those  days  as  the 
primacy  of  Wall  Street  in  New  York  to-day. 

The  town  had  acquired  an  unfortunate  habit  of  looking 
to  The  Dock  for  motive  forces  and  for  leading  in  matters 
of  business,  and  it  is  plain  truth  to  say  that  it  did  not  receive 
the  impulsion  or  the  direction  that  it  needed  to  have.  The 
energies  of  The  Dock  were  centered  in  too  narrow  a  sphere. 
It  gave  its  mind  too  much  to  questions  of  canal  tolls  and  the 
like.  It  spent  effort  and  thought  in  fighting  off  Niagara 
Ship  Canal  projects,  for  example,  much  more  than  in  laying 
hold  of  the  new  opportunities  and  pushing  into  the  new 
openings  for  enterprise  which  the  growth  of  the  Northwest 
was  multiplying  so  marvellously  from  year  to  year.     It  was 

209 


2IO  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

too  well  contented  with  the  swelling  streams  of  wheat  and 
corn  and  oats  that  ran  into  the  holds  of  its  steamers  and 
canal  boats,  and  through  the  bins  of  its  elevators,  and  too 
heedless  of  the  productive  industries  which  Buffalo  had 
every  advantage  tor  adding  to  its  great  carrying  trade. 

Because  the  leading-strings  of  business  influence  were  so 
long  in  its  hands,  The  Dock  is  chiefly  responsible  for  the 
many  wasted  years  that  ran  by  without  an  effective  effort  to 
cheapen  steam-power  for  manufacturing  in  Buffalo,  by 
direct  railroad  connection  with  the  bituminous  coal-fields 
of  Western  Pennsylvania;  for  the  supineness  that  suffered 
Cleveland  to  forestall  Buffalo  in  an  exploitation  of  the  vast 
sources  of  wealth  and  industry  on  and  beyond  Lake  Su- 
perior; for  the  strange  slowness  of  Buffalo  to  appreciate 
and  improve  the  many  advantages  of  its  position  for  other 
employments  than  that  of  a  robust  carrier  in  the  work  of 
the  world. 

Nevertheless  there  was  always  a  splendid  spirit  of  liber- 
ality in  the  chief  men  of  The  Dock.  All  needs  of  monetary 
help  ran  first  to  them,  and  their  purses  were  opened  to  every 
worthy  call.  In  the  years  of  the  war  there  was  no  stint  to 
their  patriotic  and  sympathetic  giving.  For  all  collections, 
all  subscriptions,  all  relief  work,  the  remainder  of  the  city 
was  expected,  usually,  to  supplement  what  had  been  started 
on  The  Dock.  Sterling  character,  too,  as  well  as  a  fine 
generosity  of  spirit,  was  in  the  personnel  of  The  Dock.  To 
any  memory  which  reaches  back  into  the  'qos  and  '60s  of 
the  late  century,  a  simple  catalog  of  the  leading  names  that 
were  familiar  in  those  years  on  the  office  signs  of  Central 
Wharf  and  Prime  Street  and  thereabouts  is  compositely 
photographic  of  the  city  of  that  time.  There  is  history  in 
a  recitation  of  the  roll: 

Dean  Richmond  (Buffalonian  in  business,  though  Bata- 
vian  in  residence)  ;  Jewett  M.  Richmond;  Russell  H.  Hey- 


"THE  DOCK"  OF  HALF-A-CENTURY  AGO  211 

wood;  John  Allen,  Jr.;  James  D.  Sawyer;  S.  H.  Fish; 
Cyrus  Clarke;  David  S.  Bennett;  Carlos  Cobb;  John  G. 
Deshler;  M.  S.  Hawley;  George  S.  Hazard;  S.  S.  Guthrie; 
John  B.  Griffin;  A.  L.  Griffin;  Cutter  &  Nims;  J.  R. 
Bentley ;  J.  C.  Evans ;  Edwin  T.  Evans ;  Henry  Daw  &  Son ; 
John  Bissell;  P.  L.  Sternberg;  P.  S.  Marsh;  H.  O.  Cowing; 
Charles  Ensign;  J.  C.  Harrison;  Niles  &  Co.;  Seymour  & 
Wells;  J.  V.  W.  Annan;  G.  C.  Coit  &  Son;  M.  R^  Eames; 
Laurens  Enos;  Wm.  M.  Gray;  Charles  J.  Mann;  J.  &  R. 
Hollister;  John  Pease;  Jason  Parker;  George  Sandrock; 
S.  K.  Worthington ;  A.  Sherwood  &  Co. ;  Captain  E.  P. 
Dorr;  Captain  D.  P.  Dobbins;  Jonathan  S.  Buell;  Junius 
S.  Smith. 

The  weight  of  the  men  of  The  Dock  in  Buffalo,  during 
the  middle  period  of  its  history,  was  not  due  entirely  to  the 
leading  importance  of  their  business,  in  its  closely  connected 
lines,  but  came  also,  in  some  degree,  from  the  circumstances 
which  drew  its  operators  and  operations  together,  in  a  dis- 
tinct commercial  quarter  of  the  town.  Everything  else  in 
the  transactions  of  business  was  scattered  widely  abroad,  as 
it  is  not  and  could  not  be  at  the  present  time. 

Up-town  offices,  for  the  office-work  and  commercial  inter- 
course of  manufacturers,  contractors,  and  dealers  in  com- 
modities which  cannot  be  handled  at  shopping  centers,  were 
hardly  known.  The  engine-builder,  the  foundryman,  the 
tanner,  the  lumber-dealer,  had  his  office  where  he  had  his 
plant,  and  everybody  who  did  business  with  him  must  do  it 
there.  The  centralized  office  buildings  of  our  day,  where 
the  administrative  is  separated  from  the  operative  working 
— the  trading  from  the  producing  side — of  practically 
everything  large  and  important  in  the  business  of  a  city,  and 
brought  into  a  small  neighborhood,  which  becomes  the 
veritable  heart  of  the  community — the  seat  of  its  corporeal 
life — these  had  no  existence  yet.     The  growth  of  the  city, 


212  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

and  the  consequent  wider  scattering  of  industrial  establish- 
ments, began  to  make  demands  for  them  in  the  years  of  the 
'70s ;  but  not  much  satisfaction  could  be  given  to  the  demand, 
here  or  elsewhere  in  the  world,  till  the  telephone  and  the 
office-building  elevator  came  into  use. 

It  is  not  easy  to  realize  how  entirely  the  business  spirit  of 
a  city,  as  well  as  its  methods  and  facilities,  has  been  changed 
by  the  centralization  of  offices,  made  practicable  by  these 
two  inventions,  within  the  last  thirty  years  or  less.  In  no 
other  way  could  an  action  and  reaction  of  animating  influ- 
ences from  all  sources  be  brought  so  forcibly  into  play;  and 
by  nothing  else  could  the  narrowing  domination  of  a  tew 
leading  interests  be  so  well  overcome.  It  is  doubtful  if  any 
city  has  shown  more  of  these  effects  than  our  own. 

Naturally,  the  organizing  of  business  interests  began  in 
Buffalo  with  those  of  The  Dock;  ami  there  is  nothing  to  its 
discredit  in  the  fact  that  the  beginning  even  there  was  made 
as  late  as  the  year  1  S44,  for  only  six  cities  in  the  country, 
namely  New  York,  Baltimore.  Philadelphia,  Boston,  New 
Orleans  and  Cincinnati,  had  preceded  it  in  the  institution 
of  chambers  of  commerce  or  boards  of  trade.  Chicago  was 
later  in  taking  the  same  step  by  four  years  and  Pittsburg 
by  nine. 

The  leader  of  the  movement  which  created  the  Buffalo 
Board  of  Trade,  in  1844,  Mr.  Russell  H.  Heywood,  set 
forth  its  purpose  as  being  to  "cultivate  friendship  among  the 
business  men  of  Buffalo,  to  unite  them  in  one  general  policy 
for  the  general  benefit  of  trade  and  commerce  of  Buffalo, 
and  to  make  it  a  market  for  western  produce.''  He  offered 
to  erect  a  building  in  which  a  room  suitable  for  meetings 
on  "  "Change"  should  be  provided  and  its  use  for  that  pur- 
pose given  free  of  charge.  His  generous  proposal  was 
accepted  and  the  Board  was  organized  on  the  11th  of 
March,  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Heywood,  who  was 


THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE  213 

retained  at  its  head  for  three  years.  In  fulfilment  of  his 
promise,  Mr.  Heywood  proceeded  at  once  to  erect  a  build- 
ing, quite  capacious  for  its  time,  at  the  corner  of  Hanover 
and  Prime  streets,  which  he  styled  the  Merchants'  Ex- 
change. Along  with  other  offices  and  places  of  business, 
the  Board  of  Trade  had  its  rooms  in  this  building  until 
1862,  when  it  removed  to  a  chamber  and  offices  on  Central 
Wharf.  In  1857  a  charter  of  incorporation  was  procured 
from  the  State.  During  the  score  of  years  following  the 
removal  of  the  Board  to  Central  Wharf  frequent  efforts 
were  made  to  put  it  on  a  footing  that  would  warrant  the 
undertaking  of  a  suitable  building  for  itself;  but  these  had 
no  success  until  1882,  when  a  site  for  the  desired  edifice  was 
acquired,  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Seneca  and  Pearl 
streets,  designs  adopted  and  the  work  of  construction  begun. 
The  building, — a  substantial  fire-proof  structure  of  cut 
stone,  terra  cotta,  pressed  brick  and  iron,  seven  stories  in 
height  above  a  high  basement,  with  a  frontage  of  132  feet 
on  Seneca  Street  and  60  feet  on  Pearl  Street,— was  com- 
pleted by  the  end  of  the  following  year  and  occupied,  with 
appropriate  ceremonies,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1884.  It 
was  occupied,  however,  by  a  new  organization,  the  Buffalo 
Merchants'  Exchange,  which  took  over  all  the  functions  of 
the  Board  of  Trade,  except  that  of  a  landlord  corporation, 
holding  and  leasing  the  property  to  be  used  by  the  Mer- 
chants' Exchange.  In  1903,  by  another  change  of  name,  the 
Merchants'  Exchange  became  the  Buffalo  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, with  a  great  enlargement  of  membership,  acquiring 
new  vigor,  as  a  comprehensive  organization  of  all  the  busi- 
ness interests  of  the  city.  Two  years  later  the  erection  of 
a  more  commodious  and  stately  building  was  begun,  front- 
ing on  the  west  side  of  Main  Street,  near  Seneca,  and  in  1907 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  entered  this  better  home. 
Among  the  progressive  influences  now  working  in  the  city 
it  is  a  factor  of  increasing  power. 


2  1 4  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTIOX 

As  now  organized,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  Manu- 
facturers' Club  has  three  affiliated  organizations, — the 
Retail  Merchants'  Association,  the  Wholesale  Merchants' 
Association  (formed  in  1909),  and  the  Real  Estate  Associa- 
tion,— which  unite  and  invigorate  three  important  activities. 
The  range  of  other  interests  embraced  in  its  regular  pro- 
gram of  work  is  indicated  bv  the  list  of  its  standing  com- 
mittees: On  Arbitration,  Banking,  Boulevards,  Building 
Trades,  C'.mal,  Civic  Improvement,  Conventions,  Finance, 
(mod  Roads,  Grain,  Harbor,  Insurance,  Manufacturing  In- 
terests, Municipal  Affairs.  National  and  State  Affairs,  New 
Industries,  Niagara  River  Improvement,  Postal  Service, 
Publicity,  Public  Health,  Railroad  Terminals,  Transporta- 
tion. Within  the  past  year  two  bureaus,  of  Industries  and 
of  Publicity,  have  been  established,  each  under  a  salaried 
Commissioner  who  devotes  Ins  entire  service  to  its  under- 
takings. The  object  of  the  Industrial  Bureau,  Mr.  George 
V.  Morgan,  Commissioner,  is  "the  securing  of  ever)  worthy 
new  industry  for  the  City  of  Buffalo  and  the  Niagara 
frontier,  and  the  assisting  of  every  manufacturing  and  busi- 
ness interest  of  the  cm  already  located  here."  The  work  of 
the  Publicit)  Bureau,  under  Commissioner  William  S. 
Crandall,  is  to  diffuse  knowledge  of  the  advantages  which 
Buffalo  offers  to  industrial  enterprise.  The  Traffic  Bureau, 
Mr.  William  H.  Frederick,  Manager,  is  a  third  important 
agency  created  of  late.  For  these  and  other  undertakings 
of  concentrated  and  organized  effort  to  advance  the  interests 
of  the  city,  a  ''Development  Fund"  of  $100,000  was  raised 
by  subscription  in  the  summer  of  1910. 

Among  effective  movements  which  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce and  Manufacturers'  Club  has  either  initiated  or 
strongly  supported  of  late,  mention  may  be  made  of  the 
yearly  Buffalo  Industrial  Exposition,  instituted  in  1908;  an 
illuminating  investigation  of  the  affairs  of  the  Department 


THE  GRAIN   TRADE  21$ 

of  Public  Works  in  the  city  government,  especially  in  con- 
nection with  costly  works  for  the  enlargement  of  the  water 
supply;  efforts  to  secure  a  better  system  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment; endeavor  of  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction 
to  establish  an  adequate  and  well  equipped  technical  high 
school.  At  the  same  time  it  is  entering  more  and  more  into 
the  discussion  of  matters  of  State  and  National  policy  which 
bear  on  public  interests  at  large.  The  broadened  interests 
and  stimulated  public  spirit  that  appear  in  these  wise  ac- 
tivities are  notable  indices  of  the  higher  civic  culture  which 
recent  years  have  been  giving  to  the  community  as  a  whole. 

The  grain  trade  of  Buffalo,  which  figures  so  greatly  in 
the  commercial  history  of  the  last  half  century,  had  late  and 
small  beginnings.  The  first  receipt  at  this  port  of  any  kind 
of  grain  from  the  west  was  a  little  cargo  of  2,500  bushels  of 
wheat  brought  from  Maumee,  in  1828 — three  years  after 
the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal — by  the  Guerriere,  a  small 
schooner  of  forty  tons.  The  captain  found  no  demand  for 
it,  either  for  consumption  or  canal  shipment,  and  had  to 
take  it  to  Dunkirk,  where  he  sold  it  with  difficulty  in  small 
lots  at  half-a-dollar  a  bushel.  The  local  supply  of  wheat 
sufficed  then  for  local  needs,  and  eastern  markets  were  sup- 
plied from  the  Genesee  Valley  and  Central  New  York. 
The  West,  moreover,  was  not  yet  producing  enough  bread- 
stuffs  for  its  own  wants. 

The  first  grain  that  reached  Buffalo  from  Lake  Michigan 
was  a  small  cargo  from  Grand  Haven  in  1836.  The  first 
to  come  from  Chicago  was  in  1839,  and  consisted  of  39  bags 
of  wheat,  brought  down  by  the  steamer  Great  Western. 
The  first  to  come  in  bulk  was  a  little  lot  of  1,678  bushels  of 
wheat  brought  by  the  brig  Oceola,  the  same  year.  There 
was  no  full  cargo  from  Lake  Michigan  till  1840,  and  then 
it  amounted  to  no  more  than  3,000  bushels.  The  growth 
of  the  trade  was  slow  until  the  opening  of  the  Illinois  Canal, 


2l6  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

in  1848,  and  it  did  not  rise  rapidly  until  1861,  when  the 
total  receipts  of  breadstufts  (including  flour,  reduced  to  its 
equivalent  in  wheat)  went  up  from  37,000,000  bushels  in 
1 860  to  6 1 ,000,000. 

Until  1843  tbe  handling  of  grain  in  loading  and  unload- 
ing entered  largely  into  the  cost  of  its  transportation, 
especially  when  transshipments  were  involved,  as  from  lake 
vessel  to  canal  boat,  at  Buffalo,  and  from  canal  boat  to  ocean 
vessel  at  New  York.  Either  the  grain  must  be  shipped  in 
bags,  or,  when  carried  in  bulk,  it  must  be  shovelled  into 
barrels  or  buckets  for  hoisting  from  vessel-holds  by  block 
and  tackle,  and  handled  slowly  and  laboriously  at  every 
stage  of  the  process  of  weighing  and  transferring  from  one 
vehicle  of  transportation  to  another. 

All  this  slow  hand-labor  was  dispensed  with  when  a  fer- 
tile-minded forwarder  at  Buffalo,  Mr.  Joseph  Dart,  be- 
thought him  of  using  the  endless  belt  with  cups  or  buckets 
attached  to  it,  which  Oliver  Evans,  one  of  the  earliest  con- 
trivers of  steamboats,  had  invented  in  1780,  for  conveying 
wheat  and  tlour  in  mills.  By  working  such  a  carrier  on  the 
inside  of  a  long  movable  "leg,"  as  it  came  to  be  called,  which 
could  be  lowered  into  a  vessel's  hold,  Mr.  Dart  was  able  to 
scoop  out  a  cargo  of  grain  very  rapidly,  convey  it  to  the  top 
of  a  warehouse,  and  empty  it  there  into  a  receptacle  from 
which  gravitation  would  carry  it  through  pipes  to  any  de- 
sired deposit.  His  little  elevator,  built  for  that  experiment 
at  Buffalo  in  1843,  %yith  a  capacity  for  holding  55,000 
bushels  of  grain  in  storage  and  transferring  about  r  5,000 
bushels  per  day,  was  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  Its 
economv  of  labor,  and  of  time,  which  was  more  important 
to  vessel-owners,  was  demonstrated  at  once.  The  bucket- 
belt  soon  came  into  general  use  at  ports  where  much  hand- 
ling of  grain  was  done,  but  operated  for  a  time  in  some 
cases  by  horse-power  instead  of  steam.  The  first  steam 
elevator   in  Chicago  was  not  erected  till  1848. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  GRAIN  ELEVATORS  21 7 

The  Dart  elevator,  purchased  after  some  years  by  Mr. 
David  S.  Bennett,  was  burned  in  1863,  and  rebuilt  by  Mr. 
Bennett  on  a  greatly  enlarged  scale,  having  a  storage  ca- 
pacity of  600,000  bushels.  For  many  years  this  Bennett 
elevator  was  representative  of  about  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  elevator  construction;  but  the  architectural  use  of 
steel  which  began  extensively  in  the  '90s  brought,  in  that,  as 
in  all  other  building,  great  structural  changes.  An  illus- 
trated article  published  in  the  Buffalo  Express,  in  1899,  gave 
the  subjoined  description  of  elevators  built  in  the  new  style, 
as  compared  with  those  which  date  from  the  older  time: 

"Most  of  the  elevators  have  wooden  bins,  and  all,  or 
nearly  all,  are  covered  alike  with  corrugated  iron.  The 
newest  elevators  differ,  however,  from  the  old  ones  much  as 
the  modern  steel  frame  office  buildings  differ  from  the  old 
style  office  buildings.  These  new  elevators  are  of  steel,  and 
their  bins  are  great  steel  cylinders.  The  Great  Northern 
and  the  Electric  elevators  in  Buffalo  are  of  this  new  type. 
In  the  Great  Northern  the  steel  bins  stand  upon  pillars;  in 
the  Electric  they  rest  upon  the  floor.  These  bins  vary  in 
size,  but  run  up  to  80,000  bushels  in  the  Great  Northern  and 
100,000  in  the  Electric.  The  ordinary  capacity  of  wooden 
bins  is  about  5,000.  To  comprehend  the  increase  in  the  size 
of  elevators  compare  Joseph  Dart's,  with  its  55,000  bushels, 
and  the  Great  Northern  with  its  3,000,000  bushels." 

The  grain  elevators  at  Buffalo,  as  stated  in  1910  by  the 
Bureau  of  Industries,  now  number  23,  with  a  storage  ca- 
pacity of  21,200,000  bushels;  actual  working  capacity  20,- 
000,000  bushels;  daily  capacity  5,500,000. 

As  an  adjunct  of  the  elevators,  adding  another  important 
economy  of  labor  and  time  in  the  unloading  of  vessels,  men- 
tion should  be  made  of  the  steam  shovel,  for  moving  grain 
in  a  vessel-hold  to  the  "leg"  where  the  belt-buckets  take  it, 
which  was  patented  by  George  Milsom,  Henry  Spendelow 
and  George  V.  Wilson,  in  1864. 


2l8  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

Until  the  adoption  of  the  mechanical  apparatus  of  the 
elevators  for  handling  grain  in  bulk,  much  the  greater  part 
of  the  breadstuff s  moved  eastward  from  the  West  was 
ground  before  shipment,  and  came  in  the  form  of  Hour.  In 
the  decade  1836-45,  the  total  receipts  of  flour  and  grain, 
reckoning  Hour  at  its  equivalent  in  wheat,  represented 
41,851,438  bushels  of  grain;  but  only  14,308,908  bushels  of 
this  total,  being  almost  exactly  one-third,  came  as  grain,  and 
two-thirds  in  the  form  of  Hour.  In  the  next  decade  ( 1 846- 
55)  the  total  had  risen  to  174,714,437  bushels,  of  which 
113,766,005  bushels,  or  nearly  two-thirds,  were  grain. 
While  the  aggregates  have  swelled  enormously  since,  the 
proportions  now  are  about  as  they  were  fifty  years  ago, 
namely,  grain  two-thirds,  and  Hour,  reduced  to  its  equivalent 
in  wheat,  one-third.  In  the  decade  1896- 1905  the  total  of 
grain  receipts  was  [,442,341,287  bushels,  and  the  grand  total, 
including  flour  representatively,  1  ,964, 439,092  bushels.  In 
a  nutshell  these  figures  exhibit  the  present  magnitude  and 
the  growth  of  the  grain  trade  of  Buffalo. 

Until  the  later  years  of  the  '60s,  the  Erie  Canal  held  its 
ground  fairly  well  against  the  competition  of  the  railroads, 
in  the  carriage  of  all  the  heavier  and  bulkier  freights,  the 
latter  taking  so  little  grain  or  Hour  eastward  from  Buffalo 
that  no  account  of  the  movement  by  rail  appears  in  the  an- 
nual statistics  of  commerce  published  by  the  Buffalo  Board 
of  Trade.  In  1869,  however,  attention  began  to  be  given 
to  a  trade  current  then  setting  that  way  too  strongly  to  be 
ignored.  Canal  tolls  had  been  raised  and  kept  to  their 
highest  rate  since  1862,  and  this  supplied  one  reason  for  the 
diversion;  but  it  had  other  reasons,  in  the  economic  improve- 
ment of  railroad  construction  and  equipment,  which  noth- 
ing, as  time  proved,  would  resist.  In  the  annual  report  of 
the  Board  of  Trade  for  1869  it  was  remarked:  "Some 
classes  of   freight  have  almost  altogether  left  the  canals. 


