USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume II > Part 39
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In 1843 Frederick Moll and his associates bought 820 acres for a German Evangelical Lutheran colony and laid out the village of Bergholtz in the central part of the town. Christian Wolf was the first merchant there and John Sy was the first post- master when the office was established in 1850. In 1828 Timothy Shaw and Volney Spalding established a store and ashery in the northeast part of the town, and the settlement that grew up around this place was given the name of Shawnee, after Mr. Shaw. St. Johnsburg had a postoffice in 1846, which has now been discontinued.
On April 10, 1818, the eastern part of Porter was set off as the town of Wilson, which then included part of the present town of Newfane. The first town meeting was held at the house of David Porter April 6, 1819, when the following officers were elected:
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Reuben Wilson, for whom the town was named, supervisor; Daniel Holmes, clerk; David Burgess, John Carter and Henry Lockwood, assessors; Oramel Hartwell, collector and constable; Joshua D. Collier, constable. Only a few settlers came into the town prior to the War of 1812. Among these were: Erastus Barnard, John Eastman, Robert Edwards, Henry Lockwood, Elijah Mal- lory, Gilbert Purdy, Stephen Sheldon, Robert Waterhouse, Reu- ben Wilson and three German families from the Mohawk Valley. In 1811 the highway known as the Lake Shore road was opened from Fort Niagara and the first settlements were made along this road. One of the first settlements, about which grew up saw and grist mills, was that of Wilson. A postoffice was estab- lished here in 1825. The village was regularly surveyed and platted in 1827 and on May 11, 1858, it was incorporated.
There are three leading cities in Niagara County-Niagara Falls, Lockport and North Tonawanda. Of these, Lockport was the first city and the first village incorporated, has been the county seat for nearly a century, and secured this honor prin- cipally on account of the Erie Canal. As early as 1820 there were a few unfinished log houses on the site of the village, but the coming of the Erie Canal in 1821 (which had been in the course of construction elsewhere since 1817), decided the future of the community and it immediately began to grow. Among the first purchasers of real estate from the Holland Land Company, on the site, were: Esek Brown, John Comstock, Zerro Comstock, Webster Thorn, Daniel Smith, David Fink, Almon H. Millard, Reuben Haines, Joseph Otis, Asabel Smith, Nathan B. Rogers, Daniel Washburn and James Conkley. Esek Brown was the first tavern keeper. George W. Rogers was the first blacksmith; the firm of Shepard and Tonner was the first engaged in shoe- making; Elliott Lewis was the first harnessmaker and John Jack- son the first baker. Lockport received its name from the Erie Canal locks in the heart of the city. The canal was completed through Lockport in 1825 and the future of the place was de- cided. On March 26, 1829, the legislature incorporated Lock- port as a village, and at the first village election Joel McCollum, Levi Taylor, Levi E. Rounds, Joshua G. Driscoll and James F. Mason were elected trustees. Lockport was incorporated as a city April 11, 1865; the first mayor was Benjamin Carpenter.
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Lockport is the home of the institution known as the Lock- port Home for the Friendless, which was established very soon after the Civil War.
The present city of Niagara Falls was formed by the consoli- dation of the villages of Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge. On Champlain's map of 1632 is shown the location of the great cataract from which the city of Niagara Falls derives its name. Father Ragueneau, in his description of Lakes Erie and Ontario in 1648 speaks of a waterfall of "frightful hight," but the first real description of the natural wonder was written by Louis Hennepin, the Franciscan friar who accompanied La Salle to the Great Lakes region late in the year 1678.
In his journal for 1761, Sir William Johnson states that Sir Jeffrey Amherst had granted permission to a company of traders to establish a post at the place afterward known as the "Upper Landing," and that "a large house is in the process of erection for their use." About a year before this was written, the Sted- mans, John, Philip and William, came to the falls and the large house mentioned by Sir William was occupied by them. They were the first settlers within the present city limits and are men- tioned in a preceding paragraph. In the one-mile strip claimed by John Stedman along the Niagara River, and offered for sale by the state in 1805, Augustus and Peter B. Porter, natives of Connecticut, were among the purchasers. These two men became very prominent in local affairs.
