USA > New York > Erie County > Centennial history of Erie County, New York : being its annals from the earliest recorded events to the hundredth year of American independence > Part 38
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One of the most decided cases of official long life was that of Moses McArthur, who was supervisor of Holland for fourteen years, after having previously held the same position in Wales for two years. His terms, however, were not in regular suc- cession, but extended from 1833 to 1851. There were several intervals filled by some one else, but every time the people fell back on Moses McArthur. Jonathan Hascall, Jr., whose elec- tion as first supervisor of Brant I have just mentioned, also had a career of remarkable official longevity. He had been super- visor of Evans several terms, and on the organization of Brant he was thirteen times elected its chief officer. So great was his local influence that he was popularly known throughout the county by the name of "King Hascall." In later years only one supervisor has remained in office eight years, and the aver- age time of holding the position has been only about half what it was before 1840.
There was little or no change for the better in the financial situation during the last two years of the decade, and the coun-
28
426
" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO."
try grew more and more whiggish. In the fall of 1839, three Whigs, Seth C. Hawley, of Buffalo, Stephen Osborn, of Clar- ence or Newstead, (the ex-sheriff), and Aaron Salisbury, of Evans, were chosen to represent Erie county in the assembly.
The next year came the great excitement of the Harrison campaign. Erie county was one of the greatest strongholds of whiggery in the United States, and probably developed more than the average amount of the enthusiasm then so prevalent. Nowhere were there more log cabins erected, more hard cider drank, or more coon skins displayed, and nowhere were there louder shouts for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
When election day came the Harrison electoral ticket received nearly two to one in this county, and was triumphantly elected in the nation. Henry W. Seymour was the Presidential elector for this district.
For the fourth time Millard Fillmore was chosen as represent- ative in Congress, that being one term longer than any other member from Erie county has ever held that office. Lorenzo Brown was elected sheriff, and Noah P. Sprague county clerk. The assemblymen chosen were Seth C. Hawley and Stephen Osborn, reelected, and Dr. Carlos Emmons, of Springville.
The general depression is shown by the fact that the popula- tion of Buffalo in 1840 had only increased a fraction less than ten per cent. over that of 1835, having reached the number of 18,213. The population of the whole county was 62,465, an in- crease of ten and a fifth per cent. over 1835. This is the only instance of the county's increasing faster than the city.
In 1839 a new court of record was established in Buffalo, for the benefit of city litigants, the judge of which was called the recorder. Horatio J. Stow was appointed the first recorder, holding his office for four years.
In 1840 a very important business was started at Akron. A Mr. Delano opened a quarry of water-limestone, and began to prepare the lime for market. There had previously been some small works established at Williamsville, but the Akron water- lime soon took the lead, and its manufacture has ever since been increasing in importance. The small village, existing at that point in 1840, rapidly increased under the stimulus of the new industry, and has ever since steadily kept pace with it.
427
MODERN TIMES.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
1841 TO 1845.
The Historic Period Passing Away .- New Treaty with the Indians .- The Tona- wanda Reservation Given to them in Fee .- They Surrender the Buffalo Creek Reservation .- Its Occupation by the Whites .- Senators, Assemblymen, etc. -Supervisors .- The Bar of Erie County .- A Brilliant Galaxy.
We have now reached a period within the memory of thou- sands of not very aged persons, throughout the county. More- over, the events and circumstances of historic interest have nearly all been passed in review. After describing the hardships of pioneer life, the stirring scenes of border war, the construction of vast public works, and the general growth of the county from a state of nature to that of a civilized community, it would be alike tedious and impracticable to recount with equal par- ticularity the routine life of contemporary existence. The re- maining portion of the county's history will therefore be more rapidly passed over. It will not be practicable to note the building of churches, and similar minor events, but I will en- deavor to make mention of all facts of especial prominence.
During the period under consideration in this chapter, the county was slowly recovering from the terrible financial crisis heretofore described. It was not till near 1845 that it could be considered to have fully regained a healthy condition, by which time moderate prosperity was the rule throughout its borders, as distinguished from the feverish fortune-making of ten years before. The emigration from Germany steadily continued, and in 1841 the men of culture of that nationality, in Buffalo, es- tablished the German Young Men's Association, which has ever since remained the nucleus of German literary culture in that city.
In 1842, the Buffalo and Attica railroad was completed, giving the former place its first railroad connection with the East. Travel westward was still by boat in summer, and by stage in winter. This was a grand time for Buffalo hotels. Every traveler had
.