CANAL  AND  RAILWAY  TRANSPORTATION  219 

From  Buffalo  the  movement  of  flour  by  canal  during  five 
years  ending  with  1869  was  more  than  71  per  cent,  less  than 
in  the  five  years  ending  with  '64."  "Lake  ports,"  it  was 
stated  also,  "ship  large  quantities  of  flour  by  rail."  In  the 
same  report  a  table  of  grain  shipments  by  rail  from  Buffalo 
was  given  for  the  year,  showing  998,496  bushels  of  wheat; 
2,320,378  bushels  of  corn;  967,791  bushels  of  oats. 

The  next  report,  for  1870  (when  canal  tolls  had  been  re- 
duced one-half)  offered  no  exact  statistics  of  the  rail  move- 
ment, but  gave  as  "grain  shipments  by  rail"  an  "estimated 
amount  of  grain  and  flour  (say  1,500,000  bbls.)  reduced  to 
wheat,"  13,750,988  bushels.  Canal  shipments  of  grain  for 
the  same  year  were  a  little  more  than  double  this,  being 
29,813,236.  In  the  next  year  the  canal  made  great  gains, 
nearly  doubling  its  movement  of  grain,  and  a  large  part  of 
its  improved  business  was  maintained  for  more  than  a  decade 
and  a  half,  within  which,  in  1883,  canal  transportation  was 
freed  entirely  from  tolls.  Despite  the  lowering  of  rates 
which  this  measure  made  possible,  the  railroads  began  in 
1889  to  take  the  larger  share  of  grain  shipments  from  Buf- 
falo. The  scale,  barely  turned  in  their  favor  that  year,  by 
42,032,715,  against  41,784,268,  was  soon  tipping  heavily  to 
the  railroad  side,  and  by  more  and  more  in  later  years.  The 
maximum  of  grain  shipments  by  rail  was  reached  in  1899, 
when  they  rose  to  130,102,200  bushels,  and  the  canal  re- 
ceived but  21,144,762.  Since  that  year  both  railroad  and 
canal  carriers  of  grain  from  this  receiving  port  have  suf- 
fered from  the  competition  of  other  routes.  In  1907  the 
total  of  rail  shipments  of  grain  was  69,024,950;  of  canal 
shipments  17,824,087. 

Chicago  is  no  longer,  as  formerly,  the  western  focal  point 
of  grain  movements  eastward.  The  great  northwestern 
region  of  wheat,  oats  and  barley  culture,  toward  which  Lake 
Superior  reaches  out,  pours  into  Duluth,  Fort  William  and 


220  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

Port  Arthur  a  stream  directed  to  this  port  which  has  grown 
to  be  nearly  double  that  flowing  from  Chicago, — and  four- 
fold in  the  article  of  wheat.  From  Chicago  the  receipts  of 
grain  at  Buffalo  in  1907  were  41,678,317  bushels,  of  which 
12,084,546  were  wheat.  From  the  three  Lake  Superior 
ports  named  above  there  came  the  same  year  76,081,765 
bushels,  and  49,629,488  of  them  were  wheat. 

The  grand  total  of  grain  receipts  at  Buffalo  by  lake  in 
1907,  including  flour  (9,759,676  barrels)  reduced  to  its 
equivalent  in  wheat,  was  181,237. 178  bushels. 

The  jobbing  trade  in  general  merchandise  has  never  had 
extensive  importance  in  Buffalo.  In  the  last  generation  it 
was  represented  most  prominently,  in  the  dry  goods  field, 
by  the  houses  of  Flint  &  Kent,  Sherman,  Barnes  &  Co., 
Barnes  &  Bancroft,  Hamlin  &  Mendsen, — all  but  the  first 
named  of  which  have  disappeared.  Barnes  &  Bancroft  be- 
came Barnes,  Hengerer  <S:  Co.;  then  the  William  Hengerer 
Co.,  under  which  name  the  business  is  still  carried  on.  The 
year  1869  brought  the  opening  of  the  department  store  of 
Adam,  Meldrum  &  Whiting — now  Adam,  Meldrum  & 
Anderson  Company.  A  little  later  came  J.  N.  Adam  &  Co., 
the  Hens-Kelly  Co.,  the  Sweeney  Co.,  and  Clawson,  Wilson 
«.\  Co.,  in  succession. 

Jobbing  in  the  grocery  trade  was  practically  monopolized 
in  early  years  by  the  ancient  houses  of  Miller  &  Greiner  and 
Hollister  &  Laverack.  Then  arose  Philip  Becker  and  the 
Philip  Becker  Co.,  C.  F.  Bishop  &  Co.,  Granger  &  Co., 
Plimpton,  Cowan  6c  Co. 

In  hardware  trade  the  older  jobbing  houses  were 
those  of  Pratt  &  Co.,  Pratt  &  Letchworth  and  Weed  &  Co., 
but  the  Walbridge  &  Co.  establishment  of  the  present  day 
is  a  growth  of  many  years. 


. 


JA  ROFT. 

Born  Grafton,  Vermont,  in   t8  ure  New  England 

ancestry.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  went  to  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina,  to  begin  his  long  career  as  a  mer- 
i  bant.  In  1*71  he  came  to  Buffalo  to  take  charge  of  the 
retail  department  at  llarnes  and  Bancroft's,  ot  which  firm 
he  soon  be.  r,Urei|   iru,„  active  busi- 

ness  in  1885.  and  .lied  in  to. 


ir-^^gia^ggjagga&j^ 


tfrz^c^z  O/f^ 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   LUMBER   TRADE 

NEXT  to  Chicago,  Buffalo  and  Tonawanda  (near 
neighbors  and  closely  allied  in  the  conduct  of  the 
business)  form,  together,  the  chief  lumber  market 
of  the  lakes,— and,  indeed,  of  the  country  at  large.  The 
white  pine  product  of  the  lake  region  is  distributed  from 
Chicago  through  the  western  and  northwestern  states  and 
territories,  and  into  the  more  northerly  of  the  southern 
states.  From  Buffalo  and  Tonawanda  it  goes  into  New 
York,  New  England,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia. Intermediate  ports  on  the  lakes,  such  as  Cleveland 
and  Detroit,  receive  supplies  for  a  large  local  trade,  and 
distribute  forest  products  from  Lake  Superior  ports  through 
Western  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio. 

Down  to  about  the  middle  of  last  century  the  lumber  trade 
of  Buffalo  went  little  beyond  the  supplying  of  local  demands 
from  Canada  and  from  neighboring  forests  on  its  own  side 
of  the  line.  High  shipping  rates  on  the  lakes  kept  the 
product  of  the  great  forests  of  Michigan  from  much  eastern 
marketing  for  many  years.  In  his  "History  of  the  Lumber 
Industry  of  America,"  Mr.  James  Elliott  Defebaugh,  editor 
of  the  American  Lumberman,  writes:  "From  about  1853 
Buffalo  was  the  point  where  the  cargoes  of  lumber  arriving 
from  southern  Ontario  and  Michigan  were  transferred  to 
canal  boats  and  forwarded  to  Albany.  Thereafter  for  some 
years  it  was  chiefly  a  forwarding  market,  and  those  engaged 
in  the  trade  there,  except  the  local  dealers,  were  measurers 
and  forwarders  of  lumber.  With  the  exhaustion  of  the  pine 
timber  growth  of  western  New  York  State  and  southern 
Ontario,  Buffalo  became  in  itself  a  wholesale  assorting  and 
distributing  market,  leaving  the  forwarding  business  largely 

221 


222  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

to  the  Tonawandas,  which  later  took  pre-eminence  in  pine 
wholesaling  also.  It  is  not  as  a  white-pine  market  alone 
that  Buffalo  has  won  her  distinction.  As  a  hardwood  dis- 
tributing center  that  city  is  one  of  the  chief  of  the  United 
States.  From  small  beginnings,  during  the  last  two  decades 
this  business  has  risen  to  distinction.  In  1906  the  hardwood 
lumber  handled  by  the  yards  of  the  city  aggregated  more 
than  150,000,000  feet,  and  in  Tonawanda  approximately 
50,000,000  feet  were  handled.  However,  this  docs  not  rep- 
resent one-half  of  the  actual  hardwood  interests  of  Buffalo 
dealers,  the  majority  of  whom  are  concerned,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  in  lumber  plants  in  the  South  or  West,  a  large 
proportion  of  whose  output  is  shipped  direct  from  the  mills 
to  the  trade,  not  being  handled  at  all  in  Buffalo." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  decade  of  1850-59  the  need  of 
obtaining  supplies  of  pine  lumber  from  Lake  Huron  at 
some  lower  cost  of  transportation  became  a  pressing  one  in 
the  trade.  Attempts  at  rafting  the  sawed  lumber  down  the 
lakes  were  made,  without  encouraging  success.  Logs  in 
large  numbers  were  rafted,  to  be  sawed,  not  much  in  Buf- 
falo, but  considerably  at  Tonawanda  and  elsewhere;  but  the 
lumber  rafting  could  not  be  made  safe.  Then  Mr.  John  S. 
Noyes,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  lumber  trade  in  Buffalo, 
conceived  the  plan  of  barge-towing,  which  not  only  gave  a 
quick  impetus  to  the  lumber  movement,  but  went  much 
farther  in  its  effect,  nearly  the  whole  lake  shipping,  for  all 
cargoes,  having  taken  on  a  barge  form  since  Mr.  Noyes 
made  his  experiment  in  1 86 r .  His  first  barge  was  the  hulk 
of  what  had  been  a  "floating  palace"  in  one  of  the  passenger 
lines  of  steamboats  not  many  years  before.  Barge  trans- 
portation started  a  profitable  movement  of  lumber  from  the 
pine  regions  bordering  the  upper  lakes,  stripping  the  great 
forests  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  in  turn,  and 
rising  steadily  in  volume  through  the  next  thirty  years. 


THE  LUMBER  TRADE  223 

According  to  the  census  of  i860,  the  value  of  the  lumber 
product  of  Michigan  that  year  was  $7,303,404;  of  Wis- 
consin, $4,616,430;  of  Minnesota,  $1,257,603.  Thirty  years 
later,  in  1890,  the  reported  value  of  lumber  produced  was: 
Michigan,  $83,121,969;  Wisconsin,  $60,966,444;  Minne- 
sota, $25,075,132.  The  axe  and  the  saw  were  still  busiest 
in  Michigan,  and  the  forests  of  Minnesota  were  not  yet 
heavily  attacked.  But  the  story  changed  in  the  census 
report  of  1900.  The  forest-wealth  of  Michigan  had  then 
been  sheared  away  till  it  furnished  no  longer  the  main  lum- 
ber supply,  and  the  heavier  drain  of  the  national  demand 
passed  on  to  Wisconsin;  but  advancing  prices  could  no- 
where hold  up  the  market  value  of  what  the  three  states 
produced.  That  year  the  statistics  of  product  were  :  Wis- 
consin, $57,634,516;  Michigan,  $54,290,520;  Minnesota, 
$43,585,161.  The  exhaustion  of  the  forest  region  of  the 
upper  lakes  was  begun  and  well-advanced. 

As  shown  in  the  annual  trade  reports  of  Buffalo,  the  re- 
ceipts of  lumber  at  this  port  by  lake  in  i860  (giving  the 
even  millions  of  the  statistics)  were  111,000,000  feet.  In 
1870  they  rose  to  217,000,000.  In  1880  there  were  214,- 
000,000  feet  brought  in  by  water  and  87,000,000  "by  rail- 
road and  teams," — the  latter  being,  of  course,  from  small 
saw-mills  in  the  country  round  about.  The  railroads  had 
now  become  strong  competitors  for  the  carriage  of  even 
this  bulky  freight.  In  1885  the  receipts  by  water  had  ad- 
vanced to  240,000,000  feet,  and  those  by  rail  to  155,000,000. 
In  1890  the  culmination  of  the  trade  was  reached,  and  the 
railroads  had  won  the  greater  part  of  it.  That  year  the 
lake  import  of  lumber  at  Buffalo  was  287,000,000  feet  and 
375,000,000  feet  came  in  by  rail.  From  this  height  the 
lumber  import  did  not  fall  greatly  in  the  next  five  years; 
but  a  decline  which  has  increased  began  then.  Lake  ship- 
ping brought  into  Buffalo  231,000,000  feet  in   1895,   l%3r 


224  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

000,000  in  1900,  and  141,000,000  in  1907;  the  railroads 
brought  398,000,00  in  1895,  a  quantity  unreported  in  1900, 
and  165,000,000  in  1907. 

Pine  lumber  comes  in  mainly  by  lake;  hardwood  by  rail. 
Of  the  receipts  of  1907  by  rail  93,000,000  feet  were  hard- 
wood, 36,000,000  feet  were  yellow  and  white  pine,  and 
23,000,000  feet  were  hemlock, — these  quantities  being  esti- 
mated from  the  number  of  car-loads  received.  The  hard- 
wood  lumber  trade  has  been  gaining  importance  very 
steadily  in  recent  years,  while  the  pine  trade  has  declined. 
Formerly  the  hardwood  received  here  came  mainly  from 
Indiana  and  Ohio;  but  Arkansas.  West  Virginia,  and  prac- 
tically all  the  southern  states  of  that  belt,  are  the  larger 
sources  at  the  present  time.  Buffalo,  however,  is  the  market 
place  for  much  more  than  the  lumber  that  comes  to  it.  The 
same  is  true  equally  of  the  trade  in  hemlock  lumber,  and  to 
a  less  extent  of  the  trade  in  pine.  The  fact  arises  primarily 
from  the  extent  of  the  control  exercised  by  Buffalo  dealers 
over  the  sources  of  supply,  and  secondarily  from  the  tend- 
ency in  all  trade  towards  concentration  in  a  market  which 
acquires  the  lead.  Lumber  that  never  touches  the  city,  or 
comes  near  it,  is  sold  here  in  quantities  far  greater  than  those 
which  appear  in  the  statistics  of  shipments  and  receipts. 

There  is  a  special  importance  to  the  city,  however,  in  the 
actual  movement  of  lumber  through  it;  for  the  reason  that 
more  manual  labor  is  involved  in  the  lumber  traffic  than  in 
almost  any  other  of  the  present  time.  Grain  is  handled  by 
machinery,  and  so,  in  the  main,  are  coal  and  the  ores;  but 
each  board,  plank  and  strip  that  comes  out  of  or  goes  into 
a  cargo  or  a  car-load  of  lumber  has  to  be  taken  up  and  laid 
down  by  human  hands.  The  consequence  is  that  a  much 
larger  proportion  of  the  gross  receipts  of  a  lumber  business 
goes  to  laboring  men  than  they  receive  in  any  other  that 
enters  largely  into  our  trade. 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  LUMBER  TRADE  225 

Mr.  John  S.  Noyes,  who  has  been  mentioned  as  one  of 
the  pioneers  of  the  lumber  trade  in  Buffalo,  and  who  is  now 
the  sole  survivor  of  its  early  days,  remained  in  connection 
with  the  business  until  1901.  After  1879  he  had  been  in 
partnership  with  Mr.  George  P.  Sawyer,  who  withdrew 
from  the  business  when  the  firm  was  dissolved  and  Mr. 
Noyes  retired.  The  firm  had  been  among  the  largest  of  the 
dealers  in  pine. 

Of  firms  now  in  the  lumber  trade  the  two  oldest  are 
those  of  Scatcherd  &  Son  and  Mixer  &  Co.,  each  of 
which  is  conducting  a  business  that  has  been  continuous 
since  1857.  Mr.  James  N.  Scatcherd,  who  founded  the 
first  named,  came  to  Buffalo  in  1855,  appearing  in  the  city 
directory  of  that  year  as  a  clerk  in  the  employ  of  Farmer, 
De  Blaquiere  &  Deedes,  lumber  dealers,  on  Elk  and  Loui- 
siana Streets.  In  the  next  year  he  is  named  as  agent  of  the 
same  firm.  In  1857  the  directory  records  him  as  a  lumber 
dealer,  doing  business  on  Perry  near  Hayward  Street.  In 
1858,  according  to  the  same  authority,  he  had  entered  a 
partnership,  of  Farmer,  Scatcherd  &  Co.,  doing  business 
on  Elk  and  Louisiana  streets.  In  1858  he  is  named  as  being 
alone  in  business,  at  the  same  location;  and  so  continued 
until  1865,  when  the  firm  of  Scatcherd  &  Belton  was 
formed.  This  connection  existed  until  1879,  when  the 
association  of  John  N.  Scatcherd  with  his  father  gave 
the  business  its  final  proprietary  name  of  Scatcherd  &  Son. 
As  producers  and  wholesale  dealers  in  hardwood  lumber 
the  firm  has  always  ranked  high  in  the  trade. 

The  business  of  Mixer  &  Co.  was  founded  in  1857  by  Mr. 
Harrison  B.  Mixer,  whose  name  in  the  firm  is  represented 
by  Mr.  Knowlton  Mixer  at  the  present  time.  The  late 
James  R.  Smith  had  been  in  partnership  with  Mr.  H.  B. 
Mixer  for  about  twenty  years  prior  to  1877,  when  the  con- 
nection was  dissolved.     Mr.  Mixer  retired  from  the  busi- 


226  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

ness  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Knowlton  Mixer  in  1891. 
The  business  of  the  firm  includes  production  as  well  as 
wholesale  dealing  in  both  hemlock  and  North  Carolina 
pine. 

On  the  dissolution  of  the  firm  of  Mixer  &.  Smith,  Mr. 
James  R.  Smith  became  associated  with  Mr.  Theodore  S. 
Fassett,  in  the  firm  of  Smith,  Fassett  &  Co.,  for  business  at 
Tonawanda,  where  it  established  and  still  operates  a  very 
extensive  plant. 

The  present  Haines  Lumber  Company  is  successor  to 
the  old  firm  of  Haines  <x.  Co.,  which  began  business  in  1S61, 
established  on  the  Erie  Basin  at  the  foot  of  Erie  Street, 
where  its  business  is  still  carried  on.  The  company  is  also 
connected  in  business  with  the  firm  of  Hugh  McLean  & 
Co.,  one  of  the  largest  of  the  producers  and  wholesale  deal- 
ers in  the  hardwood  lumber  trade. 

The  largest  hardwood  lumber  business  in  Buffalo  had 
also  an  early  beginning.  It  is  that  of  Taylor  cv  Crate, 
founded  in  [865  In  Frederick  W.  Taylor,  who  was  joined 
in  the  next  year  by  James  Crate.  In  1900  the  business  was 
passed  to  a  corporation,  retaining  the  old  firm  name.  It 
is  conducted  at  yards  on  Elk  Street  and  at  Black  Rock,  cov- 
ering about  fifteen  acres  of  ground,  and  the  company  is  said 
to  carry  in  those  yards,  and  at  its  mills  in  various  regions 
of  production,  the  largest  Mock  of  hardwood  lumber  held 
by  any  single  concern  in  the  country. 

In  pine  lumber,  the  largest  business  now  done  is  that  of 
Graves,  Manbert,  George  &  Co.,  at  the  foot  of  Hertel 
Avenue,  whose  producing  plant  is  at  Bvng  Inlet,  Canada. 

An  early  wholesale  trade  in  pine  lumber,  begun  by  the 
firm  of  Hurd  &  Hauenstein,  is  now  represented  by  A.  G. 
Hauenstein,  doing  business  in  the  lumber  district  devel- 
oped by  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad  Company  on  the  Tifft 
Farm.     The  name  that  was  formerly  associated  with  Mr. 


.<_'-  ytfiiJfi  .   ,,ioj[ij< 

-itibiO  ni 
-mo  I 

tfil         i), 

/    ni  [tin 
.iM 

>id    Ibfiii    rrnft 
DiqonriJriBiirlq   ^nerri 
•ids  n< 

ii  1 1 jTrjfl  )  JaiJqsa  ■)ijri'r//    rr> 
<vi;/jIk  asw  Una  .eisdrnam  tnatrlitanoo  ->ib  to 


mar  an- 

piO) 

- 

■ 

! 


y^^<^c^<^^^ 


DE  :  LUMB1  22/ 

Hauenstein's  has  the      me  trade  by  H_:a 

Brothers,  at  the  same  place 

In  1 88 1  the  firm  of  G.   Elias  &  Br  ther,  composed  of 
G.  and  A.  J.  Elias.  beg  a  small  way  a  bus.  r.ich 

has  grown  to  large  proportions.  rich  now  incl_ 

the  operation  of  saw  mills,  planing  mills,    iry  ■    and 

box   facton".    along  with   ex:  :saie    dea".     _ 

hardwood  and  pine.     The  large  plant  is  on  Elk.  Maurice 
Orlando.    Babcock  *ets   and    on    Bur 

Creek. 

A  combination  of  local  manufactu:     . 
wholesale  production  of  North 

the  extensive  b_-     .--     I  M   ntg  mery  Bi  -    a:  the  :     t 

of   Cou::    Stree:       .  .  .  esi 

many  years  ago. 

The  Buffalo  Hardwood  Lumber  Companj  Q  a 

large  wholesale  bu-      ••    i    ts  Se    it.     Street  yards 

S  everal   establishme:  ts  less  .of 

Buffalo  interests  in  the  lumber  trade,  but  partially  so.  have 
importance  in  this  market  •     uld  be  named.     The 

business  of  the  firm  of  C.  M.  Betts  5c  C  ;  se  ted  princi- 
pally in  Philadelphia:  but  one  of  its  members.  Mr.  C. 
Walter  Be::-  t  in  Buffalo,  and  the  manager  of  an 

extensive  trade  at  :     -  t  in  Southern  pine.     The  house 

has  heavy  investments  in  the  two  Carolit  -  iuding  tim- 
ber lands,  railroads,  saw  mills  and  kilns.  The  R.  Laidlaw 
Lumber    Company    is     representative  important 

Toronto   firm,   and   conducts   large   deai     .-  Canadian 

pine.  The  Empire  Lumber  Company  markets  the  prod- 
ucts of  Arkansas  mills. 