Augustus Porter was born in January, 1769. He studied surveying and in 1789 was engaged by the proprietors of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase to assist in the surveys. In 1792 he acted with Andrew Ellicott, surveyor-general of the United States, in making the corrected survey of the preemption line, and a little later settled at Canandaigua. He built the first saw- mill at Niagara Falls in 1805 and brought his family there the next year, occupying the old Stedman house until he could erect a new dwelling. In 1807 he built the first grist mill at the Falls. He was the first postmaster at that place when the office was established under the name of Manchester. In 1816 he pur- chased Goat Island and built the first bridge connecting it with the shore. That island remained the property of the Porter family until it was made a part of the state reservation in 1885.
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Mr. Porter was the first judge of the court of common pleas in Niagara County. In 1821 he was elected supervisor for the town of Niagara, but resigned to become a candidate for Congress. In 1847 he outlined the plan upon which the hydraulic canal was afterward built. He died at Niagara Falls in 1864.
Peter B. Porter, born in 1773, settled at Canandaigua in 1795; was clerk of Ontario County from 1797 to 1804; removed to Niagara County about 1806 and settled at Black Rock; com- manded the volunteers and Indians in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814; took part in the battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, and was made brevet major-general of militia. From 1809 to 1815 he was a member of Congress, resigning his seat in Febru- ary, 1815, to accept the appointment of secretary of state of New York. He was a member of the commission to adjust the international boundary between the United States and Canada in 1819 and was secretary of war in President John Quincy Adams' cabinet in 1828. He died at Niagara Falls in March, 1844.
Enos Broughton opened a tavern in the old Stedman house in 1807, and the same year the first school was taught. The teacher was probably Ezekiel Hill. Samuel DeVeaux, who was appointed commissary at Fort Niagara in 1807, established the first store at the Falls a little later. Parkhurst Whitney opened the Eagle Tavern in 1820; the rolling mill and nail factory of Bolls & Gay began operations in 1822; Jesse Symonds erected a paper mill near the Goat Island bridge in 1823; a larger paper mill was built on Bath Island in 1826 by Porter & Clark; the upper race was enlarged and extended in 1828 and several new industrial establishments came into existence.
During the twenty years following 1828 the growth of the village, which Augustus Porter had christened Manchester, but which come to be generally known by the name of Niagara Falls, was slow but constant. In 1847 steps looking toward incorpora- tion were taken and on July 7, 1848, Niagara Falls was incorpo- rated. The first board of trustees was composed of Henry W. Clark, Dr. George Conger, Walter E. Hulett, Augustus S. Porter and Parkhurst Whitney. In the organization of the board Mr. Whitney was elected president and Charles H. Smith was chosen
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clerk. Concerning the four decades following the organization of the village government, Pool's History of the County states : "During a considerable part of the period from the village incorporation to 1890 the growth of the place was not rapid. It was not sought as a place of residence to the extent that its natural advantages warranted; and while business and manu- facturing increased to a considerable extent, the energies of very many of the inhabitants were devoted largely to making money through the large annual influx of visitors from all parts of the world to see the cataract. The great numbers of transient visi- tors to the Falls led in early years to the erection of numerous hotels, and the place ultimately became the site of more public houses than any other village of its size in the country, if not in the world. Many of these hotels were built to accommodate an immense number of guests and were conducted on a magnifi- cent scale." The author proceeds to describe the early hotels of John Fairchild, General Parkhurst Whitney and others, and specially enumerates the Cataract House, the Spencer, the Clar- endon, the American, the International, the Prospect, the Im- perial and the Columbia.
After 1870 the growth of the village was of a more perma- nent character. By 1890 the village of Suspension Bridge had expanded until it and the village of Niagara Falls were practi- cally one. On December 6, 1890 the Business Men's Association of Niagara Falls appointed a committee to prepare a city charter. That committee framed a charter providing for the consolidation of the two villages under the name Niagara Falls. This charter was approved by both boards of village trustees. On February 24, 1892, a committee of the Association appeared before the trustees of Niagara Falls, with a request that a public meeting be called to consider the question of making application to the legislature for the adoption of the charter. The board granted the request and called the meeting for the 4th of March. Although there was some opposition, a resolution to ask the legis- lature for a city government was passed without a dissenting vote. The next day a public meeting in Suspension Bridge took similar action and on March 17, 1892, the charter bill became a law.