428
BUFFALO CREEK RESERVATION.
to stay in town at least one meal, generally over night, and fre- quently, in spring and fall, for several days.
So much opposition was made by the Indians to surren- dering their lands, under the deed made by a portion of their chiefs in 1838, and so unsavory were the developments in regard to the manner in which the sanction of those chiefs was obtained, that no attempt was made to take possession of the reserva- tions. In May, 1842, however, a new agreement was made, by which the Ogden Company allowed the Senecas to retain the Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations, (subject to the compa- ny's preemption right) and the Indians gave up the Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda tracts, on condition of receiving their proportionate value. That is to say, the value of all four of the reservations was estimated as before at $100,000, and the value of the improvements at $102,000, and the company agreed to pay the proportion of $100,000 which, according to the decision of arbitrators, the possession of the Buffalo Creek and Tona- wanda reservations bore to the possession of the whole, and the proportion of $102,000 which the improvements on those reservations bore to the improvements on the whole. This was satisfactory to the Buffalo Creek Indians, but not to the Tonawandians.
Arbitrators duly chosen decided that the proportionate value of the Indian title of those two reservations was $75,000, and that of the improvements on them $59,000. They also awarded the portion of the $59,000 due to each Indian on the Buffalo reservation, but could not do it on the Tonawanda one, because the inhabitants of the latter refused to let them come on the reservation to make an appraisal. After some two years, one of the claimants undertook to expel one of the Tonawanda Indi- ans by force, whereupon he sued them and recovered judgment ; the courts deciding that the proper steps had not been taken to justify the claimant's action. Finally, to end the controversy, the United States opened its purse, as it has so often done before and since to help individuals. The government bought the en- tire claim of the Ogden Company to the Tonawanda reserva- tion, and presented it to the Indians residing there. Consequently they now own the "fee-simple" of the land as well as the pos- sessory right. That is, they hold it by the same title by which
429
EDEN AND MARILLA.
white men own their lands, except that the fee is in the whole tribe, and not in the individual members.
Meanwhile the Buffalo Indians quietly received the money allotted to them, and, after a year or two allowed for prepara- tion, they in 1843 and '44 abandoned the home where they had dwelt for over sixty years, and which had been a favorite ren- dezvous of their nation for near two centuries. Most of them joined their brethren on the Cattaraugus reservation, some went to that on the Allegany, and a few removed to lands allotted them in Kansas.
The company immediately had the land surveyed and divided among the members, who began selling it. Settlers began to oc- cupy Elma, and that part of Marilla not included in the purchase of 1826. Even before the Indians removed, Zina A. Hemstreet had previously been allowed to establish a saw-mill at the point, long known as Hemstreet's Mills, now generally called East Elma. Soon a log tavern and a few houses were erected on the site of the present village of Spring Brook. Messrs. Hurd and Briggs came to the site of Elma village in 1845, (or possibly in 1846,) and established large saw-mills there. Ten or a dozen Indian families were still occupying their little clearings in that vicinity. "Little Jo.," "Isaac Jonnyjohn " and "Little Jo.'s Boy," were among the appellations of the heads of these ancient houses. In a year or two more most of them went to the Cat- taraugus reservation, and their clearings were occupied by white settlers. New clearings, too, were made here and there, log houses were erected, and all over the reservation the traveler witnessed a reproduction of the scenes of pioneer life. The old towns, it will be remembered, still ran to the center of the reser- vation, so that the newly opened territory belonged to Black Rock, Cheektowaga, Lancaster and Alden, on the north, and to Hamburg, Aurora and Wales on the south.
The increase by the settlement of this new territory was but slight during the period under consideration, and the county was but partially recovered from the great downfall of 1837, yet the census of 1845 found us with a population of 78,635, against 62,465 in 1840. Buffalo had 29,773 in 1845, to 18,213 in 1840. Though still strongly Whig, the county was not so overwhelm- ingly so in the previous years. The old anti-masonic feeling was
430
POLITICAL AND JOURNALISTIC.
passing away, new settlers of various politics were coming in, even among the Americans, and the immigrants of foreign birth were very largely Democratic.
In 1842, Mr. Fillmore declined a reelection to the office which he had so long and so creditably filled. During the last two years of his service he was chairman of the commitee of ways and means, the most important post in the house of rep- resentatives next to that of speaker, and discharged its duties with marked ability and fidelity. The judicial quality of his
mind was especially noticed. Said the veteran statesman, John Quincy Adams, of Mr. Fillmore, in the fall of 1842: "He was one of the ablest, most faithful, and fairest-minded men with whom it has ever been my lot to serve in public life." William A. Moseley was elected to Congress in Mr. F.'s place.
