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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01152 7592
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GENEALOGY 974.701 N51P
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WILLIAM POOL.
LANDMARKS
OF
NIAGARA COUNTY
NEW YORK
EDITED BY WILLIAM POOL
D. MASON & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1897
1343251
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
- Descriptive of the Subject. 1-4
CHAPTER II.
Early Discoveries and Settlements
5-20
CHAPTER III.
Continued Warfare-1754-1763 20-29
CHAPTER IV.
On the Frontier-1763-1775 29-34
CHAPTER V.
The War of the Revolution-1775-1812. 35-46
CHAPTER VI.
The War of 1812-1800-1825 46-66
CHAPTER VII.
From 1825 to the War of the Rebellion
66-77
CHAPTER VIII.
The War Period in Niagara County 77-92
CHAPTER IX.
County Institutions and Civil List 93-100
$ 15.00 2-17-66 P.O. 1948
macmanus Co
iv
CHAPTER X.
Subdivisions of the County-Towns and Villages 100-103
CHAPTER XI.
City and Town of Lockport 103-174
CHAPTER XII.
Town of Niagara, City of Niagara Falls, Suspension Bridge - - 174-240
CHAPTER XIII.
The Town of Cambria
240-248
CHAPTER XIV.
The Town of Hartland 248-254
CHAPTER XV.
The Town of Porter
255-266
CHAPTER XVI.
The Town of Royalton 267-281
CHAPTER XVII.
The Town of Lewiston
281-301
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Town of Wilson . 302-315
CHAPTER XIX.
The Town of Somerset
315-321
CHAPTER XX. -
The Town of Newfane
322-331
V
CHAPTER XXI.
The Town of Pendleton .331-336
CHAPTER XXII.
The Town of Wheatfield 337-360
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Bench and Bar of Niagara County
360-384
CHAPTER XXIV.
A Brief History of the Medical Profession in Niagara County and of the Niagara County Medical Society 384-392
CHAPTER XXV.
Free Masonry in Niagara County 393-402
PART II.
BIOGRAPHICAL 403-448
PART III.
FAMILY SKETCHES 1-218
INDEXES.
Part I 219-247
Part II
247
Part III 248-254
vi
PORTRAITS.
Allen, W. L., Dr., facing 345
Angevine, Jackson facing 438
Armitage, James ... facing 103, Part III
Babcock, Isaac H.
facing
32
Baker, Flavius J., Dr facing 104
Barnard, T. P. C., Dr. facing 352
Bentley, F. W., Dr. facing 350
Brush, Harlan W ... between 356 and 357
Brush, Walter S .__ between 356 and 357 Chapman, Thomas M. between 354 and 355
Cobb, Willard A .__ between 124 and 125 Corson, Fred W. facing 122
Cutler, John W. facing 187
De Kleist, Eugene Fr. T. facing 342
Dornfeld, Albert
facing 340
Dwight, A. N. facing
358
Flagler, Thomas T. facing 16
Gaskill, Joshua facing 374
Herschell, Allan ... facing 207, Part III
Herschell, George C. . facing 208, Part III
Hodge, John facing 56
Honeywell, Charles E.
facing 311
Kaltenbach, Andrew facing 425
La Bar, John W. facing 436
Landreth, William facing 435
Lehon, William S., jr. facing 348
McKeen, Albert E.
facing 430
Meseroll, Philip H. facing 441
Millar, David. facing 360
Mullaney, P. T., Rev. facing 301
Palmer, Charles N., Dr. facing
112
Payne, Lewis S., Col. facing 347
Philpott, William A., jr. facing 229
Pierce, Henry F., Maj. facing 415
Pool, William frontispiece
Rieger, Frank facing 439
Schoellkopf, Arthur
facing 423
308 Shafer, John W facing 278
Felton, Benjamin F
facing
Spalding, Linus facing 412
Vogt, Jacob J. facing 444
Ward, Joseph A. _ _between 124 and 125
Warner, Thomas E. between 354 and 355 Whitney, Solon M. N. facing 408
Williams, Edward T facing 232
Witmer, Joseph facing 443
Landmarks of Niagara County.
CHAPTER I.
DESCRIPTIVE OF THE SUBJECT.
Niagara county is the northernmost of the western tier of counties of the State of New York, and is bounded on the north by Lake Ontario ; on the east by Orleans and Genesee counties ; on the south by Erie county, and on the west by Niagara River. It was erected March II, 1808, and included what is now Erie county, which was set off April 2, 1821, leaving the present county with an area of 558 square miles.