The first city election was held April 19, 1892, and resulted
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as follows: George W. Wright, mayor; Cornelius T. Canavan, treasurer; Charles H. Piper, police justice; Konrad Fink, John H. Maddever and J. Felix Nassoiy, assessors; E. E. Russell, justice of the peace. The aldermen elected from the four wards were: first, A. F. Allen and James J. Mahoney ; second, William Campbell and Frank E. Smith; third, John E. Noblett and John C. Stricker; fourth, Frank E. Eames and Michael P. Maloney. At the first meeting of the council Lewis P. Dayton was elected city clerk.
The last city to be formed in Niagara County was North Tonawanda. Although later, the development of early North Tonawanda was accomplished in the same way as in the case of Lockport, by the building of the canal. As nearly as can be determined, it is believed that George N. Burges was the first settler in what is now North Tonawanda. He built a cabin, or a frame house, here in 1809. Joshua Pettit built a log tavern in 1810. James Sweeney and James Carney were also settlers. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825, but in the previous year a number of real estate men, perceiving value in the site, adver- tised the vicinity. These were James and John Sweeney of Buffalo, and George Goundry of Geneva. Their literature con- tained the following: "The village is located at the confluence of the Niagara and Tonewanta rivers, where the Erie Canal from Buffalo enters the Tonewanta, and where boats pass from the canal into the Niagara River by a lock. At this junction of the rivers, and adjoining the village, is a safe and spacious har- bor, as well for canal boats as for vessels navigating Lake Erie. These advantages cannot fail to render the Village of Niagara (as it was at first intended to be called), the depot of the products of the west, destined to the City of New York, and of return cargoes of merchandise. A dam of four or five feet high will be thrown across the Tonewanta, at the village, so as to raise the level of the river to the level of Lake Erie, and the river will be navigated for the distance of eleven miles, and will be united with the canal between the Niagara and Lockport. The surplus water from the dam will afford an abundant and steady supply for mills and other hydraulic works. The village is twelve miles from Buffalo, eight from the Falls, fifteen from Lewiston, and sixteen miles from Lockport. A line of stages passes through
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from Buffalo to Lewiston daily, and another from Lockport to Buffalo every other day. Travelers to the Falls will leave the canal at this place. A bare inspection of Vance's or Lay's map of the western part of this state will at once show the advan- tageous position of the village for trade, market and manufac- turers. Building lots are now offered for sale to actual settlers. A map of the village may be seen by application to James Sweeney, at Buffalo, or to George Goundry, at the land office in Geneva; and the former will enter into contracts of sale.".
The village of North Tonawanda was chartered May 8, 1865, and the first trustees were: David Robinson, Jacob Bocker, George W. Sherman, Alexander Kent, Clark Ransom and J. D. Vandervoort. The territory now in the city of North Tonowanda was one of the wards of Tonawanda, Erie County, from the time when Tonawanda was incorporated as a village until 1857, when it constituted a part of the town of Wheatfield. The cities of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda are separated only by Tonawanda Creek, which stream was made the line between Erie and Niagara counties. North Tonawanda was incorpor- ated as a city April 24, 1897, and the first officers were: Albert E. McKeen, mayor; Thomas E. Warner, clerk; John Kaiser, William M. Gillie, Peter D. Hersley, William Nellis, William Ostwald, Frederick W. Wagenschuets, Leonard Wiedman and Martin Wurl, aldermen; Hector M. Stocum, treasurer; James F. Davison, superintendent of public works; August F. Premus, city attorney; John Kaiser, president of the common council; Charles H. Kohler, Conrad J. Winter and John H. Bollier, super- visors.
The history of Niagara County in the War of 1812 has been adequately described in preceding chapters of this work. Dur- ing the Civil War Niagara County supplied a total of 4,587 men to the armies of the Union, in ninety-two different regiments and military organizations. The principal regiments, with the num- ber of Niagara men in each, follow: First Light Artillery, 217 men; Twelfth Light Battery, 60 men; Nineteenth Light Battery, 190 men; Twenty-third Light Battery, 196 men; Twenty-fifth Light Battery, 54 men; Eighth Heavy Artillery, 726 men; Third Cavalry, 68 men; Seventh Cavalry, 92 men; Eighth Cavalry, 92 men; Second Mounted Rifles, 382 men; Twenty-eighth Infantry,
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436 men; Forty-ninth Infantry, 89 men; Fifty-third Infantry, 93 men; Sixty-fifth Infantry, 52 men; One Hundred and Fifth Infantry, 148 men; One Hundred and Fifty-first Infantry, 506 men; One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Infantry, 89 men; One Hun- dred and Sixty-fourth Infantry, 56 men; One Hundred and Ninety-fourth Infantry, 87 men; One Hundred and Sixth U. S. Infantry (colored), 82 men. Niagara County lost two import- ant commanding officers during the Rebellion, Colonel Dudley Donnelly, of the 28th regiment, and Colonel Peter A. Porter, of the Eighth Heavy Artillery.
