USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > A history of Buffalo : delineating the evolution of the city > Part 16
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David Gray entered the Courier staff in 1860, as Mr. Warren had done six years before, in the capacity of a local reporter. He brought to the service of journalism in Buffalo the finest literary gifts that have ever adorned its work. Mr. Warren had brought talents as much needed, but of a different kind. He was an excellent writer, but
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more marked by his capacity for dealing with men in public affairs. He not only made himself and the Courier politi- cal powers, and succeeded naturally to the late Dean Rich- mond in the leadership of the Democratic party in Western New York, but he exercised a singularly quiet force in promoting local movements of public enterprise, such as gave us our Park System, our City and County Hall, our State Hospital, and much besides. The combination of Mr. Warren's force with Mr. Gray's charm was an exceed- ingly happy one for the Courier.
About 1860 or 1861 an evening paper, the Republic, which had had a precarious existence since 1847, was merged in the Courier, as an afternoon edition of the latter, having the name of the Evening Courier and Republic. The Republic had been started by an association of printers, and never acquired a stable footing. Guy H. Salisbury, who had become a man of substantial means in the real estate business, was induced to take it in hand for the helping of friends, and was reduced near to poverty in his last years by the drain on his moderate estate. Its editor for a num- ber of years was Cyrenius C. Bristol, who succeeded Ben- jamin C. Welch. Henry W. Faxon, famed as a humorist in his day, and especially as the author of "The Silver Lake Snake Hoax," was the city editor of the Republic in its later years. In 1858, and until he went to the Express in the spring of 1859, the present writer was associated with Mr. Bristol in the general editorship of the paper. Thomas Kean became connected with the Republic a little later, and went with it when it passed under the control of the pro- prietors of the Courier.
In 1869 the business of Joseph Warren & Co. was united with that of the printing house of Howard & Johnson, and the whole incorporated in the Courier Company, Mr. War- ren being its president, James M. Johnson vice-president,
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Ethan H. Howard treasurer, Milo Stevens secretary. The printing establishment thus organized became one of great magnitude and importance, and holds its rank to the present day, especially in the line of large pictorial poster printing for theatres, menageries and the like. In September, 1876, Mr. Warren died, and William G. Fargo, who had become a considerable stockholder in the Courier Company, and was already its vice-president, succeeded to the presidency. Mr. Gray, who had been managing editor of the newspaper, became editor-in-chief. His health was broken by the labors of the next few years, and he was forced to resign in the fall of 1882. He was succeeded by Joseph O'Connor, who had been his associate during the previous two years. In 1885 Mr. Edwin Fleming, who had been the representa- tive and correspondent of the Courier in Washington since 1877, was called to the editorial chair and filled it ably for the next twelve years.
In 1880 Mr. Charles W. M'Cune, who had been secre- tary and treasurer of the Courier Company since 1874, was elected president and held the office till his death, in March, 1885. George Bleistein, previously secretary, then became president, and is so at the present time. On the 6th of May, 1897, the Courier, detached from the printing establishment of the Courier Company and from its whole former staff, was sold to William J. Conners and consolidated with the Buffalo Record, which Mr. Conners had been publishing since the previous year. The business of the Courier Com- pany in recent years has included no newspaper publication.
The first successful Sunday paper in Buffalo was the Sunday Morning News, founded by Edward H. Butler in 1873. The success of Mr. Butler in his first venture en- couraged him, in 1880, to undertake a daily publication, the Evening News, a one cent paper from the beginning, which has been even more of a success. Under the control of Mr.
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Butler as proprietor and editor-in-chief, with William Mc- Intosh as managing editor and J. A. Butler as business manager, the News has had a remarkably prosperous career.
A somewhat similar course of success in journalism has been run in connection with the founding of the Buffalo Sunday Times, in 1879, by Norman E. Mack. He, too, was soon encouraged to attempt a daily publication, and did so in 1883, issuing the Daily Times as a morning paper until 1887, when it was changed to an afternoon paper, at the penny price, with improved success.
The present rivals of the Times as a Democratic organ are the two journals, morning and evening, now controlled by William J. Conners. The purchase of the Courier by Mr. Conners has been related above. He had previously, in 1895, acquired the Enquirer, an evening paper started in 1891, and had established it, with an excellent equipment, under the able editorship of Joseph O'Connor; but Mr. O'Connor had not remained long in the chair. In 1896 Mr. Conners had launched a morning issue, first as a morn- ing edition of the Enquirer, but soon independently, under the name of the Buffalo Record. On obtaining the Courier he consolidated it with the Record, the title becoming Courier-Record. This hyphenated title was abandoned, however, on the Ist of January, 1898, and the old name of the Buffalo Courier was restored. Mr. Fleming, the for- mer editor of the Courier, returned to it as editorial writer in January, 1906.