The first appearance of the word, Niagara, is, according to the ex- cellent anthority of the late O. H. Marshall, on Coronelli's map pub- lished in Paris in 1688. It is the oldest of all the local geographical terms which have come down from the aborigines. Owing largely to the wide variance of pronunciation among the Indians, the word has been given almost unlimited forms of spelling. The Documentary His- tory of New York gives the following, besides the one now in universal use : Iagara, Iagare, Jagara, Jagare, Jagera, Niagaro, Niagra, Niagro, Oakinagaro, Ochiagra, Ochjagara, Octjagara, Ochinagero, Oneagerah, Oneigra, Oneygra, Oniagara, Ongagerae, Oniagorah, Oniagra, Oniagro, Onjagara, Onjagera, Onjagora, Onjagore, Onjagoro, Onjagra, Onnya- garo, Onyagara, Onyagare, Onyagaro, Onyagoro, Onyagars, Onyagra, Onyagro, Oneygra, Oneagoragh, Yagero, Yangree.
The surface of Niagara county is generally level or gently undulating. It is divided into two distinct parts or terraces by a ridge extending east and west. The lake shore is a bluff ten to thirty feet in height, and from its summit the lower terrace slopes gradually upward to the
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foot of an elevation called the Mountain Ridge, where it attains an ele- vation of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the lake sur- face. This peculiar ridge extends east and west through the north part of Royalton and Lockport, and near the center of Cambria and Lewis- ton, and forms the north declivity of the southern terrace. At its west- ern extremity it has an elevation of two hundred and fifty feet above the lower terrace, and is nearly perpendicular. This height gradually declines towards the east, having at the east line of the county an ele- vation of eighty to one hundred feet. Through the central part of the county the ridge is divided into two declivities, separated by a plateau from a few rods to a half mile in width. The upper ridge is limestone, and for many miles presents the face of a nearly perpendicular cliff. Throughout the county this ridge is too steep for much cultivation. The south half of the county extending south from the ridge is very nearly level. It has a slight inclination toward the south and terminates in the Tonawanda Swamp; this whole inclination within the county does not exceed thirty feet. The Lake Ridge, which is supposed to have been, and probably was, the early shore of the lake, extends west from Orleans county through Hartland and Newfane, thence turns southwest and appears to terminate near Lockport city. It appears again farther west and at Cambria is divided into two parts, the north part extending northwest about three miles and gradually declining to the level of the ground surface in general, and the south part extending southwest and uniting with the mountain ridge four miles east of Lewis- ton. This deflection in the Lake Ridge was doubtless caused by a large bay that extended south towards Lockport, while the north branch of the ridge which terminates so abruptly in Cambria, was undoubtedly a bar extending into the lake. Two large streams probably discharged into this bay-one through the ravine in which the canal is located, and one through a ravine about two miles west of Lockport. The Lake Ridge is composed of sand, gravel, and the usual debris thrown up by the action of a large body of water, and differs essentially in character from the surrounding surface. It varies in height from five to twenty five feet, and is twenty to one hundred and fifty feet in width.
The lowest rock in this county is the Medina sandstone, which crops out in the ravines along the shore of the lake. It is the underlying rock
.
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of the west half of the county, and extends to the foot of the Mountain Ridge. This ridge is composed of the sandstones and limestones be- longing to the Niagara and Clinton groups, the heavy masses of compact limestone appearing at the top. The Onondaga salt group occupies a narrow strip along the south border of the county. Nearly the whole surface is covered with deep deposits of drift, the rocks appearing only on the declivities of the Mountain Ridge and in the ravines of streams.
Springs of weak brine have been found in the northern half of the the county, which exude from the Medina sandstone. This stone, lying at the foot of the Mountain Ridge, has been quite extensively quarried at some points. Above the sandstone is a layer of impure limestone from which water cement has been made. The Niagara limestone fur- . nishes an excellent building material and a good quality of lime. The stone exists along the whole course of the Mountain Ridge, and the deep cut through the ridge at Lockport is through this stiata ; the most ex- tensive quarries have been worked in that vicinity, the stone for the canal locks having been taken from them.