A  large  part  of  the  lumber  trade  sea:-  .'"onawanda. 

or  at  the  Tonawandas.  has  merely  been  detached  from  that 
of  Buffalo  in  the  location  of  the  handling  of  it,  for  reasons 
of   convenience   and   economy.     Mr.    Defenbaugh.   in 


228  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

History  of  the  Lumber  Industry,  explains  the  situation 
thus:  "About  ten  miles  below  the  point  where  Lake  Erie 
becomes  the  Niagara  River,  there  flows  into  the  river  from 
the  east  Tonawanda  Creek.  At  the  mouth  of  this  stream, 
on  the  south  side,  is  Tonawanda  [in  Erie  County],  and 
opposite,  on  the  north  side,  is  North  Tonawanda  [in 
Niagara  County].  They  are  opposite  the  center  of  Grand 
Island.  In  the  channel  of  Niagara  River,  opposite  the 
mouth  of  Tonawanda  Creek,  is  a  small  island  so  located  that 
the  main  current  passes  it  on  the  west,  while  on  the  east, 
between  the  island  and  North  Tonawanda,  a  natural  and 
quiet  harbor  is  formed. 

"Here,  then,  at  the  Tonawandas  and  on  Tonawanda 
Island,  was  room  for  a  bulky  commodity  like  lumber. 
Land  was,  and  still  is,  cheap  in  comparison  with  that  in 
Buffalo,  and  ample  room  for  lumber  yards  could  be  ob- 
tained at  a  reasonable  cost.  But  this  was  not  all.  The 
Tonawandas  have  the  advantage  of  the  tracks  of  several  of 
the  most  important  railroads  that  enter  Buffalo,  and,  by 
switching  arrangements,  of  all  of  them.  Further- 

more, the  sue  of  the  Tonawandas  is  where  the  Erie  Canal 
strikes  the  Niagara  River.  From  there  it  closely  follows 
the  shore  south  to  Buffalo." 

Soon  after  the  formation  of  the  firm  of  Smith,  Fassett  & 
Co.,  about  thirty  years  ago,  as  mentioned  above,  that  firm 
bought  the  Tonawanda  Island,  and  thus  secured  about 
12,000  feet  of  water  front,  besides  a  large  acreage  of  land. 
Naturallv  the  business  so  amply  accommodated  from  its 
beginning  has  grown  big. 

A  little  later,  in  1880,  the  firm  of  Gratwick  &  Co.,  which 
came  from  Albany,  but  which  identified  itself  with  Buffalo 
verv  soon,  acquired  an  extensive  footing  and  developed  a 
business  of  the  first  magnitude  at  Tonawanda.  A  little 
later  the  firm  became  Gratwick,  Smith  &  Fryer,  and,  by 


W.  H.  GRATWICK. 

Interested  in  lumber  and  lake  traffic;  born  Albany,  New 
York,  January  25,  1839;  educated  Boys'  Academy,  Albany, 
New  York;  engaged  in  lumber  business  and  ownership  of 
freight  vessels  on  Great  Lakes ;  director  Merchants'  Bank 
and  Bank  of  Commerce;  trustee  Buffalo  Orphan  Asylum 
and  Young  Men's  Christian  Association ;  member  Buffalo, 
Saturn,  and  Country  Clubs,  etc. ;  Republican  in  politics  ;  died 
August  15,  1899. 


ake 


LUMBER  TRADE  AT  TONAWANDA  229 

another  reorganization  in  1896  or  1897,  was  changed  to 
White,  Gratwick  &  Mitchell,  its  present  style.  It  handles 
a  variety  of  woods,  both  hard  and  pine. 

In  1888  and  1889  the  offices  and  yards  of  the  Robinson 
Brothers  &  Co.,  previously  doing  business  at  Detroit,  were 
removed  to  Tonawanda.  Mr.  John  W.  Robinson,  who  was 
left  alone  in  the  business  by  the  death  of  his  brother  in  the 
following  year,  has  identified  himself  with  Buffalo  very 
closely. 

White,  Frost  &  White,  and  Silverthorn  &  Co.,  are  other 
important  representatives  of  the  Buffalo  interest  in  the  Ton- 
awanda Lumber  Trade. 

The  growth  and  magnitude  of  the  lumber  trade  con- 
ducted at  Tonawanda  are  indicated  by  the  following  statis- 
tics of  receipts  by  lake,  at  intervals  in  the  past  thirty-three 
years:  in  1874,  144,000,000  feet;  in  1880,  323,000,000  feet; 
in  1885,  498,000,000  feet;  in  1890  (at  the  climax  of  the 
slaughter  of  the  forests  of  the  Upper  Lakes),  717,000,000 
feet  by  lake,  and  36,000,000  by  rail;  in  1895,  421,000,000 
by  lake,  and  24,000,000  by  rail;  in  1900,  338,000,000  by 
lake  (no  reported  statistics  of  receipts  by  rail)  ;  in  1907, 
331,000,000  by  lake  (rail  receipts  unreported). 

In  the  history  of  the  lumber  industry,  as  connected  with 
Buffalo,  there  is  one  remarkable  episode,  of  such  singular 
interest  that  it  stands  quite  by  itself.  It  is  linked  with  the 
origin  and  evolution  of  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Rail- 
road, and  has  been  touched  upon  in  a  former  chapter  of 
this  work,  where  the  story  of  that  road,  or  system  of  roads, 
is  sketched.  Some  account  is  given  there  of  the  early 
operations  of  Mr.  Frank  H.  Goodyear,  when  beginning  the 
development  of  an  immense  production  of  hemlock  lumber 
from  the  forests  of  western  Pennsylvania.  He  went  into 
the  region  about  1872  and  started  business  at  West  Liberty, 
McKean  County,  with  a  small  mill.     By  1885  he  had  ac- 


230  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

quired  the  ability  to  push  into  a  bigger  field,  and  that  year, 
after  buying  13,000  acres  of  land  in  Potter  County,  he 
built,  at  what  is  now  Austin,  a  large  mill,  running  a  gang- 
saw  and  two  circular  saws.  It  was  then,  in  connection 
with  this  enterprise,  that  his  railway  building  began,  as 
described  before.  Two  years  later  he  was  joined  by  his 
brother,  Mr.  Charles  \Y.  Goodyear  (previously  in  the 
practice  of  the  law  at  Buffalo,  as  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
which  the  Hon.  Wilson  S.  Bissell,  Postmaster-General  in 
the  Cabinet  of  President  Cleveland,  was  the  head),  and 

the  firm  of  F.  H.  &  C.  \V.  G lyear  was  formed.     From 

this  time  the  firm  made  many  successive  purchases  of 
timber  lands,  not  only  in  Potter  County,  but  in  Tioga, 
Mckean  and  Elk. 

The  sagacious  policy  pursued  in  these  purchases  is  thus 
described  in  Detcbaugh's  History  of  the  Lumber  Industry 
in  America:  "He  (Frank.  H.  Goodyear]  bought  tracts  that 
lay  miles  away  from  large  streams,  which  were  then  re- 
garded as  the  only  means  of  transporting  logs  to  mill,  and 
bought  tracts  that  had  been  passed  upon  and  rejected  time 
and  again  by  experienced  Pennsylvania  operators.  At  his 
price  Mr.  Goodyear  bought  everything  in  sight;  then  he 
built  saw  mills  at  the  very  thresholds  of  the  forests.  He 
built  the  best  mills  that  could  be  constructed,  and  after  they 
were  built  he  arranged  facilities  for  stocking  them  and 
for  electrically  lighting  them.  The  result  was  that  when  a 
mill  was  once  set  to  running  it  ran  day  and  night,  from  mid- 
night Sunday  to  midnight  the  next  Saturday,  almost  with- 
out cessation.  Hemlock  bark,  which  has  been  disposed  of 
largely  to  the  United  States  Leather  Company,  has  been  an 
important  factor  in  money-making  for  the  concern.  Its 
hardwood  holdings,  which  are  interspersed  with  the  hem- 
lock, it  has  chosen  to  dispose  of  to  hardwood  people.  The 
company  has  done  the  loading  and  transporting  of  logs  to 


CHARLES  W.  GOODYEAR. 

Lawyer;  born  Cortland,  N.  V.,  October  5,  1846;  educated 
Wyoming  Academy,  and  afterward  studied  law.  Admitted 
to  bar :  assistant  district  attorney,  1875  ■  district  attorney, 
1876,  Erie  County,  N.  Y.;  member  law  firm  of  Bissell, 
Sicard  &  Goodyear,  Buffalo;  president  Buffalo  &  Susque- 
hanna Coal  &  Coke  Company,  Buffalo  &  Susquehanna  Rail- 
way Company,  Grcal  Southern  Lumber  Company,  Good- 
year Lumber  Company,  New  Orleans  Great  Northern  R.  R. 
Company;  director  Marine  National  Bank,  General  Railway 
Signal  Company.  Western  New  York  Water  Company, 
Consolidated  Telephone  Company.  Trustee  State  Normal 
School,  Buffalo  Historical  Society ;  councilor  University  of 
Buffalo;  clubs,  Ellicott,  Buffalo,  Saturn,  Country  (Buf- 
falo); Lawyers.  Railroad  1  X.  V.  City);  died  at  Buffalo, 
April   16,   iyi  1. 


V 


the  abi!  i  a  bigger  field,  am 

built,  at  wl  in,  a  large  mill,  running  a  gang- 

and   t\  ular  saws.     It  was   then,   in 

by  his 
brother,    Mr.  in    the 

the  firm  of 
il  in 

re- 

ind 
me 

and   . .  , 


lock,  it  li  The 


THE  GOODYEARS  23  I 

mill,  but  otherwise  has  kept  out  of  the  hardwood  lumber 
business  entirely,  satisfied  with  carrying  the  hemlock  end." 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1902,  the  Goodyear  Lumber  Com- 
pany was  incorporated,  with  F.  H.  Goodyear  president  and 
C.  W.  Goodyear  vice-president.  The  present  productive 
capacity  of  the  Goodyear  Lumber  Company  mills  is  over 
200,000,000  feet  of  lumber  per  year.  The  business  offices 
of  the  company  are  at  Buffalo. 

In  the  year  of  the  incorporation  of  the  Goodyear  Lumber 
Company,  the  firm  of  F.  H.  &  C.  W.  Goodyear,  continu- 
ing its  original  organization  of  business,  but  advancing  into 
new  fields,  acquired  some  25,000  acres  of  timber  lands  in 
Clearfield  and  Cameron  Counties,  Pa.,  including  in  the 
purchase  a  saw  mill  at  Medix  Run.  Within  the  same  year 
the  Messrs.  Goodyear,  associated  with  other  lumbermen, 
made  an  initial  purchase  of  90,000  acres  of  timber  land  in 
the  states  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi.  Since  then  these 
holdings  have  been  largely  increased,  and  the  whole  taken 
over  by  a  company  known  as  the  Great  Southern  Lumber 
Company,  of  which  Mr.  F.  H.  Goodyear  was  the  first  pres- 
ident. The  timber  owned  by  this  company  is  mostly  long- 
leaf  pine,  and  it  covers  several  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
land. 

In  connection  with  the  operations  of  the  Great  Southern 
Lumber  Company,  a  railway  known  as  the  New  Orleans 
Great  Northern  Railroad  is  being  built  from  New  Orleans 
to  Jackson,  Mississippi.  When  completed,  this  road,  with 
its  branches,  will  have  a  total  mileage  of  260  miles,  about 
170  miles  of  which  are  already  built.  At  a  place  named 
Bogalusa,  where  the  Great  Southern  Lumber  Company  is 
building  an  immense  mill,  it  is  also  creating  an  entire  town, 
including  churches,  white  and  colored  schools,  stores, 
houses,  etc.,  sufficient  for  an  estimated  population  of  10,000. 
The  great  saw  mill  is  of  steel  construction,  the  first  of  its 


232  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

kind,  and  its  capacity  is  expected  to  exceed  that  of  any 
other  in  the  world.  Its  yearly  production  of  lumber  will 
probably  go  beyond  180,000,000  feet  of  lumber  per  year. 
Mr.  Frank  Henry  Goodyear,  the  originator  and  leading 
spirit  in  this  stupendous  development  of  a  productive  in- 
dustry, and  of  the  many  other  great  operations  that  have 
grown  out  of  it,  in  railroad  building,  coal  mining,  and  the 
manufacture  of  iron  and  steel,  died  on  the  13th  of  May, 
1907,  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight  years.  His  brother,  Charles 
W.  Goodyear,  who  succeeded  him  in  the  presidency  of  the 
several  companies  of  which  he  had  been  the  head,  died 
early  in  191 1. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    COAL    TRADE 

A  CAREFULLY  prepared  and  quite  elaborate  his- 
torical account  of  the  beginnings  and  the  earlier 
stages  of  the  development  of  the  coal  trade  at  Buf- 
falo was  contributed  by  the  late  Eric  Leonard  Hedstrom, 
in  1888,  to  an  extra  issue  of  the  Illustrated  Buffalo  Express, 
published  in  September  of  that  year,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  opening  of  an  International  Industrial  Exhibition,  at 
Buffalo.  In  the  following  sketch,  most  of  what  relates  to 
the  early  years  of  the  business  (except  so  far  as  concerned 
his  own  part  in  it)  is  derived  from  Mr.  Hedstrom,  whose 
knowledge  of  the  trade  was  hardly  equalled  by  that  of  any 
other  man. 

Prior  to  1850,  even  the  local  market  for  either  anthra- 
cite or  bituminous  coal  was  very  small.  In  the  interest  of 
the  Blossburgh  Coal  Company  of  Pennsylvania,  which 
mined  a  semi-bituminous  coal,  Mr.  Guilford  R.  Wilson 
had  come  to  the  city  in  1842,  to  see  if  something  more  might 
not  be  made  of  the  trade  at  this  point.  Coal  from  the 
Blossburgh  Basin  came  at  that  time  to  Corning  by  rail,  and 
thence  by  canal,  via  Watkins  and  Geneva.  Later  it  had  a 
route  via  Binghamton  and  through  the  Chenango  and  Erie 
Canals.  Mr.  Wilson's  success  was  not  rapid,  but  it  was 
steady  and  sure,  and  finally  great.  In  his  second  year  of 
business  he  handled  only  about  2,500  tons.  At  his  death, 
in  1877,  n's  business  had  grown  to  a  yearly  magnitude  of 
about  200,000  tons.  In  1851  the  building  of  the  Delaware, 
Lackawanna  and  Western  Railroad  to  Great  Bend,  con- 
necting with  the  Erie,  opened  a  route  for  coal  to  the  Erie 
Canal  through  Cayuga  Lake;  and  in  1854  it  began  to  come 
from  Binghamton  to  Syracuse  by  rail,  and  thence  by  canal. 

233 


234  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

In  1 86 1  Captain  George  Dakin  arrived  in  Buffalo  as  the 
agent  of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  Western,  and  es- 
tablished yards  at  the  foot  of  Genesee  Street. 

After  1859  the  tonnage  of  coal  brought  to  Buffalo  by  rail 
increased  very  rapidly,  rising  from  9,100  tons  that  year  to 
4;  ;~H  in  1861,  out  of  total  receipts  of  131,904.  Mr. 
Wilson,  in  1863,  was  the  first  to  erect  expensive  machinery 
.it  his  shipping  dock,  on  Hatch  Slip,  south  side  of  Buffalo 
Creek,  for  transfer  from  canal  to  lake  bottoms;  but  the 
rapid  increase  of  coal  carriage  bv  rail  put  this  out  of  use  in 
a  few  years.  Nevertheless,  it  was  not  until  1S68  that  the 
competition  of  the  railroads  with  the  canal  in  transporta- 
tion of  coal  became  systematic.  In  that  year  the  firm  of  J. 
Langdon  &  Co.,  of  Elmira,  contracted  with  the  New 
York  Central  and  the  Northern  Central  railroads  to  ship 
all  their  coal  over  those  roads  for  ten  years,  and  to  dispose 
(i  their  entire  property  in  canal  boats.  A  little  later  the 
Lehigh  Valley  Railroad  Company,  having  established  a 
connection  with  the  Erie  (then  still  maintaining  its  six-feet 
gauge),  arranged  with  the  latter  to  lay  a  third  rail  from 
Waverly  to  Buffalo,  enabling  cars  of  the  narrower  gauge 
to  run  through.  The  Delaware  and  Hudson  Company, 
also,  had  contracts  with  the  Hrie  for  carrying  coal  from 
Carbondale  to  Buffalo:  and  the  New  York  Central,  at  about 
this  time,  obtained  new  rail  connections  with  the  anthracite 
regions  at  Weedsport  and  Lvons. 

The  strenuous  competition  in  the  anthracite  trade  at  this 
period,  among  the  larger  interests  engaged,  had  been  so 
destructive  that  the  leading  competitors  were  now  ar- 
ranging terms  of  peace.  An  Anthracite  Association  was 
formed,  which  embraced  at  the  outset  Mr.  J.  Langdon,  the 
important  coal  operator  of  Elmira,  the  Delaware,  Lacka- 
wanna and  Western  Railway  Company,  and  the  Pittston 
and  Elmira  Coal  Company.     A  little  later  the  Association 


THE  ANTHRACITE  COAL  TRADE  235 

was  joined  by  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Railroad  Com- 
pany, and,  finally,  W.  L.  Scott  and  Co.,  of  Erie,  were  taken 
in.  It  then  controlled  all  the  anthracite  coal  that  came  in 
quantities  to  Buffalo.  The  coal  handled  by  the  Association 
was  now  moved  mostly  to  Syracuse  and  Ithaca  by  rail,  and 
thence  to  Buffalo  by  canal. 

In  1870  Mr.  C.  M.  Underhill  came  from  Rochester  to 
Buffalo  to  represent  the  Anthracite  Association,  and  had 
charge  of  its  business  at  this  point  until  the  Association  was 
dissolved  in  1879.  He  had  then  become  a  member  of  the 
firm  of  J.  Langdon  &  Co.,  and  continued  in  Buffalo  in  con- 
nection with  that  firm  and  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Com- 
pany until  his  retirement  from  active  business,  not  many 
years  ago.  The  trade  he  established  is  carried  on  by  his 
sons,  now  incorporated  under  the  name  of  the  Underhill 
Coal  Company,  successors  to  the  C.  M.  Underhill  Co. 

On  the  dissolution  of  the  Anthracite  Association,  Mr.  J.  J. 
McWilliams,  who  had  been  in  its  employ  at  Buffalo  for 
about  ten  years,  became  the  representative  here  of  the  Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna  and  Western  Company,  in  its  coal  trade, 
and  remained  such  until  a  few  years  ago.  He  is  now  at  the 
head  of  the  Niagara  Lithograph  Company,  which  has  es- 
tablished a  large  plant  on  Niagara  Street,  between  the 
termini  of  Prospect  and  Fargo  Avenues. 

The  demands  of  the  West,  in  the  middle  decades  of  the 
past  century,  were  inciting  more  and  more  of  an  urgency 
on  the  part  of  the  anthracite  producers  for  more  direct 
transportation  of  coal  to  Buffalo  and  delivery  to  the  fleets 
of  the  lakes.  Mr.  Hedstrom  had  come  to  this  city  in  1863 
as  an  agent  of  that  western  demand,  representing  the  firm 
of  A.  B.  Meeker  &  Co.,  of  Chicago,  who  were  independent 
coal  operators  and  large  handlers  of  pig  iron.  Within  a 
year  or  so  thereafter  he  was  admitted  to  a  partnership  in  the 
firm.     At  the  outset  he  received  coal  from  New  York  by 


236  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

canal  and  transferred  it  to  sail  vessels  for  lake  ports  at  a 
location  on  Peck  Slip.  In  1866  he  removed  to  what  is  now- 
known  as  the  Salt  Dock  on  the  Blackwell  Canal,  and  had 
also  a  small  dock  in  the  Erie  Basin. 

The  anthracite  interests  had  now  developed  a  business  at 
Buffalo  which  required  much  improvement  and  enlarge- 
ment of  facilities  for  the  handling  of  coal,  and  Mr.  Hed- 
stroin  was  an  early  leader  in  the  undertakings  to  that  end. 
He  took  the  initiative,  about  1  S70,  in  building  the  Buffalo 
Creek  Railway,  of  which  he  was  president  until  the  road 
was  taken  over  by  the  Lehigh  Valley  and  Erie  Railway 
companies,  about  1876.  He  was  appointed  general  western 
sales  agent  for  the  handling  and  sale  of  the  Lehigh  Valle) 
Coal  Company's  coal,  and,  jointly  with  the  Lehigh  Valley 
Railway  Company,  he  erected,  in  1871,  what  were  then 
known  as  the  Lehigh  Docks,  on  the  Buffalo  Creek,  for  the 
transfer  of  anthracite  coal  from  cars  to  vessels.  The  trestle 
at  these  docks  was  the  first  one  built  in  Buffalo  for  the  hand- 
ling ot  coal  m  this  manner.  At  about  the  same  time  J. 
Langdon  &  Co.,  in  connection  with  the  New  York  Central 
road,  were  building  large  trestles  in  the  Erie  Basin,  and 
others,  a  little  later,  were  constructed  by  the  Erie  Railway 
on  the  Blackwell  or  City  Ship  Canal  Meantime,  the  Del- 
aware and  Hudson  Company  had  carried  out  an  extensive 
improvement  of  propertv  for  the  uses  of  its  coal  trade  on 
Buffalo  Creek.  This  involved  a  deepening  of  the  Creek. 
between  Ohio  and  Hamburg  streets,  at  a  cost  of  >i  50,000. 
The  work  was  finished  about  1871. 

Mr.  Hedstrom  severed  his  connection  with  the  Lehigh 
Vallev  interests  in  1876,  and  represented  for  a  short  time 
the  Erie  Railway  in  handling  its  anthracite  product.  In 
1878  he  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna 
and  Western  Railroad  Company,  which  he  and  his  suc- 
cessors have  continued  to  this  time.     The  business,  still  con- 


COAL  RAILWAY  IMPROVEMENTS  237 

tinned  in  h:s  name,  is  the  only  independent  one  now  con- 
ducted here  which  ships  anthracite  coal  from  Buffalo  to 
the  upper  lake  ports.     The  extensive  :     -.-    f  the  Hedstrom 

firm  in  South  Chicago  and  other  points  in  the  market  are 
significant  of  a  large  activity  in  the  western  anthracite  trade. 