As early as 1837 a weekly newspaper in the German lan- guage, Der Weltbuerger, was undertaken by a German book- seller in the city, George Zahm, and got root sufficiently to live sixteen years independently, and then enter into union with a younger journal which is still prosperous in life. The next German paper was a product of the political cam-
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paign of 1840. It was a Whig organ, named the Volks- freund, published weekly, and it outlived the excitements of the Harrison canvass a very short time. In 1845 the Tele- graph was established as a weekly by H. B. Miller, who formed a partnership presently with Philip H. Bender.
In that year, too, Dr. F. C. Brunck and Jacob Domedian bought the Weltbuerger from the estate of George Zahm. Three years later, in the presidential campaign of 1848, a German advocate of the Free Soil movement, called the Freie Demokrat, came out. This became the property of Frederick Held in 1850, and he converted it into a daily newspaper, renaming it the Buffalo Demokrat. In 1853 the Demokrat and the Weltbuerger were consolidated, under the proprietorship of the firm of Brunck, Held & Co., with Dr. Brunck in the editorial chair. The paper ac- quired a large influence as a Democratic organ, and Mr. Brunck was an important personality in the city till his death.
The Buffalo Telegraph was issued daily after 1853. Some time later Mr. Bender became the sole proprietor and maintained the paper for a number of years, selling it ulti- mately to Frederick Geib. Its publication was ended in 1875. In the meantime another German daily, the Freie Presse, had come into existence, supporting the Republican party, as the Telegraph had done. It was a development from the weekly Allgemeine Zeitung, founded by Frederick Reinecke in 1856. The change of name was made in 1860, when Mr. Reinecke attempted a daily publication, which failed of support. On the death of the founder of the paper, in 1866, its publication was continued by his son, Ottomar Reinecke, who established the daily Freie Presse in 1872, with entire success. The proprietors for many years past have been Reinecke & Zesch.
The Volksfreund, the youngest in primary origin of the
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existing German dailies, was established in 1868, under Catholic auspices, and Mathias Rohr was its editor for many years.
Polish readers support one daily newspaper in their own language, the Polak Amery Kanski, of which Stanislaus Slisz is the editor, and three weeklies-the Kuryer Buffa- loski, the Gazetta Buffaloska, and a Catholic religious paper named Warta.
One weekly paper is published in the Italian language, bearing the title Il Corriere Italiano.
Aside from weekly editions of some of the daily news- papers, the oldest of existing weekly publications is the Catholic Union and Times, founded under the first of its names in 1872, and consolidated with the Catholic Times, of Rochester, in 1881. The company which issues it was organized by Bishop Ryan. The Rev. Patrick Cronyn, LL. D., was the editor from 1873 until his death, in 1907.
A younger weekly which has obtained a good footing and is now in its twelfth volume is Truth, founded by the late Mark S. Hubbell, who died in 1908.
CHAPTER IX
ART
I N 1842 there came to Buffalo a young Swede, Lars Gustaf Sellstedt, whose life has been identified so closely with Art in this city, down to the present day, that its annals are better recorded in his retentive memory than in any other repository. He was twenty-three years old when he came. Two forces were in his nature, one im- pelling him to the service of Art, the other to the adven- turous life of the sea. Thus far the latter had prevailed, and he had roved the world as a sailor since early youth. Coming from the ocean to try seafaring on the Great Lakes, he sojourned for a time at the "Sailors' Home," which a Bethel Society of ladies from different churches had estab- lished on Main Street, near The Dock. There he came under fortunate influences which encouraged him to a cul- tivation of gifts and tastes that he had always been exer- cising, in crude modes of picture-making and carving, and which gave him his chief pleasures in life. After a few years of indefatigable self-teaching, mostly from books, working with brush and pencil through the winter seasons, when lake navigation closed, he launched himself boldly at last into the career which he pursues at this writing.