Niagara River, on the west boundary of the county, contains several small islands which belong to the county, the principal ones being Ton- awanda, Cayuga, Buckhorn, and Goat Islands. The river itself and the great cataract need no detailed description in these pages. Tonawanda Creek flows along the greater part of the southern boundary of the county and along its course are the extensive marshes known as Tonawanda Swamp. This section contains valuable muck and marl, underlaid with limestone and gypsum, and where cleared and drained to some extent it is excellent for agricultural purposes. The other principal streams of the county are Four-mile, Six mile, Twelve-mile and Eighteen- mile Creeks, so named from their respective distances from the mouth of Niagara River ; Fish and Golden Hill Creeks, all emptying into the lake ; Mud Creek and East Branch, tributaries of Tonawanda Creek, and Ca- yuga and Gill Creeks, tributaries of Niagara River.
The soil of this county is particularly well adapted to the raising of grain and for many years that was the principal occupation of the farm- ers. Wheat, barley, oats, corn and potatoes were successfully grown, wheat especially being produced in great quatities until about 1850. Since that date it has received less attention, and fruit cultivation has
4
in recent years taken its place to a great extent. Large apple orchards were planted at some points by early settlers, particularly on the Niag- ara River below Lewiston, on the lake shore and in the vicinity of Lock- port. About 1845 a large demand for winter apples came into exist- ence in the west and elsewhere, which stimulated the farmers of this county, who had large orchards of inferior fruit, to begin grafting their trees. It began to be understood that soil and climate were fitted to produce the most perfect apples possible, as well as superior fruits of other kinds. Apple growing continued until Niagara county became known throughout the whole country for the excellence and quality of its product. Peaches, also, were gradually introduced and became an important product. The fruit industry still continues to receive a large share of the attention of farmers.
The population of Niagara county has regularly increased in numbers as shown by each succeeding census, excepting between 1860 and 1865, when it decreased about 1,000, a fact due, probably, to the influences of the war. The following figures show the number of the inhabitants at different periods since 1835 :
1835
26,490
1840
31,132
1845
34,550
1850_
42,376
1855
48,282
1860
50,399
1865
49,283
1870
50,437
1875
51,399
1880
54,173
1890
62,491
1892
63,378
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CHAPTER II.
EARLY DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENT.
No attempt will be made in this work to review the Indian history of the locality under consideration. It could add nothing to what has already been done in scores of historical volumes, and the subject is about exhausted. There is evidence that seems irrefutable to many that this region was occupied by a race of men far anterior to our na- tive Indians ; whether this is true or not must be left for antiquarian speculation and treatment. Let it suffice for present purposes to state that the first white comers hither found this immediate locality occu pied by a nation of Indians called by other nations, Kahquas, and by the French, the Neuter nation, because they were at peace with the fierce tribes around them. They were a numerous nation, but seemed to lack the valor and warlike spirit of the Iroquois. There were Kah- qua villages on both sides of Niagara River, but chiefly on the western side ; there was also one near the mouth of Eighteen- mile Creek in the present Niagara county, and possibly a few on the Lake Erie shore. The greater part of the shores of that lake were, however, occupied by the Eries, who were called by the French the Nation of the Cat. Up to about the middle of the sixteenth century, it is believed, the Kahquas maintained their neutrality amid the fierce strife of their neighbors; but not long after that, for some cause now unknown, the dreaded Iroquois fell upon both the Eries and the Kahquas and almost exterminated them. If any were left they were doubtless absorbed by their conquer- ors. From that time forward all of this immediate region was ruled over by the powerful Senecas, a nation that shared to some extent in all the warlike operations that constitute a part of the frontier history, and often in fierce opposition to the English, by whom they were at last con- quered.
The Tuscaroras constituted the sixth of the famed Six Nations. They
6
were seated in North Carolina when the Europeans came, where they numbered 1.200 wariors at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They were at war with the white settlers, 1711 and 1713, and in the latter year were subdued and eight hundred of them captured. The remainder fled northward and joined the Iroquois league as the sixth nation. In the French and English war and the war of the Revolution they were loyal first to Great Britain and later to the Americans, and in the spring of 1781 located on a square mile of land on the mountain ridge in what is now the town of Lewiston, which the Senecas had assigned to them. Their domain was increased by a grant of two square miles and a purchase in 1804 of 4,329 acres from the Holland Land Company ; for the latter they paid $13,722, which was a part of the indemnity received by them for the extinction of their North Caro- lina interests. On their reservation the white settlers found in them warm friends and good neighbors. They have advanced in civilization, have excellent farms and are generally respected by the remainder of the community.