In  1879  the  Delaware.  Lackawanna  and  Western  Rail- 
road Company,  to  provide  for  its  increasing  movement  of 

I  over  the  New  York  Central,  from  Syracuse,  estab- 
I  ■  ■:  i  trestles-  and  shipping  locks  at  the  foot  >f  Erie  Street, 
on  the  Creek  at  its  mouth  In  [882  its  own  line  was  ex- 
tended to  Buffalo,  and  brought  through  the  southern  part 
of  the  city  to  those  docks,  by  an  acquisil  1  rights  of  way 

an  i  property  along  Ohio  and  Water  streets,  which  have 
given  it  a  practical  control  of  the  inner-harbor  water-fr  at 
for  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile.     The  my,  in  fact. 

■  a  possession  of  the  wharves  and  streets  on  and  along 
which  nearly  the  whole  commerce  of  Buffalo  was  c  inducted 
a  generation  ago.  To  provide  further  for  the  nee:-  1  its 
traffic,  the  D.  L.  and  W.  has  constructed  since,  at  East  Buf- 
falo, a  building  for  the  storage  of  100.000  tons  of  anthracite 
coal. 

In  [880  the  Lehigh  Valley  road  entered  upon  new  ter- 
minal improvements  of  immense  extent,  buying  for  the  pur- 
pose the  large  tract  of  320  acres  of  Ian:  jn  Bufralc  River 
known  formerly  as  the  Tifft  Farm.  By  the  construe:  n 
of  a  system  of  slips,  connected  with  the  Blackwell  or  City 
Ship  Canal,  this  Lehigh  Valley  improvement  opened  up 
more  than  two  miles  of  new  docks,  wharves  and  contiguous 
storage  yards,  creating  immense  facilities,  which  the  lumber 
trade  shares  with  the  coal. 

In  1SS1  Mr.  Andrew  Langdon  came  to  Buffalo  to  repre- 
sent the  coal  interests  of  the  Erie  Railway,  marketing  coal, 
at  the  same  time,  from  mines  of  his  own  at  Wilkesbarre, 
Scranton  and  Carbondale.     Previously.  Mr.  Langdon  had 


238  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

been  in  business  at  Harrisburg,  Fa.,  and  had  been  the  first 
(about  1870)  to  ship  coal  from  the  anthracite  region  to  Chi- 
cago, in  wholesale  quantities,  by  all  rail.  He  had  his  own 
docks  at  Chicago,  with  agencies  at  Milwaukee.  Mr.  Lang- 
don  conducted  the  coal  business  of  the  Erie  Railway  at 
Buffalo  for  about  ten  years.  All  of  his  coal  interests  were 
sold  in  1895.  He  has  had  leisure  since  for  useful  work  in 
other  lines. 

In  1883  the  Philadelphia  and  Reading  Railroad  secured 
a  better  outlet  to  Buffalo,  by  the  completion  of  the  Jersey 
Shore,  Pine  Creek  and  Buffalo  road,  which  William  H. 
Vanderbilt  had  bought  and  extended  to  a  connection  with 
the  New  York  Central's  Fall  Brook  line  from  Ansonia. 
For  some  time  previously  the  Philadelphia  and  Reading 
had  been  shipping  coal  westward  by  way  of  New  York  and 
the  Erie  Canal,  and  Mr.  T.  Guilford  Smith  had  been  ap- 
pointed agent  at  Buffalo  of  the  Philadelphia  and  Reading 
Coal  and  [ron  Company  in  1878.  A  few  years  later  Mr. 
Smith  entered  into  a  double  partnership  with  Mr.  J.  J. 
Albright,  under  an  arrangement  of  business  with  the  Read- 
ing Company,  in  conducting  one  of  which  the  firm  bore 
the  name  of  Albright  &  Co.,  and  marketed  all  coal  going 
west  from  Buffalo,  while,  as  Albright  &  Smith,  it  handled 
the  entire  coal  sold  in  Canada  and  the  State  of  New  York. 
It  was  this  engagement  in  business  which  made  Mr. 
Albright  a  citizen  of  Buffalo.  Mr.  Smith  had  been  resi- 
dent in  this  city,  as  secretary  of  the  reorganized  Union  Iron 
Works  Company,  since  1873. 

At  present  the  interests  connected  with  the  anthracite  coal 
trade  are  represented  in  Buffalo  by  a  very  large  number  of 
agencies,  large  and  small;  but  the  main  channels  of  the 
trade  and  the  lines  on  which  it  is  organized  remain  sub- 
stantially as  they  were  developed  some  twenty  years  ago. 
The  volume  of  the  movement  of  coal,  both  anthracite  and 


.HTIM8  0 


'UILFbRD  SAim,. 
1  '"   Philadelphia     Wusi    -    rfl 
Philadelphia  Central   ll.-hJ        V    ?39''  "lucatei1  ;,t  &>e 
^uteatTroy    n!  York     f  '  **  '" 

Refiner,    ,.x,„   ,/.'  ^  rT"^    Phi'adelphia    Sugar 

In,  ■        "WMphu,    an,,    k(,(li|ltr   roa,    and 


THE  BITUMINOUS  COAL  TRADE  239 

bituminous,  through  this  depot  of  distribution,  has  increased 
to  great  proportions,  as  shown  by  statistics  that  will  be  given 
further  on ;  and  more  of  the  anthracite  movement  than  of 
most  others  among  the  streamings  of  commerce  has  stayed 
with  the  carriers  of  the  lakes. 

Important  developments  of  the  bituminous  coal  trade  at 
Buffalo  came  later  than  those  of  the  trade  from  the  anthra- 
cite fields.  Until  the  Buffalo  and  Washington  Railroad 
(afterwards  the  Buffalo,  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and 
now  the  Buffalo  arm  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  system) 
was  opened,  in  1875,  coal  from  the  bituminous  fields 
reached  Buffalo  by  lake  from  Erie  or  by  rail  via  Brocton 
or  Hornellsville.  For  twenty  years,  at  least,  the  building 
of  a  direct  road  to  that  important  region  of  Pennsylvania 
had  been  urged,  and  even  attempted  by  a  Buffalo  and  Pitts- 
burg Railroad  Company  in  1852,  without  result.  Heavy 
movements  of  bituminous  coal  to  this  market  followed  the 
opening  of  the  Buffalo  and  Washington  road,  and  large 
mining  interests  in  Western  Pennsylvania  were  soon  estab- 
lished in  Buffalo,  notably  that  which  was  represented  by  the 
firm  of  Bell,  Lewis  &  Yates. 

A  business  founded  at  this  period,  in  1874,  by  Mr.  Frank 
Williams,  has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  largest  of  the  present 
day.  At  the  beginning  it  involved  the  handling  of  about 
7,500  tons  of  coal  in  the  year.  In  1907  it  had  to  do  with 
half  a  million  tons;  much  of  which,  however,  did  not  come 
to  Buffalo,  to  be  included  in  the  statistics  of  coal  received 
at  and  shipped  from  this  port.  A  large  part  of  the  coal 
mined  and  marketed  by  the  existing  firm  of  Frank  Williams 
&  Co.  is  shipped  directly  from  its  mines  in  Pennsylvania  to 
the  points  of  sale.  It  supplies  a  good  share  of  the  steam 
coal  taken  on  by  lake  steamers  in  this  port  for  their  own  use, 
delivering  to  them  by  lighters  at  all  parts  of  the  harbor,  and 
its  local  trade  is  large.     The  extensive  docks  of  the  firm  are 


240  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

on  the  Blackwell  Canal.  The  founder  of  the  business 
bought  an  interest  in  two  mines  in  Jefferson  County,  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1876.  Those  mines  were  exhausted  long  ago. 
In  1881  he  purchased  coal  property  in  Oak  Ridge,  Arm- 
strong County,  which  is  productive  still.  Other  proper- 
ties have  been  acquired  since.  The  firm  is  now  operating 
mines  at  Hillville,  Clarion  County,  where  it  has  2,000  acres 
of  coal,  and  Dent's  Run  in  Elk  County,  where  it  holds 
leases  of  the  coal  under  10,000  acres.  In  addition,  it  buys 
from  100,000  to  200,000  tons  yearly  from  other  mines.  Mr. 
Frank  Williams  died  in  1884.  He  had  received  Mr. 
Horace  A.  Noble  into  partnership,  and  sons  of  both  Mr. 
Williams  and  Mr.  Noble  are  associated  with  the  latter  in 
the  present  firm. 

A  second  direct  route  from  the  bituminous  coal  fields  of 
Pennsylvania  to  Buffalo  was  opened  in  1875,  by  the  build- 
ing of  the  Buffalo  and  Jamestown  Railroad, — named  after- 
wards the  Buffalo  and  Southwestern,  and  now  a  division  of 
the  New  York,  Lake  Erie  and  Western. 

A  third  connection  was  formed  in  1883,  on  the  bringing 
of  the  Buffalo,  Rochester  and  Pittsburg  road  into  Buffalo. 
In  close  relations  with  this  important  road  was  the  business 
of  the  strong  firm  of  Bell,  Lewis  &  Yates,  incorporated  sub- 
sequently as  the  Bell,  Lewis  &  Yates  Mining  Company, 
which  conducted  extensive  mining  operations  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  coal  trade  in  Buffalo.  Mr.  George  H.  Lewis,  of 
this  company,  who  died  suddenly  in  October,  1897,  was  a 
citizen  whose  loss  has  been  deeply  felt.  He  came  to  Buf- 
falo in  1875,  and  the  firm  in  which  his  brother-in-law,  Mr. 
Frederick  A.  Bell,  was  one  of  his  partners,  was  formed  in 
1878.  Its  operations  were  ended  in  1896,  when  the  fran- 
chises of  the  company  were  sold  and  Mr.  Lewis's  retirement 
from  business  occurred.  Until  he  died,  not  many  realized 
how  rarely  good  a  citizen,  in  all  the  relations  of  his  life,  he 
had  been. 


THE  BITUMINOUS  COAL  TRADE  241 

Another  citizen  of  the  high  standard  had  been  taken  from 
the  same  walk  in  life  a  little  earlier,  in  1894,  when  Mr.  Hed- 
strom  died.  The  city  had  been  bettered  in  many  ways  by 
the  example  and  the  service  of  both  these  men,  and  their 
memory  should  be  kept  green. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Hedstrom  his  business  was  con- 
tinued in  his  own  name  by  a  co-partnership  formed  of 
Arthur  E.  Hedstrom,  Anna  M.  Hedstrom,  Alice  H.  Doug- 
las and  Eugene  C.  Roberts.  The  handling  of  bituminous 
coal  had  been  begun  by  Mr.  Hedstrom  in  i88o;  when  he 
became  the  representative  of  several  of  the  larger  Pittsburg 
and  Reynoldsville  producers.  The  heavier  interests  of  his 
successors  are  now  in  that  department  of  the  coal  trade.  In 
1900  they  took  over  on  a  perpetual  lease  the  bituminous  coal 
interests  of  the  Fairmount  Coal  and  Coke  Company,  which 
was  controlled  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  In  1902  they 
purchased  the  coal  interests  of  the  late  John  M.  Brinker, 
and  those  are  now  operated  under  the  name  of  the  Hedstrom 
Coal  Mining  Company.  In  the  bituminous  and  the  an- 
thracite coal  business  of  Buffalo  alike,  the  firm  which  bears 
the  name  of  E.  L.  Hedstrom  is  one  of  the  leading  factors. 

The  coal  and  coke  products  of  the  Rochester  and  Pitts- 
burg Coal  and  Iron  Company  are  distributed  very  largely 
from  Buffalo,  and  the  retail  trade  of  the  city  in  steam  coal 
is  supplied  by  this  company  to  an  important  extent.  Its 
mines  are  extensive,  mostly  in  the  Reynoldsville  district. 
Its  yards  and  trestles  at  this  point  are  at  Ganson  and  Michi- 
gan streets  and  at  Fillmore  Avenue  and  Clinton  Street. 
The  company's  agent  in  Buffalo  is  Mr.  Harry  Yates. 

Another  extensive  mining  corporation  which  markets  its 
product  of  steam  coal  largely  through  Buffalo  is  that  of  H. 
K.  Wick  &  Company,  whose  Pennsylvania  mines  are  in  the 
counties  of  Mercer,  Butler  and  Clarion. 

The  fourth  and  latest  of  the  important  rail  connections 


242  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

of  Buffalo  with  the  bituminous  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania, 
created  by  the  building  of  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna 
Railroad,  was  completed  in  1907.  This  carried  with  it 
heavy  investments  of  capital  from  Buffalo  in  the  bituminous 
coal  fields.  In  1901,  six  years  before  the  extension  of  its 
road  to  Buffalo,  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Railroad 
Company  had  bought  the  property  of  the  Clearfield  Coal 
Company,  located  at  Tyler,  Pennsylvania,  for  the  holding 
of  which  property  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Coal  Com- 
pany was  incorporated  subsequently.  In  the  following  year 
the  latter  company  purchased  additional  lands, near  Dubois, 
Pa.,  from  the  Berwind-White  Coal  Mining  Company,  and 
other  lands,  ten  miles  south  of  Dubois,  from  Peale,  Peacock 
&  Kerr,  the  whole  containing,  as  estimated,  about  30,000,- 
000  tons  of  coal.  The  B.  and  S.  Railroad  was  extended 
from  Sinnemahoning,  Pa.,  to  Dubois  and  a  point  south  of 
it.  in  1903-4. 

In  1903  and  1904  the  lands  bought  from  Peale,  Peacock 
&  Kerr,  and  from  the  Clearfield  Coal  Company  were  sold 
by  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Coal  &  Coke  Company 
to  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Iron  Company,  whose  ex- 
tensive and  remarkably  perfect  plant  at  Buffalo  was  brought 
into  operation  in  1904.  To  replace  the  coal  lands  thus 
parted  with,  the  B.  &  S.  Coal  and  Coke  Company  made 
additional  purchases,  and  its  lands  and  mining  rights  now 
owned  are  estimated  to  contain  120,000,000  tons  of  coal.  It 
operates  three  modern  shaft-mining  plants,  near  Dubois, 
which  have  a  total  producing  capacity  of  about  one  million 
tons  per  annum.  It  operates,  also,  a  quite  remarkable  drift- 
mining  plant  at  Sagamore,  Pa.,  the  producing  capacity  of 
which,  when  fully  developed,  will  be  about  two  million 
tons  of  coal  per  annum. 

In  the  decade  which  ended  in  1872  onlv  66,000  tons  of 
bituminous  coal  were  shipped  from  Buffalo  bv  rail,  and 


LAKE  AND   RAILWAY  COAL   SHIPMENTS  243 

78,889  tons  by  lake.  In  the  next  decade  the  rail  shipments 
had  mounted  up  to  1,089,907  tons,  and  those  by  lake  had 
shrunk  to  8,800.  In  the  latest  single  year  of  the  trade 
(1907),  for  which  separate  statistics  have  been  obtained, 
Buffalo  received  (necessarily  by  rail)  5,189,235  tons  of  bi- 
tuminous coal,  and  shipped  but  2,815  tons  of  it  by  lake. 
Exactly  how  much  went  out  of  the  city  by  rail  is  not  shown 
by  the  statistics,  which  give  bituminous  and  anthracite  to- 
gether, in  one  total  of  "shipments  by  railroads,"  6,007,255 
tons. 

The  smallness  of  the  shipments  of  bituminous  coal  from 
Buffalo  by  lake  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  coal  from  the 
bituminous  fields  seeking  lake  transportation  can  reach  it  at 
other  ports  on  Lake  Erie  from  which  distances  and  rates  are 
less  than  from  Buffalo. 

The  receipts  of  anthracite  in  1907  (wholly  by  rail)  were 
6,304,829  tons,  and  3,449,695  tons  went  westward  by  lake. 
Hence  the  larger  part  of  the  above  total  railroad  shipment 
of  both  kinds  of  coal  must  have  been  of  the  bituminous 
variety. 

The  combined  receipts  of  bituminous  and  anthracite  by 
rail  were  reported  by  the  Bureau  of  Industries  in  1910  as 
having  been  9,180,839  tons;  shipments  by  lake  3,052,705 
tons. 

The  shipping  docks  and  coal  pockets  at  Buffalo  are  sum- 
marized in  the  annual  report  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
as  follows: 

Average  ship-  Average 

ping  capacity  capacity 

daily  of  pockets 

Tons  Tons 

Pennsylvania  R.  R 2,500     3,000 

Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western  R.  R. . . .  3,000    4,000 

Lehigh  Docks,  Nos.  1  and  2 6,000  12,000 

Erie  Docks  (Erie  R.  R.) 3,000  10,000 

Reading  Docks 7,000    6,500 

Totals 21,500  35,500 


244  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

Outside  the  city  limits  at  Cheektowaga  is  the  stocking 
coal  trestle  of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western,  with 
a  capacity  of  over  100,000  tons  storage.  At  the  same  place 
the  Lehigh  has  its  trestles  and  stocking  plant  of  175,000  tons 
storage  capacity,  with  a  shipping  capacity  of  3,000  tons 
daily;  and  has  a  transfer  trestle  for  loading  box  cars,  with 
a  capacity  of  100  cars  daily.  At  the  same  point  the  Erie 
has  a  stocking  plant,  with  average  daily  capacity  of  1,000 
tons,  and  storage  capacity  for  100,000  tons.  The  Reading 
has  at  the  foot  of  Georgia  Street,  in  the  city,  a  large  trestle 
and  pocket  for  the  convenience  of  the  retail  trade,  and  in 
connection  with  their  docks,  with  a  capacity  of  2,000  tons. 
The  Buffalo,  Rochester  &  Pittsburg  has  terminals  on 
Ganson  and  Michigan  streets,  fronting  on  the  Blackwell 
Canal,  with  a  water  frontage  of  1,100  feet;  also  a  town 
deliver)  yard,  with  a  hoisting  plant  for  loading  and  coaling 
vessels. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CATTLE  TRADE  AND  MEAT  PACKING 

IN  an  article  prepared  for  a  historical  "extra  number"  of 
the  Buffalo  Express,  published  in  1888,  Mr.  Horace 
Wilcox,  then  the  commercial  editor  of  that  newspaper, 
traced  the  substantial  beginnings  of  the  live  stock  business 
in  Buffalo  to  the  year  1852,  when  D.  M.  Joslyn  opened 
yards  for  drovers  at  the  old  Jamison  tavern,  on  Seneca 
Street.  Nothing  but  scattering  lots  of  cattle  and  hogs  had 
been  handled  at  this  point,  without  accommodations  or 
facilities  of  any  kind.  Joslyn's  yards  were  removed  after- 
wards to  the  Thirteenth  Ward  House,  on  the  same  street. 

Within  the  next  few  years  several  cattle  and  hog  yards 
were  opened,  on  the  Tifft  Farm  and  elsewhere,  in  the  south- 
eastern part  of  the  city.  John  Dickey,  Leonard  Crocker, 
and  James  H.  Metcalfe  were  men  of  early  prominence  in 
the  business.  About  1855  or  1856  the  New  York  Central 
and  the  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad  companies  began 
building  pens  and  chutes  for  loading  cattle  and  hog  cars. 
In  1863  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River  R.  R. 
Co.  opened  the  stock  yards  at  East  Buffalo  which  have  cen- 
tralized the  trade  ever  since.  For  many  years  the  cattle 
and  sheep  departments  were  under  the  superintendence  of 
Mr.  Leonard  Crocker,  while  Metcalfe  and  Cushing  had 
charge  of  the  department  of  hogs. 

In  the  long  period  that  has  elapsed  since  the  opening  of 
these  yards  they  have  been  undergoing  constant  improve- 
ment and  enlargement,  until  there  is  nothing  in  the  country 
to  surpass  them  in  facilities,  and  only  at  Chicago  is  a  greater 
business  done.  In  one  branch  of  the  trade, — that  of  sheep 
and  lambs, — even  Chicago  falls  behind,  and  the  boast  is 
made  for  these  yards  that  they  stand  first  among  the  mar- 

245 


246  COMMERCIAL  EVOLUTION 

kets  of  the  world.  Covering  more  than  a  hundred  acres  of 
ground,  the  yards  offer  a  provision  for  handling  more  than 
100,000  animals  at  one  time.  The  cattle  yards  have  capa- 
city for  15,000  head;  the  building  for  sheep  50,000;  the 
building  for  hogs  35,000.  In  a  published  description  of 
the  stockyards  it  is  said:  "Every  protection  is  supplied 
against  fire  or  accident.  Broad  paved  alleys,  dry,  cool 
sheep  and  hog  houses,  lighted  by  electricity  and  sanitarily 
clean  in  every  respect.  Cattle  pens  provided  with  sheds 
for  shelter  and  fitted  with  the  most  approved  appliances  for 
watering  and  feeding  and  an  abundance  of  pure  water  are 
among  the  features  of  the  yards.  Order  and  cleanliness 
prevail  evervwhere." 

Receipts  of  live  stock  at  Buffalo  in  1907  were  reported 
by  car-loads  as  follows:  Cattle,  8,365 ;  Hogs,  11,554;  Sheep, 
6,396;  Horses,  1,087;  ^Hxed  cars,  3,736;  Total,  31,138  cars. 
Shipments  by  carloads:  Cattle,  5,423;  Hogs,  5,972;  Sheep, 
6,472;  Horses,  917;  mixed  cars,  610;  Total,  19,394. 

The  total  through  shipments  of  live  stock  via  Buffalo  in 
1907  were  of  33,360  cars. 

While  Buffalo  is  not  one  of  the  great  centers  of  the  meat 
packing  business,  two  large  and  important  establishments 
of  that  business  have  been  established  here.  That  of  the 
Christian  Klinck  Packing  Company  had  small  beginnings 
in  1856.  It  now  occupies  twenty-four  acres  of  ground  and 
25  buildings,  adjoining  Depot  Street,  in  South  Buffalo.  In 
1906  the  cattle  slaughtered  at  this  place  numbered  32,000, 
the  hogs  340,000.  The  present  company  is  composed  of 
the  six  sons  of  the  late  Christian  Klinck,  Louis  P.,  W.  H., 
Fred.  F.,  Charles  C,  Albert  E.,  and  Edward  C.  Klinck. 

The  business  of  the  Jacob  Dold  Packing  Company  was 
begun  in  a  small  way  of  butchering  by  Jacob  Dold,  Sr.,  in 
i860,  on  the  Abbott  Road.  Two  years  later  a  packing  es- 
tablishment was  opened  at  the  Elk  Street  Market.     The 


CATTLE  TRADE  AND  MEAT  PACKING        247 

large  plant  now  operated  at  East  Buffalo  was  established 
in  1872,  when  the  slaughter  of  hogs  and  cattle  amounted  to 
about  50,000  per  year.  In  1907  it  had  increased  to  650,000 
head. 


