USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > Address on the early reminiscences of western New York and lake region of country : delivered before the Young Men's Association of Buffalo, February 16, 1848 > Part 5
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. From Caledonia to Le Roy on the west side of Allen's Creek, were a number of buildings. At Le Roy were a small mill and three or four small houses, and about thirty or forty acres of land cleared. Here Richard M. Stoddard lived in what was then called the town of Northampton. Between this place and the present village of Stafford, where Captain Nathan Marvin lived, on the west side of Black Creek, there was only one log house, but was then unoccupied. The land
* March 30, 1502, the Legislature appropriated 1500 dollars for the erecting one suita- ble house for public and religious worship, and for the keeping of a school, in each of the villages of Tuscarora and Seneca tribes of Indians, and to be denominated Church and School house.
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between these two places was exceedingly heavily timbered, and the road almost impassable. The morning I came through there it rained very hard, and I had great difficulty in getting along.
Between Stafford and Batavia, and towards the latter place, a number of farms had been taken up and settlements made upon them. At Batavia was a small village, and the County Court House. My father was Sherif of the County of Genesee that year, and executed, in August, a Scotchman by the name of McLean, for killing, in a barbarous manner, with an axe, two of his neighbors and countrymen in Cale- donia. .
Gov. Tompkins was then the Circuit Judge who presi- ded at the trial of this man. The great numbers attending the Court made it difficult to get lodgings, and, as has been done in later times between two other great men, the Judge and the Sherif had to sleep in the same bed.
Near the arsenal in Batavia the road divides, one branch running to Buffalo, the other to Lewiston by the way of Lockport. This latter was then called the Queenstown road. After travelling on it to Dunham's farm, four or five miles west of Batavia, to Forsyth's, (now Warren's) on the Ridge Road, another distance of thirty miles, only four log houses could be found. The first from Dunham's, thirteen miles after crossing the Indian openings, was Walworth's. Near here is the eastern line of the present County of Niagara, and the now beautiful and rich township of Royalton. From Walworth's through very heavy timbered land, about six miles to Waldo's, there was only the shell of a log building, without chimney or chamber floor, and the lower one covered only in part by slabs split from logs, the family living there was very poor and appeared to be in want of almost every thing. The only opening in the woods was eight or ten
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acres of land chopped over. Then through the same kind of country five miles to Charles Wilbor's at the Cold Spring, about one a half miles east of Lockport, then through unbro- ken woods to Forsyth's on the Ridge Road.
From this place to where Col. Dickinson now lives, six miles east of Lewiston, a few log dwellings were scattered along the road. Here the road went up the mountain through the Tuscarora Indian village, and intersected the por- tage road near where it descends the mountain to the village of Lewiston. The great Ridge Road was then unopened and no settlements were upon it except an isolated dwelling here and there. .
Such was the condition of the present County of Niagara forty years ago. Now it is, for its size, one of the most productive agricultural Counties in the State, containing over 40,000 inhabitants, with many fine flourishing villages, good roads in all directions, with two or three railroads and the great Erie Canal passing through it.
In 1808 the British soldiers of the 41st regiment, stationed at Fort George, deserted a good deal, and to stop it the Indi- ans on our side were employed to arrest them and take them back over the river. I have seen a large number - twenty or more - British soldiers sent over the river, tramping with impunity up and down the main street in Lewiston, enquiring and searching for deserters. The Indians caught two and took them down past Lewiston, in the night, over the river. They were severely flogged, and it was reported that each one received five hundred lashes. The feelings of our people became aroused at this insolent mode of capturing deserters and determined to stop it. For two or three miles on the road running east of Lewiston the people had tin horns to give notice to each other of trouble. I remember that one bright moon light night we were all aroused by the blowing
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of the horns, and men armed came rushing in with informa- tion that the Indians had got some deserters and were coming on with them. My old rifle which one of our hired men . took to arm himself with that night, got nearly broken to pieces, by his tumbling over a log, while running. The alarm proved false.
About the same time a Sergeant, Mr. Donald, who had charge of some 25 men at Queenstown, came over with three or four men to hunt for deserters. This party the citizens captured and were about starting them off to the jail at Bata- via, when a committee of some of the leading men in Canada . came across the river, and an agreement was made with our people that no more soldiers should be sent to our side or Indians employed to catch deserters.