Evidences strongly indicating prehistoric occupation of the territory of Niagara county have been found, while Indian relics and remains in great quantities and varied character tell of the former occupants of the region. The lines of their principal trails are well known and many have become our present roads. The most important of these trails ex - tended from the Hudson to the Niagara ; it came from the east by way of the sites of Canandaigua and Batavia, emerged from the Tonawanda' Swamp nearly southeast of Royalton Center, coming out upon the Lockport and Batavia road in the valley of Millard's Brook, and thence continued on the Chestnut Ridge to the Cold Springs. Following the route of the Lewiston road, with little deviation, it struck the Ridge road at Warren's. It followed the Ridge road until it passed the Hop- kins marsh, when it gradually ascended the Mountain Ridge, passed through the Tuscarora village and then down again to the Ridge road and on to the Niagara. From Lewiston to Queenston was the princi- pal crossing into Canada, but a branch trail went down the river to Fort Niagara. This trail was improved about the close of the last century, so as to be passable by sleighs, the work being done by the Holland Company ; it was the first roadway north of the main road from Canan .
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daigua to Buffalo. "The Ontario trail," according to Turner, which came westward from Oswego, via Irondequoit Bay, "followed the Ridge road west to near the west line of Hartland in Niagara county, where it diverged to the southwest, crosing the east branch of Eight- een-mile Creek and forming a junction with the Canada or Niagara trail at the Cold Springs."
No less important than these trails was that which became and has always been known as the Portage road, extending from Lewiston around the Falls. It was thus described in a work written in 1718 :
The Niagara portage is two leagues and a half to three leagues long, but the road, over which carts roll two or three times a year, is very fine, with very beautiful and open woods through which a person is visible for a distance of 600 paces. The trees are all oaks and very large. The soil along the entire length of that road is not very good. From the landing, which is three leagues up the river, four hills are to be ascended. Above the first hill there is a Seneca village of about ten cabins. These Senecas are employed by the French, from whom they earn money by carrying the goods of those who are going to the upper country.
Upon the accession of the English the Portage road was greatly im- proved under direction of Sir William Johnson (1763) by John Stedman, the first permanent settler at Niagara. The following description of the route of this road is from the pen of O. H. Marshall :
It commenced at the Lewiston landing, and followed the river until it reached the small depression just north of the present suspension bridge. Diverging from this it intersected the river a short distance above the Stedman house, and followed its bank for about forty rods to the fort above. Midway between the house and fort were a dock, a warehouse and a group of square-timbered, whitewashed log cabins, used by the teamsters, boatmen and engagees connected with the portage. About half a mile below the Stedman house, the head of the present hydraulic canal, was the old French landing, where goods were transhipped when only canoes were used, and where the Portage road terminated before Fort Schlosser was built. All along the road between this fort and Lewiston blockhouses were erected about a mile apart, to protect the teams from disasters such as had occurred at the Devil's Hole.
The vast importance of this trail and road through all this history of the Niagara frontier will be readily inferred and more clearly understood as we proceed.
The early relations of this section of country to the European pow- ers was of a very indefinite character. James I was on the English throne, and Louis XIII reigned over France with the great Richelieu
8
as his prime minister. The immediate region of which this work treats was one of the earliest in the northern part of America to be visited by European adventurers, missionaries and traders. Many years be- fore the landing of the Pilgrims, and only a little more than forty years after Columbus touched the shores of a new world, Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1535 as far as Montreal, and learned something of the great country and lakes to the westward. He took possession of all the country in the name of his sovereign and made some attempts at colonization, but in 1543 they were all abandoned. In 1603 the celebrated French mariner, Champlain, came over and made permanent settlement at Quebec; settlement at Mon- treal soon followed. A route was established across the country from the St. Lawrence to Lake Huron, where Cartier founded a mission and where Champlain wintered among the Indians in 1615. The Hurons were at war with the Iroquois and Champlain invaded the Iroquois country with their warriors. Meanwhile Champlain had sailed up the lake that bears his name, lying between the present States of New York and Vermont, in 1609, fought a battle on its shores with the Iroquois, killed his first Indians and gave the natives their first per- ception of what they were to expect from the white man and his mur- derous gunpowder. In 1609, also, Henry Hudson sailed up the river that took his name and in the name of his Dutch employers took possession of an indefinite extent of territory. These claims, with that of the English made by the Plymouth colony, constituted three dis- tinct sources of pretended sovereignty over the soil of the new world, seen and unseen, and by 1625 there were three streams of emigration tending westward. For a long period the French held a measure of supremacy, in which they were abetted by those remarkable mission- aries, the Jesuits, some of whom were early in the vicinity of the Niag- ara frontier. Father Dallion was in some parts of the region in 1626- 27, but there is no evidence that he visited Niagara. Fathers Brebeuf and Chaumonot visited the Neuter Nation in 1641 and wrote a descrip- tion of the journey in which is found the first mention of Niagara. We quote :
The river is that by which our great lake of the Huron, or fresh sea, is discharged, which first enters into the lake of Erie, or of the nation of Cat, from thence it enters
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the territory of Neuter Nation, and takes the name of Onguiaahra until it empties into Ontario or St. Louis lake, from which flows the river which passes before Quebec.