The sources of what will be told here touching the earlier appearances of Art in Buffalo are Mr. Sellstedt's delightful autobiography, entitled "From Forecastle to Academy," published in 1904, and a manuscript record of his recollec- tions concerning matters of art,* kindly loaned to the writer of this sketch. Naturally the work of the artist woke interest and found support in portrait painting first, and in
* Since expanded by Mr. Sellstedt and published in an interesting volume entitled "Art in Buffalo."
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سهر
John Stewart
HAFTER IX
ART
ame to Buffalo a young Swede, Lars stedt, whose life has been identified so with Art in this city, down to the present day, ils are better recorded in his retent ve memory other repository. He was twenty-three years Unies be came Two forces were in his nature, one im- top Lom to the service of Art, the other to the adven- Tary Ws w The sea. Thus far the latter had prevailed, world as a sailor since early youth.
JOHN THOMSONSSTEWART, the Great Lakes,
Bell the " Sa lors' Home," which a
Born Ayr, Scotland, April 11, 1845. At the age of six om'diferent chi irene The came with his parents to America and settled in Caledonia, in the Province of Ontarione Came to Buffalo in 1876, and formed a partnership with his brother James and Mr. Kent tiunder the firm name of Kent & Stewart. Later the Stewart exer- Brothers became, associated with Nelson Holland, under theg, and firm name of Holland & Stewart. In 1884 the Stewart a few Brothers purchased the Holland interest; retired from busi- "" books, ness in 1898. John Thomson Stewart died March 7, 1901. d pencil hrough the winter seasons,
olesed, lle launched himself boldly at hich In yoursury ar thu writing.
ghtful
lo Academy." Quest v roog and x waspt record of his recolec cong matters of act,* kindly loaned to the -To od des detch Naturally the work of the art st woke THI and foam support in portrait painting first, and in
Met and published in an interesting volume entitled
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John IStement
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EARLY ARTISTS AND ART
that almost only for a considerable time. It is the testimony of Mr. Sellstedt that Art as exhibited in portraiture had become very creditably represented in the city when he knew it first, partly in paintings brought by incoming people from the east, but also in work executed here.
"The new Buffalonian," he says, "brought from his eastern home, besides his kitchen utensils and penates, his parlor adornments as well. Thus it was that occasionally really excellent works of art were to be seen in their homes. Even in the parlor of the 'Sailors' Home' hung a fine por- trait by Gilbert Stuart, of the landlord, an old sea captain from Massachusetts, who had been, in his youth, a pupil of that great master of portrait painting." He adds that, be- fore their destruction by fire, in the old City Building, there were many fine portraits of the early makers of Buffalo who had been mayors. Many of them were painted by A. G. D. Tuthill, an Englishman, who had studied under Benjamin West. Others were by a painter named Jackson, whose portraits, says Mr. Sellstedt, were recognizable by their harshness of outline and minute attention to dress and detail. Some were by Mr. Carnot Carpenter. One or two, painted by William John Wilgus, were superior to all the rest. None of the painters mentioned were to be classed "with the common limners who perambulated the country at the time."
Of Wilgus, who was painting in Buffalo when Mr. Sell- stedt came, and who helped him in his studies, he speaks with great admiration and love. The two young men were of about the same age, but Wilgus had studied for three years in the art school of President Morse, of the National Academy of New York. The portraits he painted in Buffalo during the few years of his stay in the city, before failing health drove him to a southern climate, were greatly superior, in Mr. Sellstedt's judgment, to any others painted
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here at the time. Some of his best work was in the por- traiture of Cattaraugus Indians, painted at the Reservation, and most of this, purchased by Caleb Lyons, of Lyonsdale, was burned subsequently by a fire which destroyed that gentleman's house. Mr. Wilgus died in his thirty-fourth year, in 1853.
James M. Dickinson, "a very clever miniature painter," and the Rev. Benjamin Van Duzee, are other artists of the time whom Mr. Sellstedt recalls. In 1847 Thomas Le Clear appeared in Buffalo, and began here the career which ended at New York in the top-most rank of the portrait painters of the day. In 1850 William H. Beard arrived, to make Buffalo his home for many years, and to win before leaving our city his fame as a painter of animals studied with a humorist's eye. Another painter of the period with these was Augustus Rockwell, whose work was as popular as his personal popularity was great. Others were Mat- thew Wilson, an English gentleman, connected by marriage with a prominent family in the city, and coming fresh from the studio of the famous French painter, Couture; Joseph Meeker, a painter of landscapes; a "young and gifted artist in genre," named Libby, and a promising pupil of Wilgus, named A. B. Nimbs.