In 1809, during the embargo, a man by the name of Dor- man had an apothecary's shop in Lewiston. He had goods and potash that were of great value in Canada, but the embargo prohibited their being taken over. On town meeting day which was on the first Tuesday of April, when every man in the place was attending the meeting, some twelve miles distant, Dorman had two or three boats come from Queens- town with twenty or twenty-five men armed with clubs swinging to their wrists. They opened the store and rolled the ashes and carried the other property down the hill and took it over the river. Having so much to do, they did not quite get through until the men began to return from the meeting, where they had got information of what was going on. The party from Canada had to leave part of the property. and our folks captured some of the gallipots.
While relating border or frontier incidents in which men were the actors, I must in justice to the Lewiston boys, relate one in which they alone were concerned -nothing less than beginning a war with Canada on their own account. A Mr.
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Alexander Miller, from Scotland, (his son Alexander, one of the boys, is well known to many of our dealers, who obtain from him the beautiful peaches, grapes, plums and apples seen in our market,) was an early settler on the banks of the Niagara river, one mile below Lewiston. He brought into the country an extensive assortment of shelf hardware, comprising almost every article from a cambric needle to a beetle ring, with several kegs of powder, shot and lead. He had four sons with him, young lads, The mother remained yet in
Scotland. They lived and kept the goods in a small log
building. A little before, or about the time of the commence- ment of the embargo, the old gentleman went to Scotland for his wife, and left the boys alone.
The elder one proposed to the boys in Lewiston, then only some six or eight in number, that we should get up a training company, and he would furnish the powder necessary to fire the salutes. This was an important matter, as boys had no money to buy such things then. The proposition was imme- diately accepted, and we made him general as well as commis- sary. We constructed a regular battery on the banks of the river with embrasures for cannon, went into the woods, and chopped down some maple saplings, about five or six inches in diameter, cut them into pieces about two and a half feet long, bored them out with a two inch auger, and put on cach end a beetle ring, mounted them on blocks and garnished our battery. We had some eight or ten of them. We had been into the forts at the mouth of the river and seen the manner of piling up the cannon balls along side of each gun. We then made as many as a barrel full of balls of the clay in the bank, and dried them in the sun, and piled up in proper order by the side of each cannon, a sufficient number of balls. Here we went through our military evolutions, mounted guard, and did garrison duty every leisure day we could get. The General
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rode a small sorrel pony which he called Stirling, but speaking in rather a broad dialect, he pronounced it Studgel, and we gave this name to the horse.
One afternoon while we were all present, each with his shot gun on his shoulder, and having much to do that day, we did not get through until dark. About twilight, we discovered a British schooner bound to Queenstown, coming up the river under full sail, with her flag flying, and keeping very close to our side to avoid the current. We manned our battery, and when she came opposite the work, peremptorily ordered her to strike her colors and come to. She not obeying our orders, we opened our wooden cannon at her, the mud balls striking the water made considerable splashing, she " up helm" and ran down the river; and losing that wind did not get up for three or four days.
This affair made a great noise. A deputation came from Canada and represented, that if the officer having charge of the troops along the river to guard the revenue laws, followed up his reckless conduct of firing into unarmed vessels coming up the river on their lawful business, and having no design or intention to violate our laws, some one would be killed, shots might be returned from the opposite side, and serious conse- quences follow. When the affair was explained, and they were informed that the whole was the work of boys with wooden cannon, the deputation quietly returned.
It was only shadowing forth what did actually happen in a few years, in which men and real cannon, and not boys and wooden ones, were the actors.
All the boys are now either dead or scattered in different parts, except Alexander Miller, who yet resides on the old homestead, not far from where the battery was built. There were some gallant spirits among those boys. One, Peter Gamble, fell some years afterwards in the action on Lake
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Champlain, on the 11th September, 1814, as Ist Lieutenant of Commodore MeDonough's ship. The result of that battle was, as is well known, the capture of a fleet and the bringing down of many British flags.
Noble and generous Peter, no braver spirit than thine ever walked the deck of a ship, and none more gallant ever raised his arm in defence of our glorious stars and stripes. None knew thee but to love thec. Thou art gone! But thy memory will be cherished by the writer, one of thy early playmates, while life shall last, and thy name will live on the page of thy country's history.