FINANCIAL  EVOLUTION 

BANKING 


AS  shown  by  the  preceding  survey,  the  business  inter- 
ests of  Buffalo,  until  quite  recent  years,  were  far 
more  in  the  transportation  of  the  commodities  of 
trade  than  in  the  production  of  them.  In  other  words,  its 
manufacturing  industries  were  less  important  than  those 
connected  with  the  traffic-handling,  the  storage  and  the 
lake  and  canal  carriage  of  its  grain,  coal  and  lumber  trade. 
This  gave,  without  doubt,  some  features  of  peculiarity  to 
its  banking  business. 

It  used  to  be  a  common  complaint  among  the  manufac- 
turers of  the  city  that  the  resources  of  its  banks  were  mon- 
opolized by  the  grain  trade,  especially,  and  that  bills  of 
lading  and  warehouse  receipts  were  the  only  kind  of  paper 
that  found  favor  at  the  discounting  institutions.  Latterly 
such  complaints  are  said  to  have  ceased,  partly  by  reason 
of  the  increase  of  banking  capital,  and  partly  because  the 
grain  business  has  undergone  a  great  change.  Most  of  the 
grain  now  handled  in  Buffalo  is  on  through  lake  and  rail 
bills  of  lading,  carried  by  Chicago  and  New  York  banks. 
Buffalo  is  only  a  point  of  transfer  in  the  movement  of  it. 
The  banks  here  are  only  called  upon  to  carry  such  grain  as 
local  millers  and  other  manufacturers  of  grain  products  are 
buying  in  the  fall,  when  they  lay  in  their  stock  for  winter 
needs. 

Probably  the  former  conditions  tended  to  lessen  the  num- 
ber of  banking  institutions  in  Buffalo,  compared  with  other 
cities  of  its  class.  Relatively,  the  number  continues  to  be 
small,  and  the  volume  of  the  banking  business  of  the  city  is, 
therefore,  not  represented  by  the  transactions  of  the  Clear- 

248 


EARLY  BANKS  IN  BUFFALO  249 

ing  House,  for  the  reason  that  much  more  of  the  local  busi- 
ness is  cleared  on  the  books  of  the  banks  themselves  than 
would  be  if  a  greater  number  divided  it. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  the  banks  in  Buffalo  were  mainly 
State  banks,  there  being,  until  that  time,  only  two  that  were 
organized  as  national  banks.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
Buffalo  is  not  one  of  the  twenty-five  so-called  "reserve 
cities,"  named  in  the  law  creating  the  national  banks,  which 
allows  those  banks  to  carry  a  certain  percentage  of  their 
required  reserve  in  designated  banks  within  the  cities  that 
are  named.  Within  these  cities,  to  which  the  deposits  of 
country  banks  are  drawn,  the  formation  of  national  banks 
has  been  stimulated;  but  banks  in  Buffalo,  operating  under 
a  State  law,  the  main  features  of  which  were  incorporated 
in  the  national  bank  act,  have  had  no  special  inducement 
to  place  themselves  under  that  act.  Several,  however,  have 
found  reasons  for  doing  so  of  late. 

Banking  at  Buffalo  had  early  beginnings, — as  early  as 
1816,  when  the  village  had  no  more  than  half  emerged  from 
the  ashes  of  its  destruction  in  1813.  Six  or  eight  of  its  lead- 
ing business  men,  in  association  with  a  number  from  other 
villages  in  the  western  part  of  the  State,  including  Batavia, 
procured  from  the  Legislature  an  act  incorporating  the 
bank  of  Niagara,  and  it  was  organized  in  July,  1816,  with  a 
nominal  capital  of  $500,000,  to  be  paid  in  small  instalments 
on  the  shares.  Niagara  Falls,  Batavia,  Clarence,  Wil- 
liamsville,  Hamburg,  and  Chautauqua  County,  as  well  as 
Buffalo,  were  represented  on  the  board  of  directors,  and 
Isaac  Kibbe,  of  Hamburg,  was  elected  president,  with  Isaac 
Q.  Leake  for  cashier.  The  offices  of  the  bank  were  estab- 
lished at  the  corner  of  Washington  and  North  Division 
streets.  It  was  chartered  for  sixteen  years,  and  its  business 
seems  to  have  been  closed  with  regularity  at  the  end  of 
that  term. 


250  FINANCIAL  EVOLUTION 

The  Bank  of  Niagara  had  a  powerful  rival  after  183 1, 
when  a  branch  of  the  national  United  States  Bank  was  es- 
tablished in  the  rising  town,  then  aspiring  to  the  status  of  a 
city.  The  $200,000  capital  of  the  new  bank  was  so  heavily 
over-subscribed  that  litigation  arose  over  the  awarding  of 
the  shares.  It  opened  business  in  September,  1831,  on  the 
northeast  corner  of  South  Division  Street  and  Main,  and 
continued,  under  the  presidency  of  William  B.  Rochester, 
for  about  three  years,  when  President  Jackson's  veto  of  a 
renewed  charter  for  the  parent  institution  brought  its  exist- 
ence to  an  end. 

From  the  directory  of  the  city  in  1832  we  learn  that  a 
Bank  of  Buffalo  had  then  been  established,  with  G.  H. 
Goodrich  for  its  president;  but  it  disappears  from  the  di- 
rectory of  1835,  to  reappear,  in  name,  at  least,  in  that  of 

1836,  with  Hiram  Pratt  as  president,  and  a  new  institution, 
the  Commercial  Bank  of  Buffalo,  Israel  T.  Hatch  presi- 
dent,  is  named   that  year.     Another  addition   is  made   in 

1837,  and  the  list  of  three, — City  Bank,  Commercial  Bank 
and  Bank  of  Buffalo, — is  unchanged  for  two  years.  In 
1839  the  city  becomes  suddenly  endowed  with  no  less  than 
seven  banks,  adding  four  to  the  previous  list,  as  follows: 
I  11  i ted  States  Bank  at  Buffalo,  P.  A.  Barker  president; 
Merchants  Exchange  Bank,  Sherman  Stevens  president; 
Mechanics  Bank,  O.  H.  Dibble  president;  Erie  County 
Bank,  G.  N.  Kinney,  president. 

In  1840  the  City  Bank  has  disappeared,  and  three  new 
ones  have  arisen:  the  Bank  of  Commerce,  C.  H.  Allen  pres- 
ident; the  Bank  of  America,  Henry  Roop  president,  and 
the  Phoenix  Bank,  L.  Eaton  in  its  presidency.  Then  comes 
a  great  fall.  The  directory  of  1841  names  but  two  in  its 
list  of  banks,  the  Bank  of  Buffalo  and  the  Commercial 
Bank;  and  in  1842  it  reports  the  whole  list  of  1840  under 
the  sinister  caption,  "Suspended  Banks,"  with  names  of  the 


EARLY  BANKS  IN  BUFFALO  25 1 

receivers  who  are  winding  up  their  affairs.  Not  a  bank  in 
the  city  is  recorded  outside  of  that  catalogue  of  the  mori- 
bund, either  that  year  or  the  next. 

But  in  1844  a  fresh  planting  of  institutions  for  banking 
is  seen  to  have  occurred.  The  twelve  of  the  old  list  are 
named  as  being  still  in  the  receivers'  hands,  but  seven  new 
ones  had  been  established,  one  of  which  had  a  long  career, 
running  on  till  not  quite  a  decade  ago;  while  several 
others  of  the  number  came  down  to  times  within  the  mem- 
ory of  people  who  are  not  patriarchally  old.  The  Bank 
of  Attica  enters  then  for  the  first  time  into  the  city  direc- 
tory, but  is  said  to  have  been  removed  from  Attica  to  Buf- 
falo in  1842.  The  other  six  were  Oliver  Lee  &  Co.'s  Bank, 
White's  Bank,  George  C.  White  president;  the  Patchin 
Bank,  A.  D.  Patchin  president;  the  Exchange  Bank,  of 
Robert  Codd;  the  Merchants',  M.  Perry  president,  and  the 
Farmers'  and  Drovers',  James  N.  Earl. 

It  is  evident  that  the  fresh  creations  of  1844  mark  the 
opening  of  a  period  of  improved  stability  in  banking  at 
Buffalo,  though  many  banks  have  come  and  gone  since  that 
year,  and  not  one  of  the  institutions  born  then  is  in  exist- 
ence now.  Some  of  the  many  that  are  but  names  in  our 
local  history  have  ended  business  voluntarily,  leaving  an 
honorable  record  of  success.  In  some  cases  a  record  of 
failure  has  been  honorable,  nevertheless;  while  some  have 
gone  down  in  disgraceful  as  well  as  disastrous  wreck. 

Two  of  the  banks  that  have  disappeared  had  a  long  and 
important  career,  bearing  a  part  in  the  business  history  of 
the  city  which  cannot  be  overlooked.  One  of  these  was  the 
Bank  of  Attica,  founded  by  Gaius  B.  Rich  at  the  village  of 
Attica,  in  1836;  re-established  at  Buffalo  in  1842,  and  re- 
organized and  re-incorporated  in  1850,  under  the  banking 
laws  of  the  State.  During  the  sixty  years  of  its  useful  and 
prosperous  existence  in  Buffalo,  "the  conservative  basis  on 


252  FINANCIAL  EVOLUTION 

which  it  was  organized  originally  was  never  impaired,  and 
the  principles  for  its  guidance  laid  down  by  its  founder 
were  steadily  adhered  to,"  by  the  son,  Andrew  J.  Rich, 
who  succeeded  him,  and  by  the  grandson,  G.  Barrett  Rich, 
who  came  to  the  presidency  of  the  bank  in  1895.  In 
1890,  for  business  reasons,  the  name  of  the  institution  was 
changed,  and  it  was  known  thereafter  as  the  Buffalo  Com- 
mercial Bank,  until  1902,  when  it  was  merged  in  the  Marine 
National  Bank. 

Another  bank  of  the  past  which  had  an  early,  long  and 
important  career,  was  the  Farmers'  ami  Mechanics',  organ- 
ized originally  at  Batavia,  about  1840,  and  removed  to 
Buffalo  in  1852.  On  the  establishment  of  the  bank  in  Buf- 
falo the  Hon.  Elbridge  G.  Spaulding,  previously  in  the 
practice  of  the  profession  of  the  law,  became  its  president 
and  devoted  himself  to  its  administration,  except  as  he  gave 
large  parts  of  his  time  and  attention  to  public  affairs.  Serv- 
ing repeated  terms  in  Congress,  first  in  [849-50,  then  in 
the  Thirty-sixth  and  Thirty-seventh  congresses  of  the  Civil 
War  period,  he  became  a  notable  actor  on  the  national 
stage,  and  exercised  an  important  influence  in  the  shaping 
of  the  financial  legislation  of  the  war.  As  chairman  of  a 
sub-committee  of  the  House  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
he  was  the  recognized  author  of  the  Legal  Tender  Act,  and 
was  popularly  known  as  the  "Father  of  the  Greenbacks"  in 
his  day.  He  had  hardly  less  to  do  with  the  framing  and 
passing  of  the  National  Bank  Act,  in  co-operation  with 
Secretary  Chase.  The  Bank  over  which  he  presided  was 
reorganized  under  that  act  in  1864,  becoming  the  Farmers' 
and  Mechanics'  National  Bank.  In  common  speech  it  was 
more  often  alluded  to  as  "Spaulding's  Bank."  It  con- 
tinued to  be  a  factor  of  importance  in  Buffalo  business  until 
1897,  when  its  business  was  closed. 

Of  the  banks  of  discount  that  are  now  doing  business  in 


■ 

isbriaT  Is^aJ  art} 

'eoinei 

I  IfinoilcVI 


Kl.l'.kllx.l  \LT.DI' 

lianker  and  publicist  ;  born  Summer  I  lill.  New  York, 
February  J4.  1  S<  x / .  <  )btaiqed  a  liberal  education,  studied 
taw,  and  began  practice  in  Buffalo.  Held  several  city  of- 
fices, including  (hat  of  mayor  in  1K47.  Was  elected  to  the 
31  st  Congret  Whig;  treasurer  of  th<  if  \ew 

York.  1X54-55:  elected  to  the  ,?<>tb  Congress  1  [861*63) 
a  L'niuii  candidate  and  re-elc.  ted  to  the  g^h  (<>ngre-- 
l'.xjk  an  active  part  in  tbc  training  of  tbe  Legal  Tender 
Act,  under  which  the  greenbacks  were  issued  during  the 
Civil  War.  Organized  in  [804  the  Fanners'  &  Mechanics. 
National  P.:,nk,.f  IbifTal,, :  died  May  5.   l& 


BANKS  AND  BANKING  253 

Buffalo  the  Marine  National  is  the  oldest,  having  been  or- 
ganized as  a  State  bank  in  1850.  Only  two  of  its  original 
incorporators, — George  Palmer  and  James  M.  Ganson, — 
were  resident  in  Buffalo;  the  remainder  were  men  of  capi- 
tal and  business  weight  from  other  parts  of  the  State. 
George  Palmer,  one  of  the  broadest  and  strongest  of  our 
men  of  business  in  the  past,  was  its  president  for  fourteen 
years.  In  1881,  after  an  interval  in  which  several  changes 
in  the  presidency  occurred,  Mr.  Stephen  M.  Clement,  pre- 
viously cashier  of  the  bank,  since  1869,  was  elected  to  the 
presidency,  and  retained  that  office  till  his  death,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  of  the  same  name.  The  first  loca- 
tion of  the  bank  was  far  down  Main  Street,  immediately 
below  its  crossing  of  the  Canal.  In  1880  it  was  removed 
to  220  Main  Street.  In  1896  the  adjoining  property,  at 
the  southwest  corner  of  Main  and  Seneca  streets,  was  ac- 
quired, and  the  quarters  of  the  bank  enlarged.  Five  years 
later  the  entire  property  was  remodelled,  and,  again,  in 
1907,  an  extensive  reconstruction  occurred,  to  give  the  bank 
the  large  spaces  for  inner  work  and  outer  lobby  which  its 
growing  business  required.  Until  1902  the  Marine  Bank 
was  a  State  institution.  In  that  year,  shortly  before  its 
absorption  of  the  Buffalo  Commercial  Bank,  it  obtained  a 
charter  as  a  National  Bank,  since  which  entry  into  the  na- 
tional system  its  deposits  have  increased  over  $5,000,000. 
In  1906  its  accumulated  surplus,  exceeding  $2,000,000,  was 
partly  capitalized,  by  an  enlargement  of  the  capital  stock 
from  $230,000  to  $1,500,000,  through  the  declaration  of 
a  dividend  from  the  surplus  to  stockholders  of  552  per  cent. 
A  recent  financial  statement  of  the  bank  to  the  Comp- 
troller of  the  Currency  showed  $17,056,495  deposits,  with 
surplus  and  profits  of  $1,182,883. 

The  next  in  age  of  the  existing  banks  of  discount,  as  well 
as  the  next  in  magnitude  of  business,  is  the  Manufacturers' 


254  FINANCIAL  EVOLUTION 

and  Traders'  National,  which  was  organized  under  the 
State  law  in  1856,  and  reorganized  as  a  National  Bank 
within  quite  recent  years.  Its  original  capital  was  $200,- 
000,  which  has  been  increased  successively  to  $500,000,  to 
$900,000,  and,  finally,  to  $1,000,000.  Its  reported  state- 
ment of  condition  in  1907  showed:  deposits,  $12,466,989; 
surplus  and  undivided  profits,  $1,451,313.  The  first  pres- 
ident of  the  bank  was  Henry  Martin;  the  first  vice- 
president  Pascal  P.  Pratt,  and  those  offices  were  unchanged 
for  many  years.  Mr.  Martin  was  succeeded  in  the  presi- 
dency by  Mr.  Pratt,  who  held  the  office  until  1900,  when 
he  retired  from  business,  and  Robert  L.  Fryer  came  into 
his  place.  The  offices  of  the  bank  were  opened  in  1856  at 
No.  2  East  Swan  Street;  removed  the  same  year  to  273 
Main  Street,  and  to  22  West  Seneca  Street  in  1861  ;  whence 
it  went,  in  1880,  to  the  corner  of  West  Seneca  and  Main. 

The  Third  National  Bank  of  Buffalo  was  organized  in 
1865,  under  the  National  Bank  Act  of  the  previous  year, 
am)  designated  soon  afterward  as  a  depository  of  public 
moneys  of  the  United  States.  Its  original  capital  of  $250,- 
000  has  been  increased  since  to  $500,000.  Its  surplus  and 
undivided  profits  stated  in  1907  were  $166,059;  deposits 
$2,676,184.  Mr.  Abel  T.  Blackmar  was  the  president  of 
the  bank  till  1869,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Abraham 
Altman,  who  occupied  the  office  until  1881,  when  Mr. 
Charles  A.  Sweet  was  elected,  and  held  the  presidency  till 
failing  health  compelled  him  to  resign,  in  1902.  Mr. 
Sweet  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Nathaniel  Rochester,  who  had 
been  the  cashier  of  the  bank  for  many  years.  Mr.  Roches- 
ter died  in  1906,  and  Mr.  Loran  L.  Lewis  has  been  presi- 
dent of  the  bank  since  that  time.  The  Third  National  has 
occupied  its  present  place  of  business,  at  the  corner  of  Main 
and  Swan  streets,  since  1867. 

The  existing  Bank  of  Buffalo  had  two  or  more  prede- 


BANKS  AND  BANKING  255 

cessors  of  the  same  name,  but  is  related  to  them  in  no  other 
way.  It  began  business  in  1873,  with  a  capital  of  $300,000, 
which  was  raised  to  $500,000  in  1903.  Its  surplus  and  un- 
divided profits  in  1907  were  $703,934;  its  deposits  $7,159,- 
434.  It  is  said  to  have  paid  dividends  every  year  since 
1874,  and  to  have  paid  in  all,  to  1908,  $1,113,000.  The 
first  president  of  the  bank  was  Sherman  S.  Jewett,  who  was 
succeeded  by  John  N.  Scatcherd  in  1892,  and  the  latter  by 
Elliott  C.  McDougal  in  1896.  The  first  location  of  the 
bank  was  at  236  Main  Street,  occupying  part  of  the  ground 
on  which,  in  1895,  it  erected  the  substantial  building  at 
the  corner  of  Main  and  West  Seneca  streets  in  which  its 
increasing  business  is  now  carried  on. 

In  the  order  of  time,  the  next  of  the  existing  banks  of  dis- 
count  to    appear   was    the    German-American,    organized 
under  the  State  law  in  1882.     Its  original  paid-up  capital 
of  $100,000  was  increased  to  $200,000  in  1889.     It  opened 
business  in  the  basement  of  the  building  which  it  now  owns 
and  occupies,  at  the  corner  of  Main  and  Court  streets,  but 
which  was  then  the  property  and  the  home  of  the  Erie 
County  Savings  Bank.     In    1883   it  took  quarters  at  440 
Main  Street;  doubled  them  in  1888  by  taking  in  the  adjoin- 
ing premises;  and  bought,  in  1893,  tne  building  which  the 
Erie  County  Savings  Bank  had  outgrown.     The  deposits 
held  by  the  German-American  Bank  when  reported  in  1907 
were  $4,083,892;  its  surplus  and  undivided  profits  $203,691. 
The  president  of  the  bank  at  the  beginning  was   Henry 
Hellriegel.     The  office  is  now  held  by  Edwin  G.  S.  Miller. 
In  1889  the  People's  Bank  was  organized,  with  a  capital 
of  $300,000.     Its  president  for  a  number  of  years,  Daniel 
O'Day,  was  much  engaged  in  other  affairs,  and  the  active 
duties  of  the  office  were  performed,  practically,  from  the 
first,  by  the  vice-president,  Arthur  D.  Bissell,  who  succeeded 
to  the  presidency  in  1903.     The  first  location  of  the  bank 


256  FINANCIAL  EVOLUTION 

was  in  the  Coal  and  Iron  Exchange  building,  on  Washing- 
ton Street;  but  the  growth  of  its  business  required  a  change, 
which  was  made  in  1905.  By  an  extensive  remodelling  of 
the  building  on  the  southeastern  corner  of  Main  and 
Seneca  streets  it  secured  admirable  quarters,  at  a  most  de- 
sirable point.  The  surplus  and  undivided  profits  of  the 
bank  at  the  latest  reporting  were  $240,375,  and  it  held 
deposits  to  the  amount  of  $3,781,086. 

The  Citizens'  Bank,  chartered  in  1890,  was  established  in 
an  eastern  quarter  of  the  city,  at  the  corner  of  William  and 
Sherman  streets,  where  its  business  is  still  carried  on.  The 
president  is  Joseph  Block.  The  capital  of  the  bank  is 
$100,000;  its  surplus  at  the  time  of  the  report  for  1907  was 
$265,820;  its  deposits  $1,967,068. 

The  Columbia  National  Hank,  organized  in  1892,  was 
located  on  the  first  floor  of  the  Prudential  Building,  at  the 
corner  of  Pearl  and  Church  streets,  until  1907,  when,  on 
the  opening  of  the  new  Chamber  of  Commerce  Building, 
it  occupied  the  first  floor  there.  The  president  of  the 
Columbia  National  is  George  F.  Rand.  Its  capital  is 
$700,000;  its  surplus,  reported  111  1907,  <  1,006,842;  and  it 
held  deposits  to  the  amount  of  54,897,756. 

The  Market  Bank  was  organized  by  the  stockholders  of 
the  Bank  of  Buffalo  in  1903  for  the  accommodation  of 
uptown  banking  needs.  Its  first  location  was  at  598  and 
600  Main  Street,  a  little  above  Chippewa,  and  it  was  re- 
moved to  the  corner  of  Chippewa  Street  in  1906.  The 
capital  of  the  bank  is  $100,000;  its  latest  report  of  surplus 
$32,346;  its  deposits  $974,595- 

For  the  special  benefit  of  the  live  stock  commission  mer- 
chants, the  butchers,  manufacturers  and  other  business  men 
of  the  East  Buffalo  region,  the  Union  Stock  Yards  Bank 
was  established  in  1904,  having  its  well-appointed  place  of 
business  in  the  Live  Stock  Exchange  building,  at  the  cor- 


BANKS  AND  BANKING  257 

ner  of  William  and  Depot  streets.  The  capital  of  the  bank 
is  $150,000;  its  surplus  in  1907  $38,341 ;  its  deposits  $716,- 
000.  Its  leading  organizers  were  Hiram  Waltz,  the  pres- 
ident, and  Irving  E.  Waters,  the  cashier. 

