Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 18

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

USA > New York > Erie County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1) > Part 18

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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FROM 1800 TO 1807.

Creek on the west side, as the first settler in the present town of Evans and the farthest one up the lake in the county. In the mean time im- portant changes were taking place in Aurora. On the same day that Jabez Warren took his contract for four lots, April 17, 1804, which in- cluded the greater part of the site of East Aurora village, and adjoining territory on the north and west, Nathaniel Emerson, Henry Godfrey (Warren's son-in-law), Nathaniel Walker, John Adams and Joel Ad- ams,' took contracts covering the whole valley of the creek for three miles above East Aurora, for which they were to pay only $1.50 per acre; this was a lower price than was paid for any other land in the county. In May Rufus and Taber Earl settled in the southeast corner of East Aurora village, and Joseph Sears probably purchased lot 23, afterwards known as "the Square," where he settled, but remained only a short time. A few others probably bought in that vicinity dur- ing the summer, but only one, Joel Adams, remained on his land with his family the ensuing winter. Taber Earl built a house immediately after making his purchase, and his wife was the pioneer woman of the county south of the reservation; but they wintered in Buffalo.

Joel Adams had five sons and the family passed a hard winter in their wilderness home. Their breadstuff becoming exhausted, the two elder boys started for a bag of meal twenty-five miles distant. Obtain- ing the coveted food they returned with it on a handsled, but the jour- ney through the snow was so trying that they were compelled to re- main out on the way over night.

The settlers of this year in Newstead were Silas Hill, John Felton, Thomas Hill, Charles Bennett, Cyrus Hopkins, and possibly a few others; all of these became permanent residents of the town. In Clar- ence David Bailey, Peter Pratt, Isaac Vanorman, Daniel Robinson, Riley Munger, David Hamlin, jr., and perhaps others settled this year, and Asa Ransom about this time built a saw mill on the small stream that took his name.

Timothy S. and Orlando Hopkins removed to the present Amherst in 1804, and Samuel McConnell settled near the site of Williamsville; other newcomers to that town were Caleb Rogers, Stephen Colvin, Jacob Vanatta, and Joel Chamberlain.

Among the land buyers in Lancaster in 1804 were James Woodward, Warren Hull, Matthew Wing, Joel Parmalee and Lawson Egberton.

1 Three sons of Joel Adams, Enos, Luther, and Erasmus, were well-known citizens of Aurora and lived to very old age.

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Amos Woodward probably located there in that year, he and James settling at the site of Bowman's Mills. James and Luther Young set- tled east of Bowman's Mills about this period.

The prices of land in Buffalo in 1804-07 will astonish the citizen of to-day who is not conversant with the early history of the village. Some of the land now included in the city limits sold as low as any in the county. Two outer lots, containing sixty four acres in the bend of the creek south of the Ohio basin, were bought by N. W. Sever for $1.81 per acre. Outer lot 84, comprising several acres between Main street and Buffalo Creek, was sold in 1804 to Samuel McConnell, as before stated, for $1.50 per acre. In the same year lot 1 (the site of the Mansion House) was sold for $140. Inner lots near the corner of what is now Main and Exchange streets sold for from $100 to $200 each, with cash payments of $10 to $20. Sylvanus Maybee paid only $135 for lot 35, corner of Main and Seneca streets, running through to Cayuga. Moreover, buyers were, at least in some cases, restricted as to the character of buildings they proposed erecting. Zerah Phelps, who bought the lot just east of the Mansion House corner, had to agree to build a house twenty four feet square and clear half an acre of land. Rowland Cotton paid only $3.50 an acre for his 143 acres at what is now the corner of Main and Amherst streets. Abner Gilbert paid $5 an acre for a tract on the southeast corner of Main and Utica streets. In 1805 Thomas Sidwell paid $35 and $45 for lots 75 and 76 on Pearl street. In 1806 Asa Chapman paid $120 for lot 36; Eleazer Hovey paid $11 and $12 an acre for lots 146 and 147; David Mather paid for lot 38, Main street, $120.25; and in 1807 Abraham Hershey paid for lots 150, 151, 156 and 157 $20 per lot. These were the average prices of those days.