In 1816, the last summer I ever stopped at Lewiston, Capt. Ephraim F. Gilbert, now living in Aurora in this county, had the contract for getting out stone to build the wall around Fort Niagara. He opened a quarry on the river bank a short dis- tance above the ferry at the narrowest point of the river. He had a large number of men employed in the quarry, and on a certain time, the officer who commanded on Queenstown Ileights, in punishing one of his men had him brought to the river bank in sight of the quarry men, the person of the offender was indecently exposed and turned towards the quarry. This act the quarrymen deemed insulting to them and resented it in language not the most refined. The officer considered himself insulted by the freedom of their remarks. To conciliate his good feelings after this, every time he sounded his bugle horn. it would be imitated as near as could be by a tin horn from the men amongst the rocks. This gave him such mortal offence. that, it was reported, he declared if this horn blowing was not stopped he would fire cannon shot into the village.
This report, true or false, was a proclamation of good luck to the man who had a little tin factory in that place. All of the boys, many of the men, and I believe some of the women, all ran to the shop and got each a tin horn, and blew forth such a
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blast of indignation and contempt as would have annihilated anything else but an officer who would make such a threat.
In 1803, the Surveyor General employed my uncle, Judge Annin, of Cayuga, to survey the mile strip or State reservation on the Niagara river. He was to commence at the line of the garrison grounds of fort Niagara, a mile south of Lake Ontario, where the present village of Youngstown now stands, and lay it out into farm lots averaging one hundred and sixty acres, as near as he could, up as far as the ground reserved for military purposes at Black Rock, the line of which is near where the brick church stands in that place, excepting one mile square- now Lewiston-the Schlosser farm, and two reservations a mile square each, given by the Indians to Parish and Jones, north of the Ska-joc-quad-da creek. He finished the survey in 1804. In 1805 the land was advertised for sale, and at the · same time, publie notice was given, that the State would lease the landing place at Lewiston with the ferry and farm lot attached to it, as well as the Schlosser farm and the landing at that place.
The terms of the lease which was put up at public auction were, that the person or persons who would take the whole and erect docks and storehouses at Lewiston and Schlosser, and surrender them to the State at the termination of the lease, without compensation, for the least number of years, should have it. Large numbers met at Albany, where the sale took place, amongst others my father, my uncle Judge Annin, Judge and General Peter B. Porter, all determined to buy land and bid for the lease. My father and uncle and the Porters, at that place, and for the first time, entered into business and friendly relations, which continued undisturbed until death parted them. All the parties are now dead except Judge Porter. They were the successful bidders for the lease. This gave them the exclusive power to do the transportation business
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around the Falls on the American side, as the lease included the only landing places on the river. They also purchased many of the farm lots, as well as the property around the Falls.
In the fall of 1805, Judge Porter came out from Canandai- gua and built a saw-mill at the Falls ; he removed with his family in the spring of 1806 to fort Schlosser and lived for three or four years in the old English mess-house. That sum- mer my father also came out (he did not remove his family to Lewiston until the spring of 1807) and assisted in erecting a large grist mill at the Falls; as it was a large frame, difficult to raise, and men were scarce, the commanding officer at fort Niagara, permitted the soldiers of the fort to go up and assist. The same year, they commenced the transportation business across the portage, and boating up the river to Black Rock. This was the beginning of the first regular and connected line of transporters on the American side, that ever did buisness on these great waters. They were connected with Jonathan Walton & Co. of Schenectady, who sent the property in boats up the Mohawk river, and down Wood Creek and other waters to Oswego, there Matthew McNair carried it over Lake Ontario; Porter Barton & Co. took it from Lewiston to Black Rock, where were some small vessels to distribute it up the Lakes.
The lease was originally for 12 or 13 years, the war of 1812 interrupted the buisness for some years, in consideration of which, the State (who refused to sell the landings) renewed it for five years, upon rebuilding the ware-houses which had been destroyed during the war, and which were to be surrendered to the State at the end of the five years. They had before the war lost two or three ware houses at Lewiston, by ice jams in the river.