The first art school in Buffalo was opened in these years by an old actor, who performed at the same time on the stage. His stage name was Andrews, but Mr. Sellstedt attributes to him the real name of Isaacs, and an East Indian birth. His school drew a large attendance and seems to have been a success. At least one who has risen to eminence in Art-Charles C. Coleman-received his first teaching, as a boy, in Andrews' school.
Occasionally pictures of note were brought to the city for show ; but until 1861 no attempt had been made to organize an exhibition of collected works of art. It was undertaken
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THE ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS
then, in connection with the commemoration of the twenty- fifth anniversary of the founding of the Young Men's Asso- ciation, and with great success. Two hundred and sixty- five paintings and eight pieces of statuary were brought together, at American Hall, and the attendance attracted brought $835 of gross receipts. The net proceeds were expended in the purchase of a landscape from the easel of George L. Brown.
From this success came the stimulus of a movement which resulted in the organization of the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts, accomplished at a meeting of gentlemen, in the office of Mr. Henry W. Rogers, on the 11th of November, 1862. Those present were: Henry W. Rogers, John S. Ganson, O. H. Marshall, Rev. Dr. Grosvenor W. Heacock, George S. Hazard, John Allen, Jr., Thomas LeClear, L. G. Sell- stedt, S. F. Mixer, James M. Smith, Silas H. Fish, H. Ewers Tallmadge, Anson G. Chester, and Josiah Humph- rey. Mr. Rogers was elected president; Messrs. Hazard and Smith, vice-presidents; Mr. Humphrey, correspond- ing secretary; Mr. Tallmadge, recording secretary; Mr. Allen, treasurer. Mr. Humphrey was from Rochester, and represented the owners of a collection of pictures on exhibi- tion there. He made proposals for bringing the collection to Buffalo, and the new society effected arrangements with him which called for the raising of a picture fund of $6,000 at once. The fund (and more) was raised promptly, in contributions of $500 each from thirteen gentlemen, as fol- lows: Henry W. Rogers, George S. Hazard, Sherman S. Jewett, David S. Bennett, Bronson C. Rumsey, L. C. Woodruff, S. V. R. Watson, Charles Ensign, C. J. Wells, John Allen, Jr., Pascal P. Pratt, F. H. Root, James Brayley. Rooms were secured in the Arcade Building, which stood where the Mooney Building stands now ; pictures additional to the Humphrey collection were obtained by Mr. LeClear
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from New York, and the Academy opened its inaugural exhibition on the 23d of December, 1862. In accom- plishing this, Buffalo had become the third city in the coun- try to establish a permanent public art gallery, only Boston and Philadelphia having done so at that time. It was a per- manent achievement, for the institution then founded has stood stoutly through many trials, and, after almost half a century, is one of the proudest boasts and splendid facts of the city.
The arrangement with Mr. Humphrey proved rather un- fortunate, involving the Academy in some purchases of pic- tures which it would not have chosen for the expenditure of its fund; but its permanent collection started with eleven canvases, having good value in the greater part. The first gift to it came from Bierstadt, whose "Laramie Peak" it had bought. He gave it a choice bit of the beauty of Capri. The next donor was Mr. Sellstedt, who presented his por- trait of General Bennett Riley. In later years it received many gifts.
For a short time Mr. LeClear was in charge of the Gallery; but he removed to New York, and Mr. Sellstedt was appointed superintendent, entering, in May, 1863, on a service of devotion to it which ran, heedless of discour- agements and unsparing of labor and time, through many years, till the Academy had grown strong.
Other artists who made a name in the city within the next decade or two were now coming in. John Harrison Mills, disabled from further service with the Twenty-first Regi- ment by a severe wound, received in the second Battle of Bull Run, returned to devote himself to the palette and brush. Frederick Noyes entered the Art field in Buffalo at about the same time. A little later, by three or four years, came Albert N. Samuels, John C. Rother, and Miss Ellen K. Baker. Then, about 1870 or '71, Ammi M. Farnham
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and Francis C. Penfold,-who are still seen at intervals among us with good work to exhibit,-and Amos M. Sang- ster, who died but a little time ago.