In 1844, when Henry Clay was nominated for President by the Whig national convention, Mr. Fillmore's name was pre- sented by the delegates from New York, and from some of the Western States, for the second place on the ticket. Mr. Freling- huysen was, however, selected, and then the Whigs, with hardly a division, chose Mr. F. as their candidate for governor. The State, however, as well as the nation, went for Polk, and Silas Wright was elected governor. Jonathan Hascall, Jr., of Brant, was the presidential elector from this county. Dr. Carlos Em- mons, of Springville, was chosen State senator.
By this time that pleasant village-Springville-had become of sufficient importance to sustain a newspaper, and the Spring- ville Express was established ; being published there for four years. In 1845 the Buffalo Daily Express was founded by A. M. Clapp. The Buffalo Daily Telegraph, a German paper, was established the same year, and Dr. Austin Flint founded the Buffalo Medical Journal, a monthly devoted to medical science.
In the fall of 1841 the people elected to the assembly Squire S. Case of Buffalo, William A. Bird of Black Rock, and Bela Colegrove of Sardinia. In 1842 they chose George R. Babcock of Buffalo, Wells Brooks of Concord, and Milton McNeal of Lancaster. In 1843 the successful candidates were Daniel Lee of Buffalo, Amos Wright of Clarence, and Elisha Smith of Hamburg. In 1844, Daniel Lee was reëlected, his associates
431
SUPERVISORS FOR FIVE YEARS.
being Truman Dewey of Evans, and John T. Bush of Tona- wanda. The next year Mr. Bush was reelected, his colleagues being Judge Nathan K. Hall of Buffalo, and James Wood, the Wales pioneer.
In 1843 Manly Colton, of Buffalo, was elected county clerk, and Ralph Plumb, of Collins, sheriff. Thomas C. Love, the ex- congressman, was appointed surrogate in 1841, and succeeded by Peter M. Vosburgh, of Aurora, in 1845. Henry W. Rogers was appointed district attorney in 1841, and Solomon G. Haven in 1844. Nathan K. Hall was appointed first judge of the Com- mon Pleas in 1842, but resigned in 1845, being succeeded by Frederick P. Stevens.
The mayors of Buffalo for this semi-decade were Isaac R. Harrington in 1841, George W. Clinton in 1842, Joseph G. Masten in 1843 and '45, and William Ketchum in 1844.
The records of supervisors for this period are nearly complete, except in the city of Buffalo, where there appears to have been none preserved until 1844. So far as known the list is as follows:
Amherst, 1841, '42 and '43, Timothy A. Hopkins ; 1844 and '45, John Hershey. Alden, 1841 and '42, Dexter Ewell ; 1843, 44 and '45, John D. Howe. Aurora, 1841, '42 and '44, Thomas Thurston ; 1843, Jonathan Hoyt ; 1845, Hezekiah Moshier. Boston, 1840 and '41, Epaphras Steele ; 1842, Ezra Chaffee ; 1843, John Brooks; 1844, Orrin Lockwood. Black Rock, 1841 and '45, William A. Bird ; 1842, Alvan Dodge ; 1843, Samuel Ely ; 1844, Robert McPherson. Brant, 1841, '42, '43 and '44, Jonathan Hascall, Jr. ; 1845, Job Southwick.
Buffalo, Ist ward, 1844, Walter S. Hunn, 1845, Charles S. Pierce ; 2d ward, 1844 and '45, Noah H. Gardner ; 3d ward, 1844 and '45, Henry Daw ; 4th ward, 1844, George W. Clinton, 1845, Dyre Tillinghast ; 5th ward, 1844, John M. Bull, 1845, Francis C. Brunck.
Clarence, 1841, Thomas Durboraw; 1842 and '44, Archibald Thompson ; 1843 and '45, Orsamus Warren. Colden, 1841, '42 and '43. Philo P. Barber ; 1844, Samuel B. Love ; 1845, Benja- min Maltby. Cheektowaga, 1841, '43 and '44, Alexander Hitch- cock; 1842, Darius Kingsley ; 1845, James Warner. Collins, 1841, '42 and '43, Ralph Plumb ; 1844 and '45, John L. Henry. Hamburg, 1841, Elisha Smith ; 1842, Isaac Deuel; 1843, Joseph Foster ; 1844, Clark Dart; 1845, Amos Chilcott. Holland, 1841, Samuel Corliss ; 1842, '43, '44 and '45, Moses McArthur. Lancaster, 1841, Norman R. Dewey ; 1842, '44 and '45, Mil- ton McNeal ; 1843, Elijah M. Safford. Eden, 1841, '44 and
432
THE ERIE COUNTY BAR.