The  youngest  of  the  banks  in  the  city  is  the  Central 
National,  established  in  1906,  and  located  in  the  offices  that 
were  vacated  when  the  German  Bank  failed,  at  the  corner 
of  Main  Street  and  the  Lafayette  Park.  It  has  a  capital 
of  $200,000,  and  reported  a  surplus  in  1907  of  $55,520,  with 
deposits  to  the  amount  of  $1,236,688. 

The  first  of  the  Trust  Companies  to  be  instituted  in  Buf- 
falo was  the  Buffalo  Loan,  Trust  and  Safe  Deposit  Com- 
pany, chartered  in  1881,  but  opening  active  business  in  Jan- 
uary, 1883.  It  was,  furthermore,  the  first  safe-deposit  insti- 
tution. Its  offices  and  vaults  are  still  where  first  located, 
at  449  Main  Street.  The  original  capital  of  the  company, 
$137,000,  paid  up,  has  been  increased  to  $200,000.  It 
held  deposits,  at  the  time  of  the  latest  statement,  aggre- 
gating $940,589,  and  its  accumulated  surplus  was  $80,460. 
George  Urban  is  the  president  of  the  company. 

In  1892  the  Fidelity  Trust  Company  was  organized, 
under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  George  V.  Forman,  who  has 
been  its  chief  executive  since.  While  performing  the 
functions  of  a  trust  company,  as  executor  and  administra- 
tor of  many  estates,  and  as  receiver  for  the  defunct  Empire 
State  Savings  Bank,  it  has  also  conducted  a  general  bank- 
ing business.  It  is  founded  upon  a  capital  of  $500,000;  had 
accumulated  a  surplus  of  $400,000,  as  appears  in  a  recent 
published  statement,  and  held  deposits  to  the  amount  of 
$6,969,421.  For  more  than  eight  years  past  "the  company 
has  paid  monthly  dividends  of  1  per  cent,  on  its  capital 
stock."  Until  1903  the  company  occupied  the  front  room 
on  the  ground  floor  of  the  Erie  County  Savings  Bank  build- 
ing.    It  then  took  possession  of  the  massive  building  it  had 


258  FINANCIAL  EVOLUTION 

erected  for  itself  on  the  northwestern  corner  of  Main  Street 
and  Swan. 

The  latest  in  birth  of  the  financial  institutions  which 
combine  the  trust  function  with  banking  is  the  Common- 
wealth Trust  Company,  formed  in  1903.  It  occupies  the 
room  in  the  Erie  County  Savings  Bank  building  that  was 
vacated  by  the  Fidelity  Trust  Company  that  year.  .Mr.  E. 
O.  McNair  has  been  the  president  of  the  company  from 
the  beginning.  Its  capital  is  $500,000;  its  accumulated 
surplus  $317,732;  ami  it  held  deposits  to  the  amount  of 
$5,644,939  when  reporting  them  in  1907.  The  stock  of  the 
company  is  said  to  have  reached  a  dividend-paying  basis 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year. 

Of  institutions  for  savings,  the  Buffalo  Savings  Hank, 
founded  in  1846,  was  the  earliest  to  be  formed.  Among  its 
incorporators  were  such  notable  citizens  of  that  period  as 
Millard  Fillmore  and  Albert  H.  Tracy.  It  opened  busi- 
ness in  the  old  Spaulding's  Exchange,  on  Main  Street  im- 
mediately below  the  Terrace,  but  was  soon  removed  else- 
where, going  through  two  changes  of  location  in  its  first 
year.  Then,  till  1852,  it  was  quartered  at  the  corner  of 
Main  and  Erie  streets;  whence  it  was  removed  to  the  old 
Bank  of  Buffalo  building,  on  Main  Street,  south  of  Court. 
In  1867  it  took  possession  of  the  building  it  had  erected  for 
itself  at  the  corner  of  Washington  Street  and  Batavia  (now 
Broadway).  Toward  the  close  of  the  century,  having 
outgrown  the  accommodations  available  there,  it  built 
again,  on  a  greater  scale  and  in  a  nobler  style,  on  the  con- 
spicuous corner  of  Main,  Huron  and  Genesee  streets,  and 
entered  this  fine  new  home  in  March,  1901.  Among  its 
presidents  in  the  past  were  Warren  Bryant  and  Edward 
Bennett.  In  recent  years  the  office  has  been  held  by 
Spencer  Clinton.  John  U.  Wayland,  its  long  time  secre- 
tarv,  resigned  not  many  years  ago,  becoming  a  resident  of 


BANKS  AND  BANKING  259 

California,  and  was  succeeded  by  Edward  G.  Becker.  The 
assets  of  the  bank,  reported  on  the  1st  of  January,  1908, 
were  $28,069,784;  due  depositors,  $26,280,619;  surplus, 
$1,789,614.     Number  of  open  accounts,  49,012. 

The  Western  Savings  Bank  is  but  five  years  younger  than 
the  Buffalo,  having  been  organized  in  1851.  Gaius  B. 
Rich  was  its  first  president,  with  Dean  Richmond  for  vice- 
president.  It  began  business  on  Seneca  Street,  near  Main; 
was  removed  to  the  corner  of  Main  and  Genesee  streets  in 
1855;  was  again  removed  to  Main  and  Mohawk  streets  in 
1859;  and  then,  after  a  few  years,  built  for  itself,  where  its 
business  has  been  conducted  since  1872,  on  the  northern 
corner  of  Main  Street  and  Court.  Its  president  for  many 
years  past  has  been  Albert  J.  Wheeler.  Its  assets  on  the 
1st  of  January,  1908,  were  $7,778,224;  amount  due  deposi- 
tors, $7,151,933;  surplus,  $626,291. 

Three  years  later  than  the  Western,  in  1854,  the  Erie 
County  Savings  Bank  was  established.  Until  1908  it 
had  had  but  four  presidents,  William  A.  Bird,  James  C. 
Harrison,  Gibson  T.  Williams  and  David  R.  Morse.  On 
Mr.  Morse's  death,  early  in  1908,  Mr.  Robert  S.  Donaldson, 
secretary  and  treasurer  for  many  years,  became  president. 
The  successive  locations  of  the  bank  have  been  at  the  south- 
east corner  of  Main  and  North  Division  streets,  at  the 
corner  of  Main  and  Erie,  at  the  southern  corner  of  Main 
and  Court,  in  the  brownstone  building  which  it  erected, 
and  which  is  now  owned  and  occupied  by  the  German- 
American  Bank,  and,  finally,  in  its  present  imposing  edifice, 
on  the  site  of  the  old  First  Presbyterian  Church,  bounded 
by  Main,  Niagara,  Pearl  and  Church  streets.  The  deposits 
of  the  Erie  County  bank  have  grown  to  the  enormous  sum 
of  $40,416,536;  its  assets,  reported  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1908,  were  $43,235,168;  its  surplus,  $2,818,630;  number  of 
open  accounts,  79,583. 


260  FINANCIAL  EVOLUTION 

On  the  ist  of  January,  1910,  the  total  deposits  in  the 
banking  institutions  of  Buffalo  were  $173,872,560.98;  of 
which  $80,842,858.96  were  savings  bank  deposits.  The 
total  clearings  of  the  clearing  house  banks  at  the  close  of 
that  year  were  reported  to  have  been  $502,826,696. 


INDUSTRIAL    EVOLUTION 


CHAPTER     I 
TANNING  AND  THE  LEATHER  TRADE 

TANNING  was  the  first  productive  industry  in  Buf- 
falo that  connected  itself  importantly  with  more 
than  a  local  trade,  and  for  many  years  it  was  the 
principal  source  of  wealth  that  the  town  created  within 
itself.  A  quite  notable  proportion  of  the  older  family  for- 
tunes were  derived  from  its  vats.  The  business  arose  nat- 
urally here  from  the  abundance  of  hemlock  in  the  forests 
of  the  neighboring  country,  supplying  the  needed  tan-bark. 
It  flourished  till  the  neighboring  supply  was  exhausted, 
and  then  most  of  it  passed  elsewhere.  It  had  great  stimu- 
lation in  the  period  of  the  Civil  War,  and  for  some  years 
after,  before  the  advantages  which  Buffalo  had  enjoyed  in 
it  began  seriously  to  decline. 

It  is  possible  to  trace  back  the  early  tanning  business  of 
Buffalo,  if  not  to  its  actual  beginnings,  at  least  to  the  begin- 
ning of  importance  in  it  as  a  growing  commercial  plant. 
The  first  directory  of  the  village  of  Buffalo,  published  in 
1828,  "containing  names  and  residences  of  the  heads  of 
families  and  householders  on  the  1st  of  January"  in  that 
year,  names  one  firm  and  eight  individuals  who  are  desig- 
nated as  "tanners  and  curriers."  The  firm,  Bush  and 
Chamberlain,  was  presumably  the  proprietor  of  a  tannery, 
in  which  some  of  the  eight  other  tanners  and  curriers  must 
have  been  employed.  One  of  the  latter,  Noah  H.  Gardner, 
who  appears  soon  afterward  as  a  member  of  the  firm  which 
took  the  leading  rank  in  the  business,  may  have  entered  it 
independently  already,  but  the  fact  is  not  known.     N.  Ran- 

261 


262  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

dall,  who  is  described  in  the  directory  as  a  shoe  dealer  and 
tanner,  is  quite  likely  to  have  tanned  the  leather  of  the  shoes 
in  which  he  dealt.  The  remaining  six  names  provoke  no 
surmise. 

The  first  really  historical  record  of  early  undertakings 
in  the  manufacture  of  leather  at  Buffalo  is  found  in  a  bio- 
graphical memoir  of  that  notable  leader  of  local  enterprise 
in  his  day,  George  Palmer,  who  died  in  September,  1864. 
The  memoir  was  prepared  by  the  Hon.  George  R.  Bab- 
cock,  and  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Soci- 
ety in  the  year  following  Mr.  Palmer's  death.  We  learn 
from  it  that  Mr.  Palmer,  who  came  to  Buffalo  in  1828,  had 
learned  the  tanner's  trade,  and  had  been  in  partnership  with 
a  tanner  at  Palmyra  for  a  number  of  years.  He  came  here 
with  some  capital,  not  to  exceed  fifteen  thousand  dollars, 
says  Mr.  Babcock;  but  that  was  a  large  capital  in  those 
days.  What  he  did  at  the  outset  is  told  thus  by  his 
biographer: 

"The  Buffalo  Hydraulic  Association  had  completed  a 
dam,  at  the  junction  of  the  Seneca  and  Cayuga  branches  of 
the  Big  Buffalo  Creek,  and  a  small  canal,  with  a  view  to 
creating  a  water  power,  near  the  intersection  of  Swan  and 
Seneca  streets,  then  called  Clintonville.  Of  this  company 
he  purchased  a  lot  of  land  and  water  power,  sufficient  for  a 
bark-mill,  on  the  north  side  of  Seneca  Street,  adjoining  the 
Indian  Reservation,  upon  which  he  erected  the  tannery  now 
[in  1865]  occupied  by  Noah  H.  Gardner.  The  ground 
was  a  swamp,  and  covered  with  trees.  The  road  (now 
Seneca  Street)  was  a  'corduroy',  cut  through  the  forest,  and 
for  half  the  year  almost  impassable.  So  soon  as  his  works 
were  completed  he  commenced  the  manufacture  of  leather 
upon  what  was  then  considered  a  large  scale,  having  his 
store  for  sales  upon  Main  Street,"  a  little  north  of  Seneca. 

Further  on   in   his  sketch   of   biography   Mr.    Babcock 


TANNING  AND  THE  LEATHER  TRADE  263 

relates  that  Mr.  Palmer,  in  1830,  "formed  a  partnership  in 
his  tanning  business  with  his  brother-in-law,  Noah  H. 
Gardner,  and  subsequently,  in  1835,  another  in  the  purchase 
and  sale  of  hides  and  leather,  with  Jabez  B.  Bull.  These 
partnerships  continued  until  Mr.  Palmer's  death."  He 
had  made  considerable  purchases  of  lands  in  the  city,  and 
"he  engaged  largely  in  building  upon  his  vacant  lots." 
"The  large  stone  tannery,  now  [1865]  and  for  many  years 
past  occupied  by  Rumsey  &  Sons,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Main  and  Hamburg  streets  Canal,  near  Alabama  Street, 
was  erected  by  him.  This  was  the  most  complete  and  ex- 
tensive establishment  of  the  kind  in  Western  New  York. 
The  walls  were  erected  in  1844,  and  on  the  1 8th  of  Octo- 
ber of  that  year  the  city  was  visited  by  the  most  disastrous 
gale  known  in  our  annals.  The  water  of  the  lake  rose  to 
a  great  height,  overflowing  all  the  low  grounds  of  the  city, 
and  causing  great  destruction  of  life  and  property.  The 
walls  of  this  building  were  undermined  and  prostrated,  ren- 
dering it  necessary  to  rebuild  them,  which  was  done,  and 
the  entire  manufactory  completed  and  occupied  in  Novem- 
ber,  1845." 

After  the  directory  of  1828,  none  appears  to  have  been 
published  until  1832.  Those  which  go  on  from  that  time 
supply  the  only  further  record  of  early  leather-making  and 
dealing  to  be  found.  In  1832  the  firm  of  Bush  and  Cham- 
berlain is  still  in  business,  and  announced  as  conducting  a 
shoe  and  leather  store  at  193  Main  Street.  That  the  senior 
of  this  firm  was  the  John  Bush  who  appears  in  1835  as  the 
proprietor  of  a  "morocco  factory,"  on  Crow  Street,  seems 
probable,  from  the  fact  that,  in  that  same  year  (1835) 
Aaron  Rumsey  comes  into  the  directory  as  a  "leather  manu- 
facturer" doing  business  at  193  Main  Street, — the  place 
which  Bush  &  Chamberlain  had  occupied.  The  fair  infer- 
ence is  that  the  Bush  &  Chamberlain  business  had  passed 


264  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

to  Aaron  Rumsey,  and  that  John  Bush  the  morocco  manu- 
facturer came  out  of  the  dissolved  firm. 

The  directory  of  the  same  year,  1835,  introduces  for  the 
first  time  the  name  of  George  Howard,  and  describes  him 
as  a  tanner,  in  Rumsey's  employ.  He  is  thus  represented 
during  1836  and  '37;  but  in  1838  the  firm  of  Rumsey  & 
Howard  appears,  and  the  junior  partner  is  George  Howard. 
This  arrangement  of  business  continues  for  six  years. 
Meantime  Myron  P.  Bush,  son  of  John  Bush,  has  come  into 
the  record,  first  as  a  "morocco  dresser"— in  his  father's 
factory,  no  doubt — from  1838  till  1842,  and  then  as  the  pro- 
prietor oi  a  "leather  shop."  Two  years  later,  in  1844,  the 
Rumsey  &  Howard  firm  disappears  from  the  directory  and 
that  of  Bush  &  Howard  arrives,  to  have  prominence  in  the 
business  for  the  next  thirty  or  forty  years.  Aaron  Rumsey 
continues  in  the  business  with  no  partner  until  his  sons  join 
him  in  the  firm  of  A.  Rumsey  &  Co. 

Jabez  B.  Bull,  presented  first  in  the  directory  of  1835  as 
a  clerk,  is  named  next  year  as  the  partner  of  George  Palmer, 
in  the  mercantile  side  of  the  latter's  business,  and  remains 
so  till  1842,  when  the  firm  of  J.  B.  Bull  &  Co.  is  announced. 
Of  other  names  that  acquired  a  well-remembered  promi- 
nence in  the  leather  manufacture  and  trade  of  later  times, 
the  next  to  appear  in  the  directory  is  that  of  John  M. 
Hutchinson,  who  came  on  the  scene  of  business  in  1840,  as 
a  member  of  the  firm  of  Terry  &  Hutchinson,  continuing 
in  that  partnership  till  1844,  when  his  name  stood  alone. 
The  tannery  of  Mr.  Hutchinson  was  at  Williamsville. 

The  name  of  Nehemiah  Case  came  into  the  directory  in 
1844,  as  that  of  a  clerk;  but  in  1847  he  had  entered  business 
for  himself  in  the  leather  trade,  and  the  firm  of  X.  Case  & 
Co.  was  formed. 

Another  name  which  made  its  first  appearance  in  the 
directory  of  1844  is  the  only  one  that  remained  continuously 


JACOB  F. 

niller;  born  Kirchheim  u.   Teck,    Wurtem- 

ii  in  Germany. 

president  Third  National  Hank;  president  Niag- 

[ydraulic  Power  Manufactt  npany  and 

lo  and 

Power  City  Bank  of  Niagara  Falls.     Was  trustee  of  Buf- 

Hospital;    member     !  il     Society    of 

Buffalo   and    G  n;    died   at 


und  the 

:es 


TANNING  AND  THE  LEATHER  TRADE  265 

important  in  the  business  of  tanning,  down  to  the  present 
day.  It  is  that  of  Jacob  F.  Schoellkopf,  who  opened  then 
a  "leather  and  finding  store,"  and  established  a  sheep-skin 
tannery  not  many  years  later.  From  that  time  till  his  death 
the  main  interest  of  Mr.  Schoellkopf,  among  the  many  he 
acquired,  was  in  his  tanneries,  which  his  sons  are  still  carry- 
ing on.  It  had  been  the  business  of  his  father,  in  Germany, 
and  he  learned  it  before  coming  to  America.  The  sur- 
viving manufacture  of  both  sole  leather  and  sheepskins  in 
Buffalo,  on  an  extensive  scale,  is  that  which  he  left,  in  the 
large  sole  leather  tannery  of  J.  F.  Schoellkopf's  Sons,  at  the 
corner  of  Hudson  and  Efner  streets,  and  in  the  immense 
sheep-leather  and  pulling-wool  manufactory  of  Schoellkopf 
&  Co.,  on  Perry,  Mississippi  and  Liberty  streets.  The 
output  of  the  latter,  which  was  founded  in  1862,  is  now  over 
12,000  skins  per  day,  besides  a  heavy  output  of  pulled  wool. 
It  produces  every  variety  of  leather  manufactured  from  a 
sheepskin;  employs  750  men;  maintains  branches  in  nine 
of  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States,  and  three  purchas- 
ing agencies,  in  South  America,  England  and  France. 

Of  firms  and  individuals  that  engaged  in  the  leather 
manufacture  and  trade  somewhat  later  than  these  hitherto 
named,  the  more  important,  perhaps,  were  Root  &  Keating, 
Curtis  &  Deming,  Laub  &  Zeller,  and  George  L.  Williams. 

The  early  tanneries  of  the  Buffalo  manufacturers  were 
generally  within  the  city.  As  near-by  hemlock  forests 
were  destroyed,  and  the  supply  of  bark  receded  to  farther 
and  farther  distances,  the  tanneries  followed  it,  southward, 
for  the  most  part,  to  Salamanca,  Olean,  and  other  points. 
At  the  same  time  competition  from  many  quarters  in- 
creased, and  the  business  had  discouragements  which 
caused  its  decline.  Yet  the  Schoellkopfs  continue  to  show 
that  it  is  a  profitable  industry  in  Buffalo  still. 


CHAPTER     II 

THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  FLOUR 

MR.  PILLSBURY,  of  Minneapolis,  the  magnate  of 
flour  manufacture,  is  said  to  have  predicted  in 
1888  that  Buffalo  would  become  the  great  milling 
center  of  the  country.  That  the  prediction  was  well 
grounded,  and  that  the  grounds  are  as  substantial  to-day  as 
they  were  twenty  years  ago,  is  the  judgment  of  men  long 
experienced  in  the  local  manufacture  and  trade.  Taking 
account  of  facilities  and  economies  from  beginning  to  end 
of  the  business, —  in  the  assembling  of  wheat  from  the 
Northwrest,  in  the  milling  of  it  and  in  the  delivery  of  the 
product  to  the  markets  of  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  they 
maintain  that  the  advantages  offered  here  are  beyond  those 
of  any  other  point.  The  past  twenty  years  have  carried 
Buffalo  well  on  the  way  to  a  full  realization  of  what  Mr. 
Pillsbury  foresaw. 

While  Black  Rock  and  Buffalo  were  distinct  villages,  the 
milling  industry  was  drawn  to  the  former,  by  force  of  the 
water  power  which  the  building  of  the  Erie  Canal  created. 
Along  a  considerable  stretch  of  the  canal  it  served  as  a  mill- 
race,  drawing  water  from  the  high  level  of  the  Niagara 
River  at  its  head,  and  holding  it  at  that  level,  while  the 
closely  contiguous  river  slips  rapidly  down.  In  1826,  the 
year  following  the  completion  of  the  canal,  Messrs.  King- 
man &  Durphy  led  off  in  the  utilization  of  this  water 
power,  engaging  Stephen  W.  Howell,  a  professional  mill- 
wright, to  erect  for  them  the  first  mill  of  considerable  capa- 
city in  this  part  of  the  State.  This  Erie  Mill,  as  then 
named,  was  known  in  later  years  as  the  Marine.  Soon 
after  its  completion  Mr.  Howell  built  the  Niagara  Mill,  at 
Black  Rock,  for  himself,  and  a  third  mill  not  long  after, 
called  the  Globe. 

266 


EARLY  FLOUR  MILLS  267 

The  Globe  Mill  was  bought  in  1845  by  Thomas  Thorn- 
ton and  Thomas  Chester,  establishing  the  firm  of  Thornton 
&  Chester,  which  has  been  prominent  in  the  milling  busi- 
ness ever  since.  They  operated  the  Globe  Mill  till  it  was 
burned,  in  December,  1878,  beginning  with  a  production 
of  50  barrels  per  day  and  increasing  it  by  improvements 
from  time  to  time.  Within  the  same  period,  from  1866  to 
1875,  triey  were  connected  with  Mr.  J.  F.  Schoellkopf  in 
the  operating  of  the  Frontier  and  North  Buffalo  Mills  at 
Black  Rock,  the  joint  productive  capacity  being  600  barrels 
per  day.  In  1868  the  firm  enlarged  its  operations  by  build- 
ing the  National  Mill,  at  the  foot  of  Erie  Street,  in  Buffalo, 
starting  it  with  a  capacity  for  the  production  of  250  barrels 
per  day.  This  location  of  the  mill  involved,  of  course,  the 
use  of  steam  power,  the  first  resort  to  which  in  the  flour 
manufacture  of  this  city  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  Oliver 
Bugbee  ten  years  before. 