We have a more or less distorted picture of Buffalo as depicted in the language of Rev. Timothy Dwight, who made a journey westward in 1804 and wrote voluminously of what he saw. He said:

Buffalo Creek, otherwise New Amsterdam, is built on the north-east border of a considerable mill-stream, which bears the same name. A bar at the mouth, pre- vents all vessels larger than boats from ascending its waters. For boats, it is navigable about eight miles. Its appearance is more sprightly than that of some others in this region. The south-western bank is here a peninsula, covered with a handsome grove. Through it several vsitas might be cut with advantage, as they would open fine views of the lake-a beautiful object. The prospect which they would furnish, towards the west and south-west, would be boundless.

The village is built half a mile from the mouth of the creek, and consists of about

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twenty indifferent houses. The Holland Company own the soil. Hitherto they have declined to sell it, and until very lately, to lease it. Most of the settlers have therefore taken up their ground without a title. The terms on which it is leased are that the lessee shall, within nine months, build a house thirty feet front and two stories high, and shall pay (if I mistake not) two dollars annually for each lot of half an acre.1

The streets are straight and cross each other at right angles, but are only forty feet wide. What could have induced this wretched limitation, in a mere wilderness, I am unable to conceive. The spot is unhealthy, though of sufficient elevation, and, so far as I have been informed, free from the vicinity of stagnant waters. The dis- eases prevailing here are those which are common to all this country.

The inhabitants are a casual collection of adventurers, and have the usual charac- ter of such adventurers thus collected, when remote from regular society, retaining but little sense of government or religion. We saw about as many Indians in this village as white people. The superintendent of Indian affairs of the Six Nations re- sides here.

New Amsterdam is at present the thoroughfare for all the commerce and traveling interchangeably going on between the eastern States (including New York and New Jersey) and the countries bordering on the great western lakes.

The creek is frequently said to unite with the river Niagara. I should say, as I believe every other man would, who spoke from his own inspection, that it unites with Lake Erie; and that the river Niagara begins two miles further north at, or rather just below, Black Rock [evidently meaning Bird Island]. Here the first per- ceptible current commences; while at the mouth of the creek, the waters, unless agitated by the wind, are perfectly still, and have exactly the same appearance as other parts of the lake.

At Black Rock, a town which is a mile square, is laid out by order of the State in- to house lots. The lots are to be disposed of at public sale, in December of this year, upon terms with which I am unacquainted. Should they be equitable the trade which I mentioned will soon center here. Between this rock and the shore is the only se- cure harbor on the American, and a much better one than on the British side of the lake, within a great distance. A road is already begun from this spot to Fort Niag- ara, at the mouth of the river, and will not probably be completed within a year. The period is not far distant when the commerce of this neighborhood will become a great national object, and involve no small part of the interests and happiness of millions.

The prospect presented at Buffalo, is most attractive, notwithstanding the inter- ruption named above. Directly opposite at a distance of two miles, but in full view stands Fort Erie, a blockhouse, accompanied by a suit of barracks and a hamlet. This collection of houses is built on a beautiful shore. wears less the appearance of a recent settlement, and exhibits a much greater degree of improvement, than any- thing which we saw west of the Genesee river. Beyond this hamlet a handsome point stretches to the south-west and furnishes an imperfect shelter to the vessels employed in the commerce of the lake. Seven of these vessels (five schooners, a sloop and a pettiaugre) lay in the harbor at this time, and presented to us an image

In this statement the reverend gentleman evidently erred.

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of business and activity, which distant as we were from the ocean, was scarcely less impressive than that presented by the harbor of New York, when crowded with al- most as many hundreds. Behind this point another much more remote stretches out in the same direction, exhibiting a form of finished elegance and seeming an ex- actly suitable limit for the sheet of water which fills the fine scope between these arms. Still further southward the lake opens in boundless view and presents in per- fect manner the blending of unlimited waters with the sky. Over these points, assembled as if to feast our eyes at the commencement of the evening after our ar- rival, one of the most beautiful collection of clouds ever seen by the votary of nature.