In 1864 the Academy entered, with other institutions, into the arrangement with the Young Men's Association which secured the St. James Hotel building for their common use. Its rooms there, on the fourth and fifth floors, were opened on the 16th of February, 1865. Mr. Willis O. Chapin, who wrote a historical sketch of the Fine Arts Academy in 1899, states the truth when he says that these rooms, "although spacious and attractive, were up formidable stairs, with great danger from fire." They were occupied, however, for sixteen years. It was not until 1881 that the slowly ac- cumulating art treasures of the Academy were housed more safely in the Austin Building, at the corner of Eagle and Franklin streets, opposite the City and County Hall.
Nine years previous to that time, in 1872, the Academy had passed the turning point in its affairs. It had been struggling, almost against hope, with debt and financial dis- couragement for several years, and a vigorous canvass for subscriptions to a permanent endowment fund was promis- ing slender results, when, suddenly, Mr. Sherman S. Jewett raised the sum he had pledged from One Thousand Dollars to Ten Thousand. This put new mettle into the movement at once. During that year and the next the endowment fund was pushed up to something beyond $23,000, and the foundation of the Academy was so far solidified that some kind of a perpetuation of its existence was ensured. Mr. Jewett's gift was set apart as a special fund, for the pur- chase of works of art to bear his name.
By co-operation again with the Young Men's Association (changed in name to The Buffalo Library), and with other institutions, in the enterprise which created the noble build- ing now occupied by The Buffalo Public Library, the
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Academy of Fine Arts was provided in 1887 with a safe and capacious Gallery in that edifice, and with accompanying rooms. In 1889 Mr. Sellstedt resigned the office of super- intendent, in which he had served with unlimited devotion for twenty-six years.
In the fall of 1887 an Art School was opened and con- ducted in immediate connection with the Academy until 1891, when it was united with the Students' Art Club, form- ing a distinct institution which took the name of the Art Students' League. The League has been a factor of increas- ing importance in the local cultivation of art.
A print department of the Academy was founded in 1891 by gifts from Dr. Frederick H. James, of his unequalled collection of Francis Seymour Haden's etchings, and from Willis O. Chapin of his large and fine collection of engrav- ings. In 1892 the Buffalo Society of Artists, lately founded, received the use of one of the Academy rooms for its library, meetings, lectures and exhibitions, and this active society has been in association with the Academy ever since.
A bequest from Mr. Thomas C. Reilly, in 1883, added $4,000 to the Academy's funds. Another, from Mrs. Caro- line C. Fillmore, in 1885, gave it $5,000 more. A larger bequest, of $20,000, from Francis W. Tracy, came to it in 1892. In the same year $2,000 was left to it on the death of the Rev. Frederick Frothingham, and $5,000 by Jonathan Scoville when he died. Two years later, by the will of John Browning, it received $413; and $5,000 was be- queathed to it in 1898 by Dr. Frederick H. James.
Then, in 1900, came the great gift which has housed the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts more nobly than almost any other institution of its character in the land. On the 15th of January in that year Mr. John J. Albright, by a modest letter to the secretary of the Academy, announced his will- ingness to assume the cost of the erection of an appropriate
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building for its use, attaching one condition and one sug- gestion to the proposal. As the building, in his judgment, should be of white marble, and should be preserved from defacement by a smoky atmosphere in the future, he thought it proper to ask that a site for it be given by the city at a point which he designated in Delaware Park. Then he sug- gested that an effort should be made to enlarge considerably the endowment of the institution in its permanent funds.
The response to this munificent offer was what it should have been. The site asked for was granted promptly by the Park Commissioners, and a vigorous canvass for subscrip- tions to the endowment had gratifying results. Local archi- tects, Messrs. Green & Wicks, were commissioned to prepare designs for the building, and very beautifully they justified the important trust. A more perfect example of classic art than the building which came from their hands after four years of construction is not found on this side of the sea. The Albright Art Gallery, as it is named, is a white marble structure, two hundred and fifty feet long, north and south, and one hundred and fifty feet deep, east and west. Cen- trally, its design is based on the Erectheum, at Athens. The porches of its two wings are still awaiting the finish they are to receive from statuary by St. Gaudens, the model- ling of which was the last work of the great sculptor before he died.
On one of the most perfect days that the month of May ever gave us (it was the last of her thirty-one) in 1905, the beautiful building was dedicated, with ceremonies that were fitted to the occasion as exquisitely as was the day. They were conducted in open air, between the building and the Park Lake which it overlooks, in the sight and hearing of a great company of people. Beethoven's chorus, "The Heavens are Telling," sung by a choir of male voices from five singing societies, the Guido, the Teutonia, the Lieder-
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