It is a singular fact that in an elaborate description of Indian villages and the river, no mention is made of the falls. The inference is that the cataract was not visited. In 1648, however, Father Ragueneau described the lakes Huron and Erie to Ontario, and the cataract, of "frightful hight." The falls are also designated on Champlain's map of 1632, but there is no detailed description of the river and falls dating earlier than the arrival of La Salle and his company in Decem- ber, 1678.
La Salle made his first voyage of discovery in 1669, sailing up Lake Ontario and reaching the Seneca settlements on Genesee River under Indian guidance, and hoping to be conducted thence to the Ohio River. This he accomplished after considerable delay and difficulty. His second expedition was approved by royal authority, but was fitted out at private expense by La Salle and his friends. The voyage was made in a brigantine commanded by La Motte, the expedition comprising six- teen persons, among whom were Louis Hennepin and Henri de Tonti. Hennepin was the first to visit the falls and left a detailed description of the great natural wonder. Embarking at Frontenac in two small vessels they sailed directly for the mouth of Niagara River. The voy- age was tempestuous and it was December 5 before they reached a point on the northern side of the lake, "lying about seventy leagues -from Fort Frontenac." Of their movements the next day Hennepin wrote:
We were obliged to tarry there till the 5th of December, when we sailed from the northern to the southern side, where the river Niagara runs into the lake, but could not reach it that day, though it was but fifteen or sixteen leagues distant, and there- fore cast anchor within five leagues of the shore, where we had very bad weather all the night long. On the 6th, being St. Nicholas day, we got into the fine river Niagara, into which never any such ship as ours entered before.
The Iroquois had a little village at the mouth of the river and their astonishment at the advent of these visitors in such a craft may be imagined. The next day the voyagers went two leagues up the river in quest of a building site. They probably landed at the site of Queenston and thence proceeded as far as Chippawa Creek, in snow a
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foot deep. There is some uncertainty on which side of the river the journey was made. Capt. James Van Cleve, long a resident of Lewis- ton, insisted that they landed on the Queenston side at a point still known as Hennepin Rock, where, finding they could go no farther with their vessel, they crossed to this side at about the point of the old ferry landing, whence they walked to the falls. They returned the next day and on the IIth Hennepin said the first mass in this part of the new world. To carry out their purpose of building some houses at the landing place, they commenced in the latter part of 1678 the first building on this frontier on the site of Lewiston. The vessel was towed up from below on the 15th of December. "The 17th, 18th and 19th," says the record, " we were busy making a cabin, with palisadoes, to serve for a magazine." The next four days were spent in efforts to save the brigantine, which "was in great danger of being dashed to pieces by the vast pieces of ice that were hurled down the river."
These operations, as might have been expected, excited the jealousy of the Indians, and in order to allay it Hennepin, La Motte and seven others visited the Iroquois village in what is now Ontario county, and by gifts and flattery obtained the acquiescence of the Senecas. Return- ing they reached their brethren on January 14, 1679. It was a part of La Salle's purpose to continue his explorations westward, to accom- plish which he saw the necessity of having a vessel above the falls. He revisited Fort Frontenac and returned bringing with him supplies and rigging for the proposed craft, but his vessel was wrecked about thirty miles from the mouth of the Niagara, the anchors and cables being about all that was saved. On the 22d of January they made an encampment on the site of La Salle village, about five miles above the falls, and there on the 26th of January laid the keel of a vessel. There has been a great deal of speculation as to the exact place where this ship was built, and a few years since Cyrus Kingsbury Remington pub- lished a pamphlet upon the subject, to which the reader is referred. Hennepin said it was a most convenient place for the work. During the winter one Indian was employed in building a cabin and another supplied the party with venison. Tonti was left in command while La Salle made another trip to Frontenac, traveling over 200 miles through the snow with two men and a dog. The Indians made some trouble
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