Beneath all this glory the lake, a boundless field of polished glass, glit- tered alternately with the variegated splendor of the clouds and the hues of the sky, softening and improving the brilliancy of both with inimitable delicacy and leaving on the mind the impression of enchantment rather than reality.

This reverend traveler, like many others when first visiting a back- woods settlement, fresh from the scenes of older and more improved localities, formed a hasty conclusion as to the character and intelligence of the people who had settled in Buffalo at that time. Doubtless they had the outside appearance of rude adventurers; this was a necessity in all similar settlements, and the tide of migration always carried with it more or less of the lower elements of population from older centers. But that the few dwellers in Buffalo in 1804 deserved the quoted dis- paragement is certainly not the fact.

William Hall, who resided in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1863, when he was eighty-five years old, wrote as follows of Buffalo in 1804, in which year he visited the place on horseback :

At Buffalo there were perhaps twenty houses, of which only three or four were frame, one of which was occupied by a Mr. Pratt, who kept a small store. He had his aged parents with him, whom I saw.

Some streets were partially laid out, but the whole were full of stumps, and no fences. We rode up the creek some mile or two, and crossed to see a Mr. Leech, who was from Connecticut. Saw no craft, but one or two small boats, in one of which we crossed.

Leaving Buffalo, we went to Black Rock, through woods-a small pathway, trod- den mostly by Indians, with some appearance of wagons having passed that way. We crossed the river in a scow, with our horses, to the Canada side, and found a good road, on the bank of the river, all the way to Chippewa.

In the winter of 1802-3 a man who became well known to the early inhabitants of Erie county as Capt. Samuel Pratt, made a journey to Detroit from his home in an eastern State to buy furs. Passing through Buffalo, he was pleased with its appearance and advantageous situation and determined to settle there and engage in the fur trade. Returning home in the fall of 1803, he prepared to remove with his

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family, in spite of the prophecies of disaster and the ridicule of his neighbors. Placing his belongings in an old fashioned two-horse coach, he started in 1804 and in due time astonished the settlers at Buffalo by driving up in front of Crow's tavern. There he was met by Erastus Granger, who politely vacated his room, such as it was, for the accom- modation of Mrs. Pratt and her children. Captain Pratt selected the lot designated on the Holland Company's map as inner lot 2, but on later maps as lot 1, it being the one including the Mansion House site. He built a frame house, then the largest in the place, and a store, where he began business, in which he was successful for many years. '

William Hodge settled in Buffalo in 1804, having in the previous year taken up the farm lot that included the premises afterwards occu- pied by his son William, on Hodge avenue. He established an early nursery and in 1811 built a large brick hotel on the corner of what is now Main and Utica streets; this was the first brick building in the county and was long known as "The brick tavern on the hill." After the burning of Buffalo Mr. Hodge was one of the first to return to the ruins and begin the erection of a house.

There were no changes in town formation in 1805, but the towns of Willink and Erie were organized in the spring, the first town meeting for Willink being held at Vandeventer's, where the following officers were elected :

Supervisor Peter Vandeventer; town clerk, Zerah Ensign; assessors, Asa Ransom, Aaron Beard, John J. Brown: collector. Levi Felton; commissioners of highways, Gad Warner, Charles Wilber, Samuel Hill, jr .; constables, John Dunn, Julius Keys; overseers of the poor, Henry Ellsworth and Otis Ingalls.

The first town meeting of Erie was held at Crow's tavern, but most of the records of that town were destroyed at the burning of Buffalo. What is known of its organization and final disappearance is detailed in Chapter I.

Samuel Tupper settled in Buffalo as early as 1805, in which year he had charge of what was known as the Contractor's store, a business .