Until the formation of the "Portage Company," as it was called, the salt manufactured at Salina, and other property
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going West, were taken around the Falls by the way of Queenstown on the Canada side, except the little transported by a Mr. Wilson, who had a small store of goods in one of the log buildings at Lewiston, and to whom the late Mr. Hamott, of Erie, Pa., was a clerk, a year or two before. He had no regular organized line through from Schenectady, but was the owner of a vessel on Lake Ontario, called the Fair American - sailed I think by Capt. Augustus Ford, now nearly eighty years old, a Sailing Master in the Navy, residing at Sacket's Harbor.
The road up the Mountain and over the Portage was then in very bad order, and they expended a good deal of money and labor in putting it in condition to be used. They encoun- tered strong opposition from the Canada forwarders by the way of Queenstown. That road was better. There were more teams and wagons on that side of the river, more capital, and many other advantages over the new beginners on the American side.
The business required to be done at that early day and indeed to the time of the expiration of the renewed lease in 1821, was very limited.
About thirty years ago, I published in one of the Buffalo papers, and think it was the Niagara Patriot, edited by Heze- kiah A. Salisbury, a particular account of all the property which passed up and down the Niagara river that season. The firm with which I was connected, Sill, Thompson & Co., was the only one engaged in the river transportation on the American side, and all property passed through our hands. It made a respectable appearance at that day. We thought it a good business and so did every body else. I have looked over the files of old newspapers in this Association to find it, but as the files are not complete, did not succeed. My object was to institute a comparison of the business then and now.
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The business done on the Erie Canal to and from Buffalo in 1847, I have appended to this paper, but as it forms a mass of figures, I will not read it. From my recollection of the business of 1818, the whole amount, neither in quantity or value was as much as was done on Buffalo Creek in 1847 in a single day, during our busiest time.
There was nothing coming from the west until after the war, except a few furs, and peltries ; and the greater part of the up business was the transportation of salt, a little mer- chandise for the merchants of the small village of Buffalo, and the fur and other traders at the west, the Government annui- ties for the Indians, and the clothing and supplies for the few troops at the several posts around the Upper Lakes.
Porter, Barton & Co. owned two boats of about twenty tons each for the river business ; one of these, loaded with salt, in attempting to sail from Schlosser, through between Grand and Navy Islands, got into the strong current, where the wind failed, them, and the water being too deep to use their setting poles, the whole were carried over the Falls except one man, who succeeded in reaching Goat (now Iris) Island. Capt. William Valentine commanded the boat. I am not able to state precisely the year when this occurred, but it was sometime previous to the war of 1812.
They built a warehouse, nearly opposite the place where the new mill on the Black Rock pier above Squaw Island is being erected ; and a store for retailing merchandize on a point of rocks on the river, at the foot of the ravine or gully where Niagara street, leading from Buffalo, approaches near the bank. The road from Ketchum's corner, (now the Gardens) kept along the crown of the ridge, and fell into the road from Buffalo, a short distance west of the Poor House, and then descended the gully I have mentioned, to the spot where the ferry across the river was kept. At the foot of the hill, and
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south of the road, Major Frederick Miller, kept for several years a tavern in a log house. The greatest part of the travel for many years between Buffalo and Black Rock, was round by the way of the beach of the lake.
Porter, Barton & Co., put up the walls of a store house on Bird Island, whielt was then a cluster of rocks and gravel above the water, for two or three acres, and upon which grew a few bushes; but the swells from the lake during a high storm beat them down. Much of the stone from this island, as well as from the reefs above, were afterwards used in constructing Buffalo and Black Rock piers.
Subsequently to the attempt to erect a storehouse upon the Island, they put up a large pier with a shed upon it, under the lee of the island, to deposite salt and other property on, and here the vessels used to come and get their loading. The pro- perty was hauled up the rapids to this place in the boats which brought it up from Schlosser. This was the mode adopted be- fore the war, to obviate the difficulty and delay to vessels, in getting up the rapids. After the war they always descended the rapids, and when the wind was not strong enough to take them into the lake, horse and ox teams were used to tow them up.