45, William H. Pratt ; 1842, James Tefft ; 1843, Harvey Caryl. Sardinia, 1841 and '45, Bela H. Colegrove ; 1842 and '44, Fred- erick Richmond ; 1843, George- Bigelow. Wales, 1841, Ira G. Watson ; 1842, Elon Virgil ; 1843 and '44, Isaac Brayton ; 1845, David S. Warner.
These were the halcyon days of the Erie county bar. Un- less all traditions are utterly false, our county, during the period from 1830 to 1850, was distinguished by a galaxy of legal lumi- naries hardly surpassed in the State ; a galaxy which probably reached its greatest brilliancy between 1840 and 1845.
The celebrated firm of Fillmore, Hall & Haven had dissolved, and its second member had gone upon the bench, but juries were still occasionally swayed by the persuasive yet candid ad- vocacy of Millard Fillmore, and often delighted by the wit and tact of Solomon G. Haven. Then the old court-house, which has just been torn down, rang with the fiery denunciations of Henry K. Smith, whose dark features and fervid speech re- minded one of the Cuban shore on which he was born. Then a younger orator, of elegant yet commanding presence, lifted up his voice in tones of alternate pathos and scorn, till men from both city and country willingly surrendered their hearts to the eloquence of Eli Cook. Then Thomas T. Sherwood fumed and fretted around the bar, and thundered in somewhat sledge- hammer style, but all the while kept up an excellent understand- ing with the jury, forced his own ideas into them by main strength, and carried verdicts by the score. Mr. S. seems to have been predisposed toward his overwhelming style of con- ducting a case, not only by his temper but his judgment. He believed in pounding. On one occasion the junior counsel in a suit in which he was engaged opened the case to the jury. As he was about to close, Mr. Sherwood got his ear and whispered :
"Go over with the case again, and make this point-and this one-and this one."
" Why," replied the surprised junior, " I have made all those points already."
" Yes, I know," said Sherwood, "but hammer it into them- hammer it into them." And by "hammering it into them," he gained many a case.
Of a far different order of mind, deliberate and impressive in speech, logical in intellect, and thoroughly versed in legal lore,
433
GEORGE P. BARKER.
was John L. Talcott, one of the few survivors of that brilliant throng. A. H. Tracy seldom appeared in the legal arena, but was recognized as possessing forensic abilities of the highest class. The veteran Potter, the Nestor of the profession, was an au- thority on every thing relating to real estate, and his partner, George R. Babcock, had already attained a prominent position.
Henry W. Rogers, who was district-attorney during most of the period in question, ranked high as a learned and successful practitioner, as did also Congressman Moseley, Dyre Tillinghast, Benj. H. Austin and the future judge, Seth E. Sill. The county had not been so fully absorbed into the city as now, and Albert Sawin and Lafayette Carver, of Aurora, Wells Brooks and C. C. Severance, of Springville, and some others, were resorted to by numerous clients.
But the bright particular star of the bar of Erie county, the orator on whose lips juries and audiences hung with most intense delight, was George P. Barker. The period of his great brilliancy extended from about 1835 to '45, during the last three years of which time he was State attorney-general, when his health began to decline as he drew toward the close of his brief and brilliant career. Others might have had a better knowledge of law, more logical methods of argument, or more skill in the management of cases, but none had such wondrous powers of language, none had such control over the feelings of an audience. No matter whether in the court-room or on the political platform, whether in city hall or on back-woods stump, his name never failed to draw a numerous audience, and his voice never failed to charm those whom his name had drawn. Being a radical Democrat, his party was in a hopeless minority in the county and the dis- trict, but he clung to it with unwavering fidelity. Had fortune given power to his political friends, he would doubtless have been chosen to represent them in Congress, and would have been expected to measure lances with the most brilliant pala- dins of debate in the national tournament.
434
RETURN OF PROSPERITY.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
1846 TO 1850.
Prosperity .- The University of Buffalo .- The Medical Department. - Hamilton, Flint and White .- The New Constitution .- Officials of the Period .- Mr. Filmore Nominated for Vice-President .- The Free-Soil Movement. - The Buffalo Convention .- Mr. Fillmore Elected Vice-President .- He Becomes President .- The Compromise Measures .- Mr. Haven Elected to Congress. -Hamburg Divided .- Mayors and Supervisors .- The Ebenezer Society .- German Progress.