In  1872  the  Spaulding  Mill  at  Lockport,  having  a  daily 
capacity  of  350  barrels,  was  added  to  the  business  plant  of 
Messrs.  Thornton  &  Chester,  who  worked  it  for  the  next  ten 
years.  In  1880,  after  the  burning  of  their  Globe  Mill,  at 
Black  Rock,  they  rebuilt  it  alongside  of  their  National 
Mill,  on  Erie  Street.  This  added  250  barrels  daily  to  the 
producing  capacity  of  their  plants,  making  a  total,  at  Buf- 
falo and  Lockport,  of  850  barrels.  The  Lockport  mill  was 
burned  in  1882,  and  not  rebuilt;  but  the  capacity  of  the 
mills  at  the  foot  of  Erie  Street  has  been  increased  gradually 
since  that  time,  and  their  maximum  daily  output  is  now 
1,200  barrels.  In  1899  tne  old  partnership  was  incorpo- 
rated, under  the  name  of  the  Thornton  &  Chester  Milling 
Company. 

In  1875  the  firm  of  Schoellkopf  &  Mathews,  composed  of 
Jacob  F.  Schoellkopf  and  George  B.  Mathews,  entered  the 
business,  by  purchasing  the  Buffalo  and  the  Frontier  Mills, 


268  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

at  Black  Rock.  A  much  larger  interest  in  flour  milling 
was  opened  to  this  firm  a  little  later,  resulting  incidentally 
from  the  first  endeavor  that  was  made  to  exploit  the  water 
power  of  Niagara  Falls  in  an  extensive  and  distributive 
way.  That  undertaking  had  been  conceived  as  early  as 
1846,  when  surveys  were  made  and  plans  drawn  for  the 
excavation  of  a  canal  through  lands  purchased  on  the  Amer- 
ican border  of  the  Niagara,  from  a  point  a  mile  above  the 
Falls  to  a  point  a  mile  below.  The  excavating  of  the  canal 
was  not  begun,  however,  until  1853.  As  then  made  it  was 
thirty-five  feet  wide  and  about  six  feet  deep.  The  water 
power  obtainable  by  this  delivery  of  a  considerable  stream 
from  above  the  Falls  to  a  stretch  of  the  river  cliffs  below 
them  does  not  appear  to  have  become  useful  until  1872, 
when  it  was  applied  to  a  flouring  mill,  built  then  on  the 
canal,  with  a  capacity  for  the  production  of  forty  barrels 
per  day. 

Thus  far,  the  Day  Hydraulic  Canal,  as  it  had  been 
known,  was  not  successful  financially,  and  in  1878  it  was 
bought  by  Mr.  Schoellkopf  at  a  public  sale.  He  conveyed 
the  property  to  the  Niagara  Falls  Hydraulic  Power  and 
Manufacturing  Company,  incorporated  under  the  laws  of 
the  State,  in  the  possession  of  which  company  it  has  re- 
mained. In  that  same  year  the  firm  of  Schoellkopf  & 
Mathews  built  its  first  flouring  mill  on  the  canal.  In  1883 
this  mill  became  the  property  of  the  Central  Milling  Com- 
pany, organized  for  the  purpose,  with  Mr.  Mathews  as  its 
president,  and  the  company  proceeded  to  erect  a  second 
large  mill  at  Niagara  Falls.  In  1900  the  company  was 
reorganized  and  renamed,  and,  as  the  Niagara  Falls  Mill- 
ing Company,  now  operates  these  mills.  Together  they 
have  the  capacity  to  produce  about  3,000  barrels  of  flour 
per  day. 

Of   the   two   original   mills   of    Messrs.    Schoellkopf   & 


LATER  FLOUR  MILLING  269 

Mathews,  at  Black  Rock,  one,  the  Frontier,  was  operated 
by  them  till  it  burned,  a  number  of  years  ago,  the  other,  the 
North  Buffalo  Mill,  was  leased.  It  has  since  been  burned. 
There  are  no  mills  now  in  operation  at  Black  Rock. 

The  mill  mentioned  above,  as  having  been  built  in  1872 
on  the  Day  Hydraulic  Canal,  at  Niagara  Falls,  being  the 
first  to  utilize  the  water-power  from  that  canal,  is  now  the 
property  of  the  Cataract  City  Milling  Company,  of  which 
Captain  J.  T.  Jones,  of  Buffalo,  is  the  president,  and  Mr. 
George  J.  Colpoys  the  general  manager.  The  mill  was 
built  by  Colonel  Charles  B.  Gaskill,  with  an  original  capa- 
city for  the  daily  production  of  about  40  barrels.  By  suc- 
cessive remodellings,  in  1903  and  1906,  the  capacity  was 
raised  first  to  600  barrels  daily,  and  is  now  about  1,000. 

In  1879  the  firm  of  Esser,  Ogden  &  Co.,  composed  of 
John  Esser,  Frederick  Ogden  and  H.  C.  Zimmerman, 
began  operating  the  Banner  Mill,  at  Black  Rock.  Three 
years  later  the  manufacture  was  transferred  to  a  plant  estab- 
lished at  378  Ohio  Street.  Mr.  H.  F.  Shuttleworth  was 
then  admitted  to  the  firm,  and  the  partnership  name  was 
changed  to  Banner  Milling  Co.  In  1887  Mr.  Zimmerman 
retired.  The  productive  capacity  of  the  Banner  Milling 
Co.  has  been  raised  from  250  to  800  barrels. 

In  1881  Mr.  George  Urban,  who  had  been  an  extensive 
dealer  in  flour  since  1846,  erected  a  mill  at  the  corner  of 
Genesee  and  Oak  streets,  which  could  then  produce  300 
barrels  of  flour  a  day.  This  was  operated  by  Mr.  Urban 
and  his  son,  George  Urban,  Jr.,  who  succeeded  him,  until 
1899,  when  it  was  taken  up  by  the  combination  known  as 
the  United  States  Flour  Milling  Company.  In  1901  it 
passed  to  the  ownership  of  the  Standard  Milling  Company, 
by  which  it  is  operated  at  the  present  time.  The  daily  pro- 
ducing capacity  of  the  mill  is  now  1,000  barrels. 


270  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

After  disposing  of  his  original  mill,  Mr.  George  Urban, 
Jr.,  proceeded  at  once  to  build  anew,  at  the  corner  of  Urban 
Street  and  the  New  York  Central  Belt  Line  tracks.  The 
new  mill,  which  represents  everything  that  is  most  im- 
proved in  the  mechanism  of  flour  manufacture,  was  started 
in  1903.  Its  producing  capacity  is  1,300  barrels  per  day. 
It  is  operated  by  the  George  Urban  Milling  Company,  of 
which  George  Urban,  Jr.,  is  president,  and  George  P. 
Urban  is  the  secretary  and  treasurer. 

The  latest  and  largest  of  the  flouring  mills  in  Buffalo 
is  owned  and  operated  by  the  Washburn-Crosby  Company, 
of  Minneapolis.  It  is  one  of  the  many  extensive  plants  of 
that  company,  established  at  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  Great 
Falls  and  Kalispel,  Mont.,  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  Buffalo. 
The  founder  of  the  great  industry  which  has  grown  and 
branched  to  such  dimensions  was  the  late  Governor  Cad- 
wallader  C.  Washburn,  of  Wisconsin, — one  of  the  famous 
Washburn  brothers,  of  Maine,  who  wrote  their  names  so 
large  in  different  chapters  of  American  history. 

Governor  Washburn  built  his  first  mill  at  Minneapolis 
in  1866,  choosing  the  location  because  of  the  water-power, 
and  because  of  its  relation  to  the  spring  wheat  fields  that 
were  being  developed  at  that  time  in  the  Northwest.  He 
is  regarded  as  the  pioneer  in  the  milling  of  the  wheat  grown 
in  that  section,  known  as  spring  wheat,  which  was  not  used 
successfully  for  making  desirable  grades  of  flour  till  the 
invention  of  the  purifier,  in  1871.  This  removed  the  dark 
color  which  had  discredited  spring  wheat  flour,  and  brought 
it  so  much  into  favor  that,  ultimately,  it  was  priced  above 
the  flour  from  winter  wheat,  producing  a  superior  quality 
of  bread. 

The  first  Washburn  mills  had  capacity  for  producing 
but  a  few  hundred  barrels  per  day,  and  the  growth  of  the 
industry  was  not  great  until  the  introduction  by  Governor 


CEREAL  PRODUCTS  OF  BUFFALO  27 1 

Washburn,  in  1878,  of  the  first  complete  roller  mill. 
Flour  milling  in  this  country  was  revolutionized  then,  by 
the  change  from  grinding  between  stones  to  the  Hungarian 
process,  so  called,  of  crushing  between  steel  rolls. 

When  Governor  Washburn  died,  in  1882,  the  mills  at 
Minneapolis  had  grown  to  a  daily  producing  capacity  of 
about  7,000  barrels.  Now  their  capacity  is  30,000.  The 
first  of  the  Buffalo  mills,  started  in  operation  at  the  begin- 
ning of  1904,  and  located  on  South  Michigan  and  Ganson 
streets,  could  produce  no  less  than  6,500  barrels  daily,  and 
was  operated  to  its  full  capacity;  but  it  did  not  satisfy  the 
needs  of  the  company's  business,  and  the  building  of  a 
second  mill  on  contiguous  ground  was  undertaken  in  1908. 
The  new  mill  doubles  the  capacity  of  the  plant,  bringing  it 
up  to  about  13,000  barrels  per  day.  It  is  of  steel  and  brick 
construction,  costing  half  a  million  dollars.  Connected 
with  it,  a  concrete  storage  elevator  has  been  built,  costing 
$200,000,  and  equal  to  the  storage  of  850,000  bushels. 

The  total  production  of  flour  by  mills  in  Buffalo  and 
vicinity  during  1907  was  3,107,529  barrels,  of  which  2,625,- 
682  barrels  were  the  product  of  the  city  mills. 

Analogous  to  the  Hour-milling  interest  is  that  of  the  man- 
ufacture of  various  cereal  breakfast  foods,  etc.,  of  which  the 
production  in  Buffalo  is  quite  extensive.  The  H.  O.  Com- 
pany, organized  by  Alexander  Hornby  in  1893,  removed 
its  New  York  mill  to  this  city  soon  after,  and,  while  it  has 
other  mills  elsewhere,  this  has  been  its  main  plant,  and  the 
headquarters  of  its  business  are  here,  at  54  Fulton  Street. 
The  president  of  the  company  is  Mr.  Robert  L.  Fryer. 
The  Quaker  Oats  Company  has  a  manufacturing  plant, 
operated  by  electric  power,  located  on  Elk  Street  and  the 
Abbott  Road.  The  Buffalo  Cereal  Company  and  the 
United  Cereal  Mills,  Ltd.,  have  their  business  headquarters 
in  the  Dun  Building  and  at  781  William  Street,  respectively. 


CHAPTER    III 
PRODUCTION  OF  IRON  AND  STEEL 

A  FEW  men  in  Buffalo  had  early  discernment  of  the 
fact  that  the  position  of  their  city  is  peculiarly  ad- 
vantageous for  the  manufacture  of  iron.  Ores 
from  Northern  Michigan,  coals  and  cokes  from  Pennsyl- 
vania and  limestone  from  our  own  vicinity,  can  be  brought 
together  at  the  least  possible  cost,  while  facilities  for  the 
distribution  of  the  product  east  and  west  are  unsurpassed. 
One  citizen  who  saw  this  very  clearly  half  a  century  ago 
was  Mr.  John  YVilkeson;  another  was  Mr.  Bradford  A. 
Manchester;  and  both  of  those  gentlemen  urged  attention 
to  the  subject  for  a  number  of  years  before  anything  was 
undertaken  in  the  line  proposed.  In  January,  1864,  Mr. 
Wilkeson  prepared  a  paper  for  the  Buffalo  Historical 
Society  on  "The  Manufacture  of  Iron  in  Buffalo,"  discuss- 
ing the  favorable  conditions  under  which  it  is  carried  on  at 
this  point,  with  a  preluding  sketch  of  the  small  progress  of 
the  industry  to  that  time. 

From  Mr.  YVilkeson's  record  we  learn  that  the  black- 
smith was  the  only  iron-worker  of  the  village  until  1826, 
when  a  foundry  for  making  plow-irons  and  other  small  cast- 
ings was  erected  by  Edward  Root.  A  second  foundry  of 
the  same  character  was  started  soon  after  by  Isaac  Skinner; 
while  a  larger  establishment,  both  foundry  and  machine- 
shop,  turning  out  large  steam  engines,  was  brought  into 
operation  at  about  the  same  time  by  Messrs.  Gibson,  John- 
son and  Ehle,  at  Black  Rock.  The  first  machine-shop  and 
foundry  in  what  was  then  Buffalo  came  in  1828,  erected  at 
the  corner  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  streets  by  Beals,  Mayhew  & 
Co.  Between  that  time  and  the  year  of  Mr.  Wilkeson's 
writing  the  number  of  foundries  and  machine-shops  had  in- 

272 


EARLIEST  IRON  PRODUCTION  273 

creased  to  about  twenty;  and,  said  Mr.  W.,  "for  more  than 
twenty  years  our  founders  and  machinists  have  been  able  to 
construct  engines  of  any  size  required  for  our  lake 
navigation." 

In  1838  Mr.  Justin  built  a  forge  at  Black  Rock  Dam.  In 
1850  Mr.  Charles  Delaney  built  the  Niagara  Forge.  The 
first  rolling  mill  erected  here  was  established  in  1846  by 
Corns  &  Co.,  "an  association  of  operatives  from  Pittsburg," 
and  known  as  the  Buffalo  Iron  and  Nail  Works.  This 
passed  a  little  later  into  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Pratt  &  Co., 
the  extensive  iron  and  hardware  merchants  of  the  city,  and 
was  enlarged  and  improved. 

It  was  not  until  i860  that  the  production  of  iron  from  the 
ore  was  undertaken  at  Buffalo,  and  then  in  connection  with 
circumstances  which  Mr.  Wilkeson  relates  as  follows: 
"During  the  winter  of  1859-60  our  citizens  became  very 
much  interested  on  the  subject  of  the  promotion  and  exten- 
sion of  manufactures.  The  depressed  condition  of  our  lake 
commerce  and  navigation  interests,  for  some  years,  had  con- 
vinced all  that  our  city  could  never  maintain  its  standing 
with  other  cities  in  the  basin  of  the  lakes,  and  hope  for  a 
continued  increase  of  population,  without  providing  some 
certain  means  of  employment  during  the  winter  as  well  as 
the  summer  for  our  working  people.  The  discovery  of  nu- 
merous inexhaustible  deposits  of  iron  ores  in  Northern 
Michigan,  and  their  successful  use  in  the  blast  furnaces  of 
Eastern  Ohio,  and  the  opening  of  canal  and  railroad  com- 
munication with  the  anthracite  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania, 
led  some  of  our  citizens,  who  were  familiar  with  iron  smelt- 
ing, to  the  conclusion  that  no  place  in  all  the  lake  basin  was 
so  favorably  situated  for  the  prosecution  of  that  great  branch 
of  human  industry  as  our  city.  *  *  *  Several  meetings 
were  held,  where  the  subject  of  manufacturing  was  dis- 
cussed, and  much  light  thrown  on  iron  smelting.     The  result 


274  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

was  a  determination  on  the  part  of  several  gentlemen  to 
build  a  furnace.  In  the  meantime  Messrs.  Palmer  and 
Wadsworth  concluded  to  build  one,  and,  shortly  after, 
Messrs.  Warren  and  Thompson  decided  to  build  another; 
and  thus  the  original  project  fell  through,  as  it  was  thought 
sufficient  that  these  gentlemen  should  test  the  feasibility  of 
iron-smelting  here.  In  the  spring  of  i860  the  gentlemen 
named  proceeded  with  the  construction  of  their  two  blast 
furnaces,  and  the  next  year  Messrs.  Palmer  and  Wadsworth 
put  theirs  in  operation.  Its  success  was  so  flattering  as  to 
convince  all  that  iron-smelting  in  Buffalo  would  be  profit- 
able. In  1862  the  two  establishments  were  consolidated  in 
interest,  another  furnace  built,  and  also  a  very  large  and 
complete  rolling  mill.  These  works,  termed  the  Union 
Iron  Works,  are  exceeded  in  capacity  by  few  similar  ones 
in  the  United  States." 

A  fourth  blast  furnace,  erected  by  Messrs.  Pratt  and  Co., 
went  into  operation  at  Black  Rock  in  1864. 

Notwithstanding  the  early  success  and  encouraging  pros- 
pects of  the  Union  Works,  the  affairs  of  the  company  be- 
came embarrassed,  about  1870  or  1871,  and  the  works  went 
into  the  hands  of  a  receiver.  This  resulted  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  new  Union  Iron  Company,  which  acquired  the 
property.  The  president  of  the  new  organization  was  Mr. 
Ario  Pardee;  the  vice-president,  Mr.  Guilford  R.  Wilson; 
the  secretary  and  treasurer,  Mr.  George  Beals.  In  1873  the 
office  of  secretary  was  separated  from  that  of  treasurer,  and 
taken  by  Mr.  T.  Guilford  Smith.  Mr.  Smith  had  then 
come  lately  to  Buffalo,  after  graduation  from  the  Rensselaer 
Polytechnic  Institute,  followed  by  a  period  of  travel  abroad 
in  which  he  had  acquainted  himself  with  foreign  methods 
and  processes  in  the  manufacture  of  iron. 

The  undertaking  of  the  new  company  at  the  Union  Iron 
Works  proved  to  be  timed  unfortunately,  for  it  was  followed 


SMELTING  FURNACES  275 

soon  by  the  financial  panic  of  1873,  which  checked  every- 
thing of  the  nature  of  enterprise  in  the  country  at  once. 
Fires  went  out  in  most  smelting  furnaces  and  rolling  mills 
were  brought  to  a  stop.  The  Union  Company  suffered 
paralysis  with  the  rest;  and,  when  reviving  conditions  re- 
curred, it  was  embarrassed  in  a  more  personal  way,  by  deaths 
among  its  stockholders,  which  had  tied  up  large  blocks  of 
its  stock  in  unsettled  estates. 

After  the  property  had  been  lying  unused  for  a  consid- 
erable time,  and  the  furnaces  had  been  dismantled,  Mr. 
Frank  B.  Baird  obtained  an  option  on  it  and  began  to  put 
it  in  condition  to  be  brought  again  into  use.  He  had  faith 
in  the  many  advantages  of  the  site.  In  1892  he  rebuilt  one 
furnace,  which  is  now  known  as  Furnace  A.  In  1899  Fur- 
nace B  was  built  by  an  organization  named  the  Buffalo 
Furnace  Company;  and  Furnace  C  was  erected  the  next 
year  by  a  company  of  which  Mr.  Baird  was  president. 
Then,  in  that  year,  the  several  interests  in  the  three  furnaces 
were  consolidated  by  the  organization  of  the  Buffalo  Union 
Furnace  Company.  The  whole  plant  is  operated  under  a 
lease  by  the  firm  of  M.  A.  Hanna  &  Co.,  of  Buffalo  and 
Cleveland,  producing  high  grade  foundry  and  malleable 
iron.  The  lease  does  not  expire  until  1918;  but  M.  A. 
Hanna  &  Co.  began  preparations  in  1908  to  build  a  large 
additional  plant  on  another  site,  just  outside  of  the  limits  of 
Buffalo,  on  the  Niagara  River  shore.  They  purchased  a 
tract  of  fifty-two  acres,  known  heretofore  as  the  Hotchkiss 
Farm,  lying  just  below  the  ferry  to  Grand  Island,  and  pre- 
liminary work  on  it  was  begun  on  the  first  day  of  December, 
1908.  Two  furnaces  and  two  coke  ovens  were  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  plant,  which  would  represent  an  investment 
of  $3,000,000,  and  employ  not  less  than  700  men.  Comple- 
tion of  the  work  was  not  expected  in  less  than  two  years. 

The  fifth  blast  furnace  to  be  built  in  connection  with  the 


276  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

manufacturing  interests  of  Buffalo  was  located  at  Tona- 
wanda,  by  a  company  organized  about  1875.  Its  leading 
members  were  Pascal  P.  Pratt,  Sherman  S.  Jewett,  Francis 
H.  Root,  Robert  Keating  and  George  B.  Hayes.  The  en- 
terprise did  not  prove  satisfactory  to  the  company,  and  the 
operation  of  the  plant  appears  to  have  been  carried  on  for 
not  much  more  than  a  year,  in  1874-5.  ll  was  tnen  closed 
and  so  remained  for  about  fourteen  years.  An  option  on  the 
property  was  then  obtained  by  Mr.  Frank  B.  Baird,  and  he 
sold  it  to  the  firm  of  Rogers,  Brown  &  Co.,  at  their  central 
office  in  Cincinnati. 

The  new  owners  organized,  in  the  spring  of  1889,  the 
Tonawanda  Iron  and  Steel  Company,  which  has  operated 
the  plant  ever  since.  After  being  repaired  and  worked  on 
trial  for  six  months,  the  single  furnace  was  found  to  need 
remodelling,  while  the  location  of  it  was  proved  to  be  good. 
The  remodelling  was  accomplished  in  1890,  and  it  was  then 
that  Mr.  William  A.  Rogers  removed  his  residence  from 
Cincinnati  to  Buffalo,  to  manage  the  Tonawanda  Iron  and 
Steel  Company,  and  to  establish  and  conduct  a  Buffalo 
branch  of  the  great  house  of  Rogers,  Brown  &  Co.  From 
that  time  the  company  has  had  a  prosperous  career. 

The  producing  capacity  of  the  original  furnace  was  90 
tons  of  pig  iron  daily;  after  being  remodelled  it  made  some- 
thing over  200  tons  per  day.  In  a  few  years  the  company 
decided  to  double  the  production,  by  building  an  additional 
stack.  This  was  finished  during  the  summer  of  the  Mc- 
Kinley-Bryan  campaign  (1896),  but,  owing  to  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  business  outlook  while  that  important  election 
was  pending,  it  was  not  brought  into  use  till  the  vote  of  the 
nation  had  been  cast.  An  arrangement  was  made  with  Mr. 
McKinley  that,  if  elected,  he  should  light  the  new  furnace 
by  an  electric  spark  sent  over  the  wires  from  Canton.  This 
was  done  on  the  Thursday  after  election,  in  the  presence  of 


SMELTING  FURNACES  277 

a  large  concourse  of  people,  and  attracted  much  attention 
both  in  this  country  and  abroad. 