At the commencement of the war of 1812, three or four of the small vessels navigating the lake were laid up in Ska-joe- quad-da Creek. They were purchased by the Government. and during the winter of 1812 and 1813, were fitted up as war vessels, together with the brig Caledonia, a British vessel cut out in October previous, with the Americanbrig Adams (which had been surrendered by General Hull at Detroit, from under the guns of Fort Erie) by a party of seaman and soldiers, under the command of Lieut., afterwards Capt. Elliot, of the Navy. Capt. James Sloan, of this city, was one of pilots on that occa- sion. The brig Adams, in descending the river in the night, ran E
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aground near the head, on the outer side of Squaw Island, and not being able to get her afloat, she was burnt at that place. The brig Caledonia also grounded in the rapids, but after great exertion and difficulty, was saved with her cargo of furs and peltries, of considerable value.
These furs and peltries were taken from the vessel and de- posited in a slightly constructed building inside of a large battery called "Fort Tompkins," on the hill above the old ferry. Soon after, during a cannonading across the river, a shell or hot shot was thrown by the enemy, the building set on fire and some · of the furs destroyed.
On the top of the bank, on the south side of the creek, be- tween the road and river, a strong battery and block house'
"Early in the morning before day light, of the 11th of July, 1813, a party of British troops, abont three hundred in number, commanded by Col. Bishop, crossed the Niagara river below Squaw Island, seized this block house and burnt it, together with the tempo- rary barracks erected for the use of the seanien while fitting out the vessels. The party then moved up into the village of Black Rock. Gen Porter's house was nearly sur- rounded before the enemy was discovered. The General had barely time to make his escape and flee to the woods. The British took possession of the store house on the wharf, and were busily engaged in taking out the flour, whiskey, &c. which it con- tained. During this time, Gen. Porter made his way to Buffalo, where Capt. Cum- mings, of the regular army, had under his command, of foot and dragoon soldiers, less than one hundred men. These, of course, were ready at a moment's notice, and the General having rallied some of the Militia which fled from Black Rock when the Brit- ich entered it, and Capt. Bull, (now of Canandaigua,) and many of the citizens of Buf- falo, promptly arming and volunteering their services, and receiving the aid of about thirty Seneca Indians, the whole force proceeded to Black Rock and made a spirited attack on Col. Bishop, defeated and drove him and his party into their boats and across the river. Col. Bishop was dangerously wounded, and Capt. Saunders of the 49th regiment. badiy, though not mortally wounded, was taken prisoner.
The spot where this block house stood, became distinguished before the close of the war, as the theatre of a most brilliant affair.
It is well known that the American army, after the severe battle of Lundy's Lane, on the 25th of July, 1814, retired to Fort Erie, where they hastily threw up additional works for defence. Gen. Drummond, with the British Army, greatly superior in force, imine- chately followed and invested the works, and constant cannonading and fighting occur- i'd between the armies for about fifty days. The provisions and supplies quite ( unpro- tected ) for the American Army, were in deposite at Buffalo, and were sent across the river as they were wanted.
During the investment. Gen. Drummond, before daylight on the 5th of August, sent Col. Tucker with more than 1100 British regular troops across the Niagara river. They
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were erected, called "The Sailors' Battery," for the protection of the vessels while fitting out.
On the 27th of May, 1813, Fort George at the mouth of the river was taken by the American army under Gen. Dearborn. Col. Preston, afterwards Governor of Virginia, then in command of Black Rock, crossed the river, and took possession of Fort Erie, and the whole frontier between the lakes fell into our possession. The vessels availing themselves of the absence of" the enemy from the opposite shore, early in June, embraced the first fair wind and ascended the rapids and joined Commodore Perry at Erie, and formed part of his fleet in the glorious victo- ry of the 10th of September, of that year.
At the land sale in Albany, in 1805, Birdsey Norton, of Con- necticut, the Rev. John McDonald, of Albany, father-in-law of Archibald M'Intire, (for many years Comptroller of the State.)
landed a mile or two below this creek. The object Col. Tucker had in view, was to penetrate to Buffalo, break up our hospitals, which stood near where the Western Hotel is, destroy the Army supplies, and thus compel the troops in Fort Erie to surrender .- This purpose was frustrated by the timely arrival of Maj. L. Morgan with a small bat- tallion of riflemen, about 250 in number, a day or two before. Maj. Morgan's com- mand was stationed on the spot where the old block house stood, directly in front of, and near the bridge across the creek, over which Col. Tucker intended to pass. There hap- pened to be a number of large sticks of hewn timber lying on the bank, and upon dis- covering the landing of the British troops. he hastily piled this timber up as a breast- work. He also removed a few planks from the bridge. The enemy in attempting to cross the bridge were received by the deadly fire of the riflemen and driven back. The attempt was repeated several times, but with the same result, and the water in the creek being too deep to ford, after fighting three hours, and suffering severe loss. the enemy re-crossed the river defeated and disappointed. The next week, Major Morgan was slain in a slight skirmish in the rear of Fort Erie, being almost the only man injured on the occasion.