1 Besides his house and store, Captain Pratt built a large barn on the corner of Seneca and Ellicott streets, the frame of which stood through the fire in 1813 and was afterwards covered and used as a hotel stable. His store became the principal resort of the Indians for trade, with whom he had great influence. They called him "Negurriyu," or honest dealer. He was a man of great energy and activity, and his public spirit and confidence in the future of Buffalo led him to take part in every enterprise that promised to benefit the place. He had a large family of children, among whom were Samuel Pratt, jr., Pascal P. Pratt, and Hiram Pratt. The latter was twice elected mayor of Buffalo. Pascal P. Pratt, the present president of the Manufacturers' and Traders' Bank of Buffalo, is a son of Samuel Pratt, jr. Captain Pratt died August 31, 1812.

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enterprise begun probably in the latter part of 1804 by a company of contractors who supplied the military posts of the west. Mr. Tupper purchased inner lot 7 and in 1808 took up outer lot 17 and built a house on the corner of what is now Tupper and Main streets. In the fall of 1805 he was appointed a judge for Genesee county, the first man in Erie county who was given that honor; in 1812 he was made a judge of Niagara county. Vincent Grant settled in Buffalo in 1805 and was also connected with the Contractor's store. He purchased inner lot 8 in 1808 and built a store which was burned in 1813. He afterwards built a cheap structure over the ruins, corner of Main and Seneca streets, where he was in business till about 1820.

Zenas Barker became a resident of Buffalo about 1805-6 and on the 1st of July, 1807, took up outer lots 76 and 77. He soon opened a tav- ern in his house on the terrace, corner of Main street, which was a rival of John Crow's house.' Both of these landlords were licensed in 1805 to operate ferries across Buffalo Creek, Crow at its mouth and Barker at what became known as the Pratt ferry.

Besides the two tavern licenses granted in 1805 in Buffalo, one was given to Nathaniel Titus, who opened a public house at the bend of the lake shore in what is now Hamburg. Other settlers of the year in that town were Abner Amsden, who settled on the lake shore four miles above Titus; Jotham Bemis (who had opposed Vandeventer for super- visor in the town meeting of 1803), purchased land in Hamburg and soon afterwards settled near Abbott's Corners; and Tyler Sackett, Russell Goodrich, Rufus Belden, Abel Buck, Gideon Dudley, Samuel P. Hibbard, King Root, Winslow Perry, and perhaps others settled in the town in that year. In East Hamburg, Jacob Eddy (father of David) and Asa Sprague settled near Potter's Corners, where the Quaker element soon began to locate and later became very conspicu- ous. Daniel Smith in this year built a rude mill for grinding corn on what was called Hoag's Brook, two miles southwest of Potter's Corners, which was a convenience to the settlers, although it ground only five or six bushels a day. Other settlers in East Hamburg were William Col-

1 Mr. Barker had a large family of children, among whom was Jacob A. Barker, a well known citizen who died in the city in 1859. The father was a respected business man, and was appointed judge of Niagara county in 1818. A daughter married John G. Camp, an officer in the regular army, who subsequently settled in Buffalo ; another daughter married a son of William Johnston, and another married Captain Hull, who was in the army in 1812. A granddaughter became the wife of the late Oliver G. Steele. Jacob A. Barker, son of Zenas, was prominently connected with lake commerce, held the office of county clerk from 1823 to 1828, and was a member of the Legislature.

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trin, Samuel Knapp and Joseph Sheldon. David Eddy built a saw mill for the Indians, under contract with Granger, the superintendent, on Cazenove Creek, near what is now Lower Ebenezer; this mill supplied the first boards for the settlers in the south towns. The machinery was brought from Albany.

Deacon Richard Cary, a Revolutionary soldier who had seen arduous service, settled in Boston in 1805, with a sick wife and eight children and almost wholly without money. It need not be stated that they en- countered severe hardships. They and the Johnsons carried their first crops of wheat to Chippewa to be ground, a journey of forty miles and return.

Settlement in Aurora was somewhat advanced during 1805. Jabez Warren, as before stated, moved there in March, and was soon followed by his son William,' who cleared a part of his father's land and settled down with his young wife. In August he had cleared five acres of the soft wood trees and girdled the hardwood; there he raised wheat.