The  plant  can  produce  about  165,000  tons  of  foundry  pig- 
iron  per  year,  branded  as  the  "Niagara,"  and  having  a  high 
reputation  in  the  market.  This  "Niagara"  iron  has  been 
accepted  by  the  United  States  government  as  a  standard  iron, 
and  it  has  gone  into  machinery  installed  in  a  number  of  our 
battleships.  It  is  shipped  widely  in  this  country,  even  to 
the  Pacific  coast,  largely  into  Canada,  and  in  smaller  quan- 
tities to  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Aus- 
tralia and  Japan. 

The  blast  furnace  plant  of  the  Tonawanda  Iron  and  Steel 
Company  is  one  of  some  twenty-three,  in  different  parts  of 
the  country,  in  which  the  firm  of  Rogers,  Brown  &  Co.  is 
interested,  and  whose  product  it  sells,  along  with  that  of 
many  more.  The  firm  has  its  headquarters  in  Cincinnati, 
where  it  originated  about  twenty-seven  years  ago,  and  it 
has  branches  in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg, 
Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Chicago,  St.  Louis  and  Birmingham. 
It  makes  a  specialty  of  the  foundry-iron  business.  It  does 
not  manufacture  or  deal  in  steel.  In  the  line  of  merchant 
pig-iron  it  does  the  largest  business  of  any  house  in  the 
world. 

One  of  Messrs.  Rogers,  Brown  &  Co.'s  numerous  iron 
manufacturing  interests  is  a  plant  of  two  blast  furnaces  at 
South  Chicago,  operated  under  a  corporation  known  as  the 
Iroquois  Iron  Company.  Messrs.  J.  J.  Albright,  Edmund 
Hayes  and  S.  M.  Clement,  of  Buffalo,  who  had  interests  in 
the  company,  had  never  seen  its  property,  until  Mr.  Rogers 
invited  them  to  accompany  him  on  one  of  his  visits  to  it. 
Mr.  Frank  H.  Goodyear,  president  of  the  Buffalo  and  Sus- 
quehanna Railroad  Company,  tendered  the  use  of  his  pri- 
vate car  to  the  party  and  was  invited  to  join  it,  which  he  did. 
What  he  saw  at  Chicago  gave  him  ideas  of  the  importance 


278  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

of  the  furnace  plant  as  a  producer  of  freight  for  a  railroad, 
which  led  to  negotiations  with  Mr.  Rogers,  resulting  in  the 
formation  of  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Iron  Company, 
and  the  building  of  a  pair  of  blast  furnaces,  in  South  Buf- 
falo, which  are  the  most  modern  and  the  most  perfectly 
equipped  of  any  now  existing.  They  were  built  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Hugh  Kennedy,  of  Pittsburg,  who  is  the 
company's  general  manager. 

The  two  furnaces  are  each  80  feet  high,  and  of  20  feet 
diameter  in  the  bosh.  They  are  located  alongside  of  a 
canal,  200  feet  in  width,  23  feet  deep,  and  nearly  3,000  feet 
long,  connecting  directly  with  the  outer  harbor,  so  that  ves- 
sels of  the  largest  size  float  their  cargoes  underneath  the  un- 
loading bridges.  The  canal  was  built  jointly  by  the  B.  &  S. 
Iron  Company,  the  B.  &  S.  Railroad  Company  and  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  with  each  of  which  roads 
the  furnace  plant  is  connected. 

There  are  five  unloading  machines,  sufficient  to  unload  a 
cargo  of  10,000  tons  in  a  few  hours,  each  bucket  grasping 
and  carrying  five  tons  at  a  single  lift.  They  are  operated 
by  skilled  men,  who  touch  buttons  and  pull  levers,  con- 
trolling electricity  and  steam,  which  do  the  entire  work. 
From  the  time  that  the  ore  leaves  the  mines  of  Minnesota 
and  Michigan,  that  the  coke  leaves  the  ovens  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  the  limestone  leaves  the  near-by  quarries,  until 
the  pig-iron  product  of  the  furnaces  is  delivered  in  some 
distant  customer's  yard,  not  a  pound  of  the  material  is  lifted 
by  the  hand  of  man.  Each  furnace  is  equipped  with  four 
stoves  for  heating  air  for  the  blast.  These  stoves  are  102 
feet  high  and  22  feet  in  diameter,  having  a  network  of  fire- 
brick flues  within.  The  product  of  the  furnaces  goes  west 
and  east,  from  Minnesota  to  Maine. 

The  officers  of  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Iron  Com- 
pany are  William  A.  Rogers,  president;  Hugh  Kennedy, 


THE  LACKAWANNA  STEEL  COMPANY  279 

general  manager;  S.  M.  Clement  and  C.  W.  Goodyear,  vice- 
presidents;  H.  D.  Carson,  treasurer. 

The  greatest  of  events  in  the  development  of  iron-making 
and  iron-working  at  Buffalo  came,  in  circumstances  that 
were  singularly  in  the  nature  of  a  surprise,  in  1899.  It  was 
the  outcome  of  conditions  at  Scranton,  Pa.,  which  made  it 
desirable  to  remove  an  important  steel  plant  from  that  place. 
The  plant  in  question  had  been  founded  in  1840  by  the 
Lackawanna  Iron  and  Coal  Company,  which  rolled  iron 
rails  until  1875,  and  then  prepared  itself  for  the  production 
of  Bessemer  steel.  In  1891,  on  consolidation  with  the  Scran- 
ton Steel  Company,  it  took  the  name  of  the  Lackawanna 
Iron  and  Steel  Company,  and  continued  operations  at  Scran- 
ton until  1899. 

Disadvantages  in  the  location  of  its  plant  had  then  con- 
vinced the  company  that  its  business  must  be  removed  to 
another  seat,  and  the  situation  of  Buffalo  was  the  most  prom- 
ising that  it  saw.  To  look  over  the  contemplated  ground, 
Mr.  Walter  Scranton  and  Mr.  Wehrum,  of  the  company, 
came  to  Buffalo,  on  the  23d  of  March  in  that  year,  with  a 
letter  of  introduction  to  Mr.  John  G.  Milburn  from  the 
attorney  of  their  company.  Mr.  Milburn  knew,  no  doubt, 
that  two  enterprising  men  in  Buffalo,  Mr.  J.  J.  Albright 
and  Mr.  William  A.  Rogers,  had  been  discussing  the  project 
of  a  steel  plant  in  this  locality  for  some  time  past,  and  he 
invited  Mr.  Albright  into  conference  with  the  gentlemen 
from  Scranton  at  once.  Mr.  Rogers  was  absent  from  the 
city  at  the  time,  but  Mr.  Albright  called  him  back  from 
Cleveland  by  telephone,  and  the  great  project  realized 
within  the  next  few  years  was  planned  substantially  and 
agreed  upon  at  a  conference  the  next  day. 

A  site  on  Niagara  River  had  been  in  contemplation;  but 
after  the  party  had  driven  to  South  Buffalo  that  day,  and 
had  looked  over  the  ground  which  the  plant  of  the  Lack- 


280  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

awanna  Steel  Company  now  covers,  their  choice  of  it  was 
fixed.  Mr.  Albright  undertook  negotiations  for  the  prop- 
erty. A  week  later  the  first  payment  for  an  option  was 
made,  and  within  about  a  month  the  whole  purchase  of  land 
was  practically  an  accomplished  fact.  It  comprises  about 
1,500  acres,  lying  along  the  lake  shore,  at  Stony  Point,  start- 
ing from  the  line  of  the  city  limits  of  Buffalo,  but  lying  at 
the  extremity  of  the  large  outer  harbor  of  Buffalo,  created 
by  the  construction  of  miles  of  breakwater,  as  described  in 
a  previous  chapter  of  this  work. 

Before  the  end  of  April,  $1,095,430  had  been  paid  for  this 
real  estate,  and  the  Lackawanna  Steel  Company  had  been 
formed,  with  more  than  $2,000,000  of  its  stock  subscribed 
for  by  capitalists  in  Buffalo.  Afterwards  the  subscriptions 
were  increased  largely,  and  powerful  interests,  both  eastern 
and  western,  were  enlisted  in  the  undertaking.  General 
Edmund  Hayes,  who  had  been  at  Jekyl  Island  when  the 
project  sprang  to  life,  became  active  in  it  when  he  returned 
home.  The  important  legal  business  involved  was  in  Mr. 
Milburn's  hands.  Mr.  Albright  and  General  Hayes  were 
chosen  to  seats  in  the  board  of  directors  when  the  organiza- 
tion became  complete. 

The  authorized  capital  stock  of  the  company  is  $60,- 
000,000,  of  which  $20,000,000  was  issued,  share  for  share, 
for  the  stock  of  the  Lackawanna  Iron  and  Steel  Company, 
and  $14,971,400  has  been  taken  up  for  cash. 

The  systematic  arrangement  of  the  company's  plant,  to 
secure  the  most  perfect  economy  of  labor,  in  the  carrying  of 
everything  that  is  handled  through  all  the  processes  of  man- 
ufacture, from  the  receiving  of  the  raw  material  to  the  de- 
livery of  the  finished  product,  is  greatly  admired.  Its 
shaping  feature  is  a  ship  canal,  22  feet  deep  and  200  feet 
wide,  running  in  from  the  harbor  to  a  length  of  3,295  feet. 
There  is  room  in  this  canal  for  the  simultaneous  unloading 


THE  LACKAWANNA  STEEL  COMPANY  28 1 

of  five  of  the  largest  vessels  on  the  lakes.  Parallel  with  the 
canal  on  its  outer  side,  toward  the  lake  shore,  is  the  by- 
product oven  plant  and  the  coal-storage  ground.  Along 
the  inner  side  of  the  canal  stretch,  first,  the  ore  dock,  with 
its  unloading,  handling  and  stocking  machinery;  then  the 
line  of  blast  furnaces,  with  the  auxiliary  plant;  finally,  on 
similar  parallel  lines  of  arrangement,  the  steel-plant, — roll- 
ing mills  and  shops.  Under  the  canal  runs  a  tunnel  for 
passage  from  one  to  the  other  side. 

For  all  handling  of  ore,  coal,  coke,  limestone,  or  any  other 
material  in  use,  and  for  every  movement  of  steel  through  the 
successive  stages  of  its  manufacture,  storage  and  shipment, 
the  latest  perfection  of  mechanism  is  employed,  with  an  ex- 
tensive use  of  electric  power.  To  a  large  extent,  but  not 
wholly,  the  electric  power  is  generated  at  the  plant,  by  utiliz- 
ing the  blast  furnace  gas,  which  went  in  former  days  to 
waste.  This  is  one  of  the  features  of  the  Lackawanna  plant 
which  has  been  most  interesting  to  the  makers  of  steel.  It 
was  considerably  experimental  when  adopted,  and  careful 
studies  were  made  in  Europe  before  the  system  was  in- 
stalled. The  result  has  been  a  great  economic  success.  In 
addition,  however,  to  the  electric  power  thus  generated  on 
the  spot,  Niagara  power  supplied  by  the  Niagara,  Lockport 
and  Ontario  Power  Company,  through  cables  stretched  over 
a  distance  of  forty  miles,  has  been  drawn  upon  to  a  large 
extent. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1904,  The  Iron  Age  gave  an  elabo- 
rate description  of  the  Lackawanna  Steel  Company  plant, 
as  developed  at  that  time,  in  an  incomplete  state.  Three 
years  later,  on  the  3d  of  January,  1907,  the  same  journal 
returned  to  the  subject,  to  describe  the  perfected  works.  Its 
former  article,  it  remarked,  "represented  the  results  of  more 
than  four  years  of  construction  work  on  the  largest  in- 
dividual steel  plant  in  the  world.   The  single  finished  prod- 


282  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

uct  at  that  time  was  steel  rails  in  standard  sections."  Now 
The  Iron  Age  had  extensive  enlargements  of  product  to 
report:  "The  mills  and  open  hearth  plant  added  in  the 
next  two  years  extended  the  operations  of  the  company 
greatly,  broadening  the  list  of  finished  materials  to  include 
plates,  structural  shapes,  light  rails  and  bars.  Perhaps  no 
other  piece  of  construction  work  in  connection  with  the  iron 
industry  had  attracted  attention  so  widely,  and  various 
phases  of  the  enterprise,  from  the  first  breaking  of  ground 
at  South  Buffalo,  have  probably  been  the  subject  of  more 
comment  in  steel  engineering  circles  than  any  other  under- 
taking in  the  history  of  the  industry.  It  is  to  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  in  all  essential  elements  the  plans  originally  made, 
when  it  was  decided  to  remove  from  Scranton  to  Buffalo, 
have  been  carried  out,  and  the  Scranton  rail,  on  which  the 
success  of  the  company's  Pennsylvania  career  was  based, 
remains  at  the  foundation  of  its  operations,  even  while  other 
lines  have  been  entered  upon  with  like  success.  To-day, 
with  the  fuller  development  of  the  plans  for  the  Lake  Erie 
situs,  a  capacity  of  100,000  tons  a  month  of  various  forms  of 
rolled  steel  has  been  reached, — a  noteworthy  achievement 
in  view  of  all  that  has  been  met  and  overcome.  While  this 
is  the  tonnage  aimed  at  in  the  beginning,  it  is  believed  en- 
tirely possible  to  increase  this  amount  by  25,000  tons  a 
month." 

The  annual  report  of  the  company,  on  the  31st  of  De- 
cember, 1907,  showed  its  production  for  the  year  to  have 
been  852,055  gross  tons  of  Bessemer  ingots  and  425,789  gross 
tons  of  Open  Hearth  ingots,  making  a  total  of  1,277,844 
tons  of  steel  ingots.  Its  total  shipments  of  product  within 
the  year  had  been  991,700  tons,  of  which  1:23,200  had  been 
of  standard  rails,  and  141,455  of  structural  shapes.  It  had 
received  during  1907,  from  mines  which  it  owns  or  in  which 
it  is  interested,  1,941,376  gross  tons  of  iron  ore,  and  had  pro- 


THE  LACKAWANNA  STEEL  COMPANY  283 

duced  a  total  of  788,784  gross  tons  of  coke  and  1,008,588  of 
pig  iron  and  spiegeleisen. 

The  cost  of  the  company's  properties,  real  estate,  build- 
ings, plant,  machinery,  etc.,  as  reported  at  the  close  of  1907, 
had  been  $60,615,066.69,  exclusive  of  investments  in  ore 
companies,  etc.,  to  the  amount  of  $5,032,320.93.  Its  bonded 
debt  was  $15,000,000,  and  the  bonded  debt  of  its  subsidiary 
companies  $8,404,000.  Of  gold-note  and  purchase  money 
obligations  it  reported  $15,000,000,  aside  from  purchase 
money  notes  of  the  Ellsworth  Collieries  Company  (organ- 
ized for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  and  operating  the  prop- 
erties of  the  Ellsworth  Coal  Company)  to  the  amount  of 
$1,500,000. 

The  total  net  earnings  of  all  the  company's  properties  in 
1907,  after  deducting  all  expenses,  including  repairs  and 
maintenance,  were  $6,431,453.55.  Its  surplus  income  for 
the  year,  $2,443,846.16. 

The  general  officers  of  the  company  in  1908  were:  E.  A. 
S.  Clarke,  president;  Moses  Taylor,  vice-president;  C.  H. 
McCullough,  Jr.,  vice-president  and  general  manager; 
Arthur  J.  Singer,  assistant  to  president;  Fred  F.  Graham, 
secretary;  J.  P.  Higginson,  treasurer;  Marshall  Lapham, 
comptroller. 

Directors:  E.  A.  S.  Clarke,  G.  R.  Fearing,  Jr.,  Edmund 
Hayes,  Samuel  Mather,  D.  O.  Mills,  Moses  Taylor  Pyne, 
Robert  B.  Van  Cortlandt,  J.  J.  Albright,  C.  Ledyard  Blair, 
Warren  Delano,  Jr.,  J.  G.  McCullough,  James  Speyer, 
Moses  Taylor,  Henry  Walters,  Mark  T  Cox,  B.  S.  Guin- 
ness, Adrian  Iselin,  Jr.,  John  J.  Mitchell,  H.  A.  C.  Taylor, 
H.  McK.  Twombly,  Cornelius  Vanderbilt. 

Subsidiary  manufactures,  making  use  of  the  steel  product 
of  the  Lackawanna  Steel  Company,  are  springing  up  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  latter's  plant,  and  their  number  is  cer- 
tain to  increase.     The  most  important  of  the  works  of  this 


284  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

character  established  in  that  vicinity  thus  far  are  those  of 
the  Shenandoah  Steel  Wire  Company,  the  Buffalo  Brake 
Beam  Company,  and  the  Seneca  Iron  and  Steel  Company. 
The  latter  company,  organized  in  1906,  turns  out  black  ami 
galvanized  steel  sheets  and  corrugated  sheets.  Its  officers 
are  James  S.  Paterson,  president;  Hugh  Kennedy,  vice- 
president;  H.  M.  Van  Horn,  secretary;  Alexander  Pater- 
son, treasurer. 

Before  the  completion  of  the  Lackawanna  Steel  Com- 
pany's plant,  another  important  enterprise  had  been  organ- 
ized in  the  same  field,  by  the  New  York  State  Steel 
Company,  incorporated  in  1905,  for  the  manufacture  of  iron 
and  steel.  The  site  of  its  undertaking  is  on  Buffalo  River, 
contiguous  to  the  crossing  of  the  Abbott  Road,  where  it 
acquired  fifty-seven  acres  of  land,  and  where  it  has  connec- 
tions with  the  Buffalo  Creek,  the  Buffalo,  Rochester  and 
Pittsburg  and  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  Western 
railroads.  The  plant  designed  by  the  company  includes  two 
blast  furnaces,  "two  200-ton  basic  open  hearth  Talbot  fur- 
naces, with  a  capacity  of  100,000  to  120,000  tons  of  ingots, 
and  a  36-inch  blooming  mill  to  produce  the  equivalent  in 
slabs,  blooms  and  billets."  Mesaba  ore  property  has  been 
secured  by  lease. 

The  original  capital  stock  of  the  company  was  :M  ,000,000. 
In  1906  it  was  increased  to  $2,500,000.  The  bonded  debt 
was  reported  in  1907  to  be  $3,000,000,  with  an  authorized 
issue  to  the  amount  of  $5,000,000.  The  financial  disorders 
of  the  time  caused  embarrassments  to  the  companv,  in  the 
winter  or  spring  of  1908,  and  its  property  went  into  the 
hands  of  receivers.  A  reorganization  of  the  company,  with 
an  addition  of  $1,000,000  to  its  capital  stock,  was  accom- 
plished in  the  early  days  of  January,  1909,  and  the  receivers 
were  discharged. 


ORE  RECEIPTS  AND  ORE  DOCKS  285 

The  Wickwire  Steel  Company,  which  has  constructed  an 
extensive  plant  on  Rattlesnake  Island,  between  the  Ameri- 
can shore  of  the  Niagara  River  and  Grand  Island,  near  its 
upper  end,  is  the  first  large  manufacturing  organization  that 
has  taken  advantage  of  the  great  improvement  which  the 
government  is  making  in  the  river  channel  between  Black 
Rock  and  Tonawanda.  This  improvement,  already  de- 
scribed in  a  previous  chapter,  is  a  continuation  of  the  im- 
provement of  the  Black  Rock  Harbor,  so  called,  and  will 
give  deep  water  and  safe  harborage  along  the  whole  river 
front,  half-way,  at  least,  to  Niagara  Falls.  The  works  of 
the  Wickwire  Steel  Company  were  brought  into  operation 
in  the  fall  of  1908  and  began  turning  out  their  product  of 
pig  iron,  steel  billets,  rods,  wire  and  wire  netting.  The  com- 
pany is  capitalized  at  $2,500,000. 

The  receipts  of  iron  ore  at  Buffalo  and  Tonawanda  in 
1907  were  5,580,438  gross  tons,  being  915,000  tons  less  than 
the  receipts  at  Cleveland,  nearly  2,000,000  tons  less  than 
went  to  Ashtabula,  and  slightly  less  than  Conneaut  received. 
The  pig  iron  production  of  the  Buffalo  district  in  the  same 
year  was  1,405,635  gross  tons. 

The  ore  docks  at  Buffalo  and  their  appliances  for  unload- 
ing cargoes  of  ore  are  set  forth  in  the  following,  derived 
from  a  statement  in  the  annual  report  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  for  1907:  The  Lehigh  Valley  Railway,  on  its 
Tifft  Farm  improvement,  has  a  plant  which  consists  of  three 
Brown  hoists,  and  six  Thornburg  hoists,  with  ample  storage 
facilities.  The  Buffalo  Dock  Company  (H.  K.  Wick  & 
Co.),  on  the  Blackwell  Canal,  has  six  McMyler  hoists  and 
storage  trestles  combined.  The  Minnesota  docks  (N.  Y., 
L.  E.  &  W.)  on  the  river,  has  five  McMyler  hoists  and 
storage  trestles  combined.  The  Coit  docks  in  the  Erie 
Basin  (N.  Y.  C.  &  H.  R.  R.  R.),  has  two  McMyler  hoists 


286  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

and  storage  trestles  combined.  The  Delaware,  Lackawanna 
&  Western  Railroad  has  one  set  of  six  Thornburg  hoists  only, 
located  in  the  Erie  Basin.  The  total  dock  frontage  aggre- 
gates 4,000  feet.  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  located  on  a 
private  canal  from  the  outer  harbor,  built  and  owned  jointly 
by  that  road,  the  Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Railroad  and  the 
Buffalo  and  Susquehanna  Iron  Company,  has  two  Brown 
hoists  and  one  Hulett  unloader,  with  dock  frontage  of  about 
2,300  feet.  The  Iron  Company's  dock  extends  the  full 
length  of  the  company's  frontage  on  the  canal  (about  2,700 
feet),  and  adjacent  to  the  dock  is  an  iron  ore  yard  of  con- 
crete construction,  measuring  about  200  by  800  feet.  The 
ore  unloading,  storing,  and  rehandling  machinery  includes 
five  electrically  driven,  single-span  bridge  tramways,  each 
equipped  with  a  five-ton  grab  bucket  and  man  trolley,  the 
machines  being  of  the  Brown  Hoisting  Machinery  Com- 
pany's manufacture. 


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