On the 15th of Angust, a few hours before daylight, nearly the whole British Army made a furious assault on the American forces under the command of Gen: Gaines, in Fort Erie, and were most signally defeated, losing but little short of 1000 men. the American loss 70 or 80. Early in September, the Militia of Western New York began to assemble at Buffalo. Enough of them volunteered to cross the river to relieve the army in Fort Erie, and enable it to act offensively. On the 17th. Gov. Brown, who had recovered from his wonuds and assumed the command, made his gallant sortie, which resulted in the entire destruction of the besiegers' batteries, block houses and cannon, and defeat and capture of most of the troops employed in them. A few days subsequent Gen. Drummond broke up his long siege and moved down the river.
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John M'Lean of Orange county, (for a long time Commissary General,) Augustus and Peter B. Porter, Benjamin Barton and Joseph Annin, purchased four farm lots containing about seven hundred acres of land south of and adjoining Ska-joc-quad-da creek, which they had surveyed into a village plot in 1811, by Apollus Stevens, and called Black Rock.
Thick woods and heavy timber covered the ground from Staats' factory in this city, far below the residence of the late Gen. Porter. The clearing away of the woods, the construction of the canal and the opening of the large stone quarries on the river bank at Black Rock, have so completely changed the appearance of things at that place, that it retains but little re- semblance to its former condition.
The city of Buffalo was laid out into a village plot in 1804, by Joseph Ellicott, and named New Amsterdam. Although I saw the place at an early day, yet there are many residing here, who are much better acquainted with its early ap? pearance and the changes that have since taken place. I will leave the task of describing it to them.
I am well aware I have detained you long, perhaps too long; in the rambling and discursive course I have taken in my re- marks. In running over such an extensive district of country as I have done, I had one particular object in view. I wished to call the minds of the rising population which is now filling up the country, to the contemplation of these astonishing facts : -- That tho' between the years 1787 and 1847, we were enga- ged in a three years' war with England, and for seven other years the whole North Western Territory was disrupted by the Indian difficulties in it, and which impeded the settlement of the country-yet, no more than sixty years have passed away. since the great country around these lakes, from the banks of the Seneca Lake to the Mississippi river, was an unbroken wilderness. That its whole population at that time did not
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exceed four thousand white inhabitants without towns or farms, business or agriculture, and that the principal means of subsistence were a little corn and the game in the woods. That this same district of country now contains a vigorous, intelligent and enterprising population, but little, if any, less than six millions, with many large and beautiful cities, rising towns, richly cultivated farms, churches in every direction for the worship of God-colleges, academies and other institutions of learning in large numbers-manufactures and the arts in a flourishing condition, and the blessings and comforts of wealth surrounding us in the most profuse manner. That it is but fifty years since the first little vessel was built, that we ever had on these great lakes, which are now covered with the magnificent fleets of steam and sail vessels crowding our port to overflowing, bringing to and carrying away the pro- ductions of agriculture and the arts. That the rivers of the west leading from the same district of country, are filled with steam and other craft ; and that the annual transit of property through these rivers and over our magnificent lakes, exceeds in value by many millions of dollars, the whole foreign com- merce of the union with all the nations of the world !
Truly, we have cause to be proud of the land we live in. and of our glorious institutions which permit us to exercise to the fullest extent, the best faculties which God has given to us -and a high duty falls upon us, continually to advance the prosperity of, and to be ever ready and willing to guard, preserve and defend our rich inheritance.
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ERRATA.
At page 35 in the note, for " Mr. Rogere," read Mir. Rogers. page 33 third line from bettern, for .. Buff," read Brutt. page 41 last line, for " Simon," read Simeon. page 57 seventh line, for " Mr. Donald," read McDonald.
page 67 in note, fifth line from bottom, for "Goc " Brown, read Gen. Brown.
F 851.075
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