In the town of Newstead Archibald S. Clark purchased this year and soon settled on the Buffalo road about a mile and a half southwest of Akron; he became one of the most prominent early citizens of the county. He was a member of the Council of Appointment in 1816, and county clerk of Niagara county in the previous year, and was other- wise honored. Aaron Dolph settled in that town about that time, and other immigrants were John Beamer, Eli Hammond, Salmon and George Sparling and Henry Russell.

Settlers in Clarence in 1805 were Thomas Clark, Edmund Thompson, and David Hamlin, sr. A son of the latter, who was eleven years old at the time of settlement of the family, left record that Asa Ransom had in that year both a saw and a grist mill in operation. In any event Ransom built a grist mill about that time, which was the first in the county for grinding wheat.

The names of John Hershey, Alexander Logan and John King ap- pear as purchasers of land in Amherst in that year. At the same time Elias Ransom, brother of Asa, opened a tavern three miles west of Williamsville. Jonas Williams, also, arrived there in that year. He had been a clerk in the land office and was sent by the company to

1 General William Warren (as he was afterwards known) had a natural taste for military affairs and was commissioned captain soon after his arrival in Aurora ; his district included all the southern part of Erie county and Wyoming county. His first order to assemble his company, made soon after receipt of his commission, brought together nine men. General Warren passed nearly all of his long life in Aurora, living to nearly a hundred years.

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Chautauqua county on business. The fine water power on Ellicott's Creek attracted his attention, and he purchased the land and the aban- doned mill of Thompson, before mentioned, and in the spring of 1805 began the rebuilding of the mill. He was the founder of the village of Williamsville, which took his name.

During the years 1806-07, with the record of which this chapter will close, settlement in the county was gradual but steady, and pioneers arrived in several new localities outside of Buffalo village. A brief description of this place in 1806 was written by David Mather, and printed in the History of the Holland Purchase, as follows:

I settled in Buffalo in 1806. There were were then sixteen dwelling houses, prin- cipally frame ones; eight of them were scattered along on Main street, three of them were on the terrace, three of them on Seneca street, and two of them on Cayuga street. There were two stores-one of them the "Contractors'" on the corner of Main and Seneca streets, kept by Vincent Grant, on the east side of Main street. The other was the store of Samuel Pratt, adjoining Crow's tavern. Mr. Le Couteulx kept a drug store in part of his house on [the north side of] Crow street. David Reese's Indian blacksmith shop was on Seneca street, and William Robbins had a blacksmith shop on Main street. John Crow kept a tavern where the Mansion House now stands, and Judge Barker kept one on the site of the market. I remem- ber very well the arrival of the first public mail that ever reached Buffalo. It was brought on horseback by Ezra Metcalf. He came to my blacksmith shop and got his horse shod, and told me he could carry the contents of his [mail] bag in his two hands. 1

The David Reese above mentioned settled in Buffalo as the Indian blacksmith, probably in employ of the government, about 1803, and in 1806 purchased outer lot 176, on Seneca street, and built his black- smith shop about where the post-office stands. The shop was a red one-story frame structure and was one of the two buildings not burned in 1813, when it was used as a shelter for some of the wounded. Reese built his dwelling on the opposite corner on part of Johnston's lot. He continued his business until about 1823.ª

1 It is probable that Mr. Mather overlooked the store of Sylvanus Maybee in this record, and Joshua Gillett must have had a small store about that time.

2 In 1815 Mr. Reese had an unfortunate collision with Young King, then a principal chief of the Senecas, residing at Buffalo Creek. Reese with others was returning from cutting grass upon the south side of Buffalo Creek, when they met an Indian (probably intoxicated) for whom Reese had promised to do some small job of work in his blacksmith shop; in the dispute which followed, Reese struck the Indian with his hand or fist, which felled him to the ground. At this moment Young King rode up on horseback, and sharply remonstrated with Reese for what he had done, which exasperated him to such a degree that he threatened to serve Young King the same way; upon which Young King, having dismounted, struck Reese on the head with a stick or club, upon which Reese seized a scythe in the hands of a bystander and struck Young King a severe blow

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Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 18

Author: Truman C. White Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017