In the War with Spain, the 42d Separate Company of Niagara Falls had 114 men from Niagara County; this organiza- tion became Company E of the Third New York Volunteer Infantry, and was at Camp Alger, in Virginia, at the close of hostilities. The 25th Separate Company, of Tonawanda, after- wards Company G of the same regiment, also went to Camp Alger.
At the beginning of America's participation in the World War, one board of registration acted for the entire city of Niagara Falls, which was the twelfth largest draft district in the United States. During the war, Niagara County registered a total of 34,210 men, divided as follows: Niagara Falls, 18,647; Lockport and North Tonawanda, 8,654; and the towns 6,819. Altogether, 4,160 men were inducted into the service; 2,432 from Niagara Falls, 1,067 from Lockport and North Tonawanda, and 671 from the towns. More than 150 men from Niagara County made the supreme sacrifice during the war.
Early industries in Niagara County were typical of those of western New York. Mills, cloth dressing and wool carding establishments were the principal industries. Reference to Augustus Porter's sawmill and blacksmith shop of 1805, and his grist mill of 1807, has been made. At that time the grist mill owned by Porter was the only one in the county, and grain was brought here to be ground from points many miles distant. In 1816 James Ballard had a cloth dressing and wool-carding outfit at the Falls, and in 1821 a forge, rolling mill and nail factory were constructed by Bolls and Gay. Augustus Porter built a larger mill in 1822; Jesse Symonds built a paper mill in 1823 near the Goat Island bridge; another paper mill was built
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on Bath Island, now called Green Island, in 1826, by Porter and Clark. Grist mills were well scattered over the county.
For the quarter century preceding the building of the hydraulic canal at the Falls, Lockport held the lead in manufac- turing in the county. Water power, first through Eighteen-Mile Creek, and then the Erie Canal, was available. Much contro- very persisted for years over the surplus water power from the locks of the canal here, and tremendous sums were spent in the development of this power, which later became available for manufacturing. One of the most important of the industries of the latter-day Lockport was the Holly Manufacturing Company, makers of sewing machines, pumps and hydraulic machinery. This concern had a long and prosperous life. The Simonds Saw Company and the Harrison Radiator Company are recent manu- factories of importance at Lockport.
The hydraulic canal was completed at Niagara Falls in 1861, having been nearly a decade in construction, but the power made available was not utilized until 1875, when Captain Gaskill started his flour mill, and many years were to elapse before the Falls became a serious competitor of Lockport. It is impossible here to trace the early development of manufacturing in this vicinity, but a number of pulp and paper mills such as the Pette- bone-Cataract Paper Company, the Cliff Paper Company and Carter and Company, were established. Jacob F. Schoellkopf, of Buffalo, acquired the hydraulic canal at a foreclosure sale in 1877, and the interests headed by this name became an import- ant factor in early industries.
Then came the introduction of hydro-electric power. The Niagara Falls Power Company was the first to build a plant, and the Hydraulic Power Company was soon afterwards electrified. The first to use the hydro-electric power developed by the for- mer company was the Pittsburg Reduction Company, which began business in August, 1895. This later became the Alumi- num Company of America. The making of abrasives, most. notably exemplified in the product known as carborundum, was developed from the dreams of the inventor, Dr. Edward G. Ache- son, into an industry of tremendous proportions. The making of acetylene gas is a leading industry which has been developed at the Falls. The manufacture of paper has also kept step with
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the other industries. Graphite is made here. One of the most interesting manufacturing concerns of western New York is the Shredded Wheat Company, which came here in 1900 from Wor- cester, Massachusetts. The product of this company-the shredded wheat biscuit-is sold in nearly all civilized countries and hundreds of thousands of bushels of wheat are consumed annually in its manufacture. The plant of this company is one of the show places of the Genesee Country. Niagara Falls is the electro-chemical manufacturing center of the United States, with a number of industrial concerns engaged in this work. Manufactories at Niagara Falls include, briefly, the making of such articles as aluminum, abrasives, salesbooks, flour and feed, graphite, wall paper, iron castings, electrodes, brick, brass cast- ings, barrels, paper boxes, chemicals, print paper, silverplated ware, frogs, switches, switch stands, shredded wheat biscuits, toilet paper, calcium carbide, storage batteries for lighting and heating railway coaches, starters for motor cars, corsets, warm air furnaces, books, eyes and fasteners, titanium alloy for steel rails, wire stitchers, electric switches, lightning arresters, print- ing presses, pea hullers, metal stamped goods, knit goods, pulp boilers, hair cloth, searchlights, leather tire goods, carbon, ice, electricity, gas and aviation materials. The Tonawandas, for a generation, have been known as lumber marts, also iron and steel centers, due to the lake transportation. Manufacturing in the twin cities has been encouraged by the cheap hydro-electric power available from Niagara Falls. Large quantities of bolts and nuts are produced here, as well as automatic organs and pianos.
District schools and academies were the first educational institutions in Niagara County. Lewiston Academy was the first, and was incorporated April 17, 1828. The academy build- ing, built in 1844, is still standing, although the academy itself was discontinued nearly seventy years ago. Jonas Chamberlain had a small school on the same site in 1816. The profits of the Lewiston ferry were utilized for the establishment and mainte- nance of this academy under an act of the legislature in 1826. The first principal was Reverend David M. Smith, and in later years such men as Jacob H. Quimby, Sullivan Caverno, who was the founder of the Lockport school system, Sherburne B. Piper,
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Moses H. Fitts, Reverend Robert G. McGonegal and Seymour B. Phelps were prominent in the Lewiston Academy, which was closed in 1851, when the ferry was closed and the Lewiston sus- pension bridge opened.
The Wilson Collegiate Institute was started in 1845. Luther Wilson contributed $500 to head the subscription list and the site in the village was donated by Simon Sheldon. A two-story cobblestone building was erected, and the first trustees were Luther Wilson, Simon Sheldon, Morgan Johnson, Andrew Brown, Robert L. McChesney and Hiram V. Tabor. Benjamin Wilcox was the first principal when the school opened in the spring of 1846. In 1869 it became the Wilson Union School, and in later years the Wilson high school.
Niagara Falls also had an academy established in 1852 by Albert H. Porter, a son of Augustus Porter, but the school build- ing was sold in 1864 to the Catholics, who used it as a parochial school for a time.
The town of Somerset had an academy from 1879 to 1881, started by Doctor I. W. Hotaling. There were also academies at Middleport and at Royalton Center.
The Lockport Union School, the first union school in the Genesee Country, was formed by Sullivan Caverno, who, in 1846, presented his plan for such a school to a number of noted educa- tors, and framed the act which was passed by the 1847 legislature creating the school. The union school system began in 1848 and the first principal was Frederick R. R. Lord.
The name of Caverno in Lockport had its counterpart at Niagara Falls in that of James Fullerton Trott, one of the early proprietors of the Cataract House, who owned a farm in the center of the present city. The first school in Niagara Falls, perhaps the first in the county, was in 1807. The stone building known as the Niagara Falls union school, and later the Fifth Street high school, was erected in the early '50s. At Suspension Bridge, first called Bellevue and then Niagara City, a class was held in a small wooden building on Niagara avenue near Main, under the direction of a Miss Vedder.
Paralleling the educational activities of Caverno and Trott, above mentioned, was the work of Benjamin F. Felton at North Tonawanda; also A. C. Tuxbury, Garwood L. Judd and Colonel Lewis S. Payne were active in educational work here.
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DeVeaux College is located at Niagara Falls. It was en- dowed by the will of Judge Samuel De Veaux, the first merchant of Niagara Falls. The college was incorporated April 15, 1853, and the buildings completed and school opened in March, 1857, with Reverend Henry Gregory as president. It is a military school.
Niagara University, located outside of the city on the banks of the Niagara Gorge, was founded in 1856 by Reverend John J. Lynch, C. M., and was first chartered as the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels. In 1883 it was changed to a college under the present name, and is now under control of priests of the congre- gation of the mission, called Lazarists or Vincentians.
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