We now find the subject of this history in a condition of decid- ed prosperity. Money was reasonably plenty, without being so abundant as to cause fears of another crash. After long years of labor, most of the farmers had their land paid for, or so nearly as to be able to see their way through. On all the back roads handsome farm-houses were being erected in place of the log structures of primeval times. New churches sent up their spires in almost every hamlet, and the old log or red frame school- house was frequently replaced by a neat, white building, the typical American school-house of the present day.
The villages showed less improvement than the farming coun- try ; for Buffalo more and more absorbed the trade of all the country around. That city was again on the high tide of suc- cess. No financial depression could long hinder the growth of the mighty West, and, as there were no through lines of railway, its produce must be poured through the Erie canal. Great fleets transferred their cargoes of grain from the lake to the canal, at Buffalo, and the vicinity of the harbor swarmed with thousands of laborers.
New streets were laid out, and old ones pushed their way far- ther into the country. New and better buildings rose, too, on the sites of old ones, but not of a very high order ; Buffalo has .never been distinguished by the splendor of its architecture. The grand crash of 1836 came too soon to allow the newly- found wealth of the citizens to bloom into architectural magnifi- cence, and probably remembrance of it has tended very strongly
435
BUFFALO MEDICAL COLLEGE.
to repress all seven-story aspirations. Not only has no attempt been made to equal Rathbun's abortive Exchange, but the busi- ness blocks of Buffalo are plainer in appearance than those of almost any other city of its size in the country.
One grand project was originated about 1845, but it was only partially carried out. This was the "University of Buffalo." A charter was procured for a grand institution of learning, in- tended to rival Harvard and Yale, with separate departments for the liberal professions. Under this charter, the medical de- partment was organized in August, 1846, as the Buffalo Medical College. It soon took, and has ever since maintained, high rank among American institutions of that class, while the university of which it was to be a part has disappeared even from the imaginations of men.
Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, Dr. Austin Flint and Dr. James P. White soon took the lead among the instructors of the infant college, and are designated as its founders by those who best know its history. After bringing the institution to a high de- gree of efficiency, Hamilton and Flint went to the city of New York, where they now stand in the front rank of the physicians of the metropolis, while Dr. White remained at the head of the Buffalo college.
In 1846 a new State constitution was formed, being, except some amendments, the same under which we now live. By its provisions, judges, district-attorneys and nearly all other officers were to be elected by the people. It also provided that senators should hold but for two years, and that there should be a sen- atorial district for every senator, and an assembly district for every assemblyman. The court of Common Pleas was ex- changed for a county court, presided over by a county judge. There were no associate judges, but in criminal cases he was to be assisted by two justices of sessions. The State was also divided into eight judicial districts, each of which elected four justices of the Supreme Court, Eric county being in the eighth district. The new constitution was ratified by the people in 1846, but no officers were elected under it until the next year.
In the fall of 1846, Timothy A. Hopkins of Amherst, son of the early pioneer and soldier, General Hopkins, was elected sheriff, and Moses Bristol of Buffalo, county clerk. At the same
436
A DEMOCRATIC VICTORY.
time Horatio Shumway of Buffalo, John D. Howe of Alden. William H. Pratt of Eden, and Obadiah J. Green of Sardinia, were elected to the assembly. The increase from three to four members was the result of the new apportionment. under the census of 1845.
A special election was held in June, 1847. to choose judi- cial officers and district-attorneys, as directed by the new con- stitution. The eighth judicial district being overwhelmingly Whig, four Whig justices of the Supreme Court were elected. among whom were Seth E. Sill of Buffalo, and James Muliett of Chautauqua county, who also kept an office in Buffalo. In this county, however, owing to a defection among the Whigs, all their candidates were defeated-for the first time since the organiza- tion of the party. The Democrats elected Frederick P. Stevens county judge. Peter M. Vosburgh surrogate, and Benjamin H. Austin district-attorney.
In the succeeding autumn the first State officers were chosen under the new constitution. Millard Fillmore was nominated by the Whigs for comptroller. The fight between the " Hunker" and " Barnburner" wings of the Democracy was then in full blast. and Mr. Fillmore and his associates were elected by a large ma- jority. At the same time John T. Bush, of Tonawanda, was chosen as State senator from the 3Ist senatorial district. (Erie county.) with the following assemblymen : Elbridge G. Spauld- ing and Harry Slade of Buffalo. Ira E. Irish of Hamburg, and C. C. Severance of